In the 21st century right now we have Twilight Saga to drive people crazy. Back in the last century, people had the Halloween Saga to go bonkers for.
The first part of the Halloween movies came out in 1978. It tells a story of Michael Meyers, a troubled kid who puts on a mask and starts killing all the teenagers in his hometown in Illinois, including his step sister. Of course there are a lot of police and a psychiatrist involved, everybody trying to get this killer with supernatural abilities. He keeps on murdering everybody who gets in his way in the next two parts of the saga, cause what else is there to do in a horror movie?
Halloween 4 is the only movie I have seen from the saga and I gotta admit, in 2012 it still had some suprising elements and cool twists to it for me. But I have also never noticed so many goofs on the first watch of the movie either.
So, the story starts off with ambulance driving to the hospital where Michael Meyers has been in coma for ten years. He wakes after hearing that he has a 7-year old cousin ( Danielle Harris) . His rage rises and in this stormy night, his killing starts again. He is going back to his hometown in Illinois, in order to find the 7-year old girl.
Psychiatrist Dr.Sam Loomis, played by Donald Pleasance( big name in the British TV in the 60s) is back in action, trying to stop Michael Meyers, who in every Halloween movie is being played by different stunt actors. It makes sense why the producers didin’t start hiring a great actor to portray Michael – he doesn’t have to say a word troughout the whole movie, his only acting is to walk around slowly and scary, stand straight once he’s seen his victim and then kill them. I wish I would have gotten the role.
The little girl is played by Danielle Harris, who mader her film debut in this movie. For a child, she is playing her character very well. As I read from the interviews later, she enjoyed every bit of making the film and Halloween 4 & 5 helped her understand that horror movies are the ones she wants to do her whole life. For now, she has played in movies such as Nuclear Family, The Victim, Hatchet 2 etc, so you can see she really meant it.
The film also includes some crap teenager scenes. Jaime’s step sister Rachael’s( Ellie Cornell) date decides to have some adult fun with another blondie by the fireplace, as everybody can see in the movie. I think it’s no suprise if I say they all die in the end anyway so no need to worry about the love.
Although Halloween 4 is a nice movie to watch with some pretty intense scenes, it is also hilarious. But I guess you gotta blame in on the equipment at that time, not exactly on the moviemakers. For example, the face of a dead police officer made me giggle instead of screaming. Also, there are some very obvious goofs – in some scenes, you can clearly see how Meyers has dark brown hair, in some others he’s as blonde as a Californian surfer boy. The scars on Dr. Loomis face also change quite clearly troughout the movie and Rachael’s sweater looks too good to be true while she is fighting the killer all on her own in a moving car. But wait till you see it, there’s more !
Halloween 4 must have been a real fun to watch back in the 1988 when it was first released. But today, although the film has some amazing ideas, I think the kids of the new generation have already seen pretty much everything and nothing suprises them that much. The tricks they used in the movie might have been new back then but they are used in every horror movie now.
Overall, considering the time of its release and the film in general, I think Halloween 4 was awesome. It offers some tension and fear, a lot of fun and you can almost see a naked girl, which is always nice. Thumbs up!
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