Track Listing

1. Halloween 4 (The Return)
2. Jamie's Nightmare
3. Garage
4. Be Back By 9:30
5. Return Of The Shape
6. Schoolhouse
7. Power Company
8. Police Station
9. Downstairs Alone
10. Myer's Finale
11. Halloween 4 Reprise

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245788 in Music
• Released on: 1989-02-06
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

He's Back , and it's about Time
Thank goodness for HALLOWEEN 4. If this film hadn't been made the entire name of HALLOWEEN would have been destroyed by HALLOWEEN III: Season of The Witch. After the explosive ending of HALOWEEN II Michael Myers has been lying dormant in a coma for the past 10 years. When Michael Myers overhears a paramedic saying that Michael now has a niece he goes on a violent rampage in an attempt to find her. Jamie Lloyd who is only 7 years old is pretty much defensive against her evil uncle , but luckily for her Dr. Loomis also survived the explosion and he returns to try and protect her. In this film Michael Myers is almost super human. He can survive anything thrown at him and can crush a man's face with one hand. This movie has unbearable suspense and a few surprises that will make you jump out of yor skin. Violence is the answer in this film. 8/10

Welcome home, Michael
Halloween 4 is a terrific entry in the best slasher series of all time. While it doesn't have quite the all-pervading atmosphere, suspense, and general gloom and doom of the incomparable original, it more than lives up to the Halloween tradition. To me, the key to this movie's success is the acting talent of both Donald Pleasance (Dr. Loomis) and young newcomer Danielle Harris (Michael's niece Jamey). Disfigured from his encounter with Michael ten years earlier, Dr. Loomis strides through this movie as the avenging hero he is, having to convince foolish minds that Michael has returned home to wreak havoc yet again. Of course, you can blame a couple of paramedics for tipping Michael off that he still has a living relative, namely his sister Laurie's little girl Jamie (Laurie has supposedly died in an accident a year earlier). After Michael is transferred out from under Loomis' nose, he naturally escapes and begins leaving a trail of bodies on his way to Haddonfield. Loomis is right behind him, intent on saving the little girl from her evil uncle. The young Danielle Harris gives an incredible performance for someone so young, conveying emotion and fear quite convincingly. After this movie came out, I remember hearing some criticism of terrorizing such a young person in this type of horror atmosphere, and Harris spoke quite eloquently on the subject from her perspective. She brings to this movie talent well beyond her years.

Surprisingly, this movie is not altogether that graphic. We rarely get to see the actual coup de grace of each killing (and in a couple of cases we don't even see the actual murder), and even the remains of the slain never exhibit much blood loss. Of course, Michael uses a variety of means (including his bare hands) to murder his victims here. I for one missed the guy's trademark knifings. He does get hold of a knife eventually, but, sadly, he doesn't get much of a chance to use it. As for Michael himself, it is easy to see that the man behind the mask is not the original "shape" Nick Castle. George P. Wilbur has a slightly different build, and he just doesn't have the malevolent presence Castle possessed. He is strong in the category of standing still and watching from the shadows, but he is a little awkward in his movements and often seems to be patterning them on those of King Kong.

This movie has some really nice touches to it, several that strongly call to mind pivotal scenes from the original. Another master stroke is the conclusion, which certainly surprised me when I first saw it. Far too often a trite ending can ruin one's impression of an otherwise good horror movie, but Halloween 4 offers evidence of how much a terrific ending can increase one's enjoyment of an already satisfying experience. By inserting a whole new chapter in the Michael Myers saga, Halloween 4 actually injected the series with newfound life (and blood); it certainly excited me as a fan, and that is something that most sequels of sequels simply do not do.

Captain Kirk is back!
Halloween 4 surprised me. For one, I thought that after the diabolical #3 they had given up altogether, and when a film series (especially a gruesome slasher horror film series - just check out the Friday 13th films) gets to the fourth instalment they have usually run out of gusto. Ok, so H4 is not the most original film in history, so it pretty much retreads the first 2 films, so it has lost its impact after 10 years and, ok, so you can't really top the original. But - the direction is as tight as the lid on a canister of toxic waste, the acting is not at all bad for the mainly inexperienced cast and the script, while not completely original, does ensure that the proceedings are by no means boring. It was a good idea (if slightly cliched) to have Myers survive his last encounter with Loomis, a lighted match and a killer fart. Too many other films make a mockery of themselves by bringing in supernatural traits to the main characters. I didn't really care if it smelled of a cop-out because it set up the story for Myers to be unleashed on Haddonfield again.

Pleasance does a first rate job, as usual, of his portrayal of the tormented Dr Loomis, also reprising his role alongside Myers as survivor of the hospital explosion in H2. The makeup is both subtle and believable. The only real inconsistency is the fact that Myers' eyes were shot out at the end of H2 and, miraculously, he has full vision again. But you can't worry too much about those sorts of details. This is the third sequel. If you are looking for reality and a steady continuity Myers would be dead after H1.

However, he does all the right things: kills people in rather painful manners, looks great in his William Shatner mask (creepy but sad) and gets wasted and recovers numerous times, just like a real villain should. I wont spoil the ending, but it climaxes brilliantly in a final showdown that is both exhilarating and not overdone. The main attraction (probably the wrong word to use) of the Halloween series is the fact that you can believe a man can survive what Myers survived. A person can be shot and survive, be hit by a car and survive, be stabbed and heal, be beaten and recover. That is the scary part - that someone with an emotionally catatonic psychosis like Myers could be responsible for such a killing spree. It could and, in less exact ways, has happened in real life.

The Return of Michael Myers is both an entertaining romp and a gripping lesson in creating suspense. Like the original but not as good as the original. But by no means bad.