Last night everyone (Em and her visiting parents) went to bed at about 9:30 so I was left with a pile of comics and the TV to myself. I wasn't really feeling a horror movie yet, so I read comics and then watched The Soup (love that show). I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I popped 300 in, but instead of watching that I saw the top 7 songs on VH1's Top 100 Hip Hop Songs of All Time (or whatever they called it) followed by a documentary about NWA which was really interesting (I was definitely not paying attention to rap at the time so it was a great education on the time period as well the music).
Well after that I was faced with a question, should I just watch 300 or another Halloween Scene flick? Well, horror won out and I popped Halloween 4 in even though I wasn't very excited about it. And let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised.
I originally watched most of these slasher movies in high school, so it's been quite a while in most cases, plus I think I watched some of them out of order. Needless to say, it's hard to keep everything straight (just wait until I start watching the Friday the 13th flicks). H4 is a great addition to the Halloween franchise as well as a great movie on its own.
It's 10 years later (remember that, even though H2 came out a few years after the original it was still set on the same night, so it works out time-wise) and we're introduced to Jamie, who is Laurie Strode's daughter which makes her somewhere between 7 and 10 I think, I can never tell how old kids are. Laurie and her husband died so now Jamie is living with another family including older "sister" Rachel. And, of course, Michael Myers is still around. Apparently both he and Loomis survived the huge explosion at the end of H2 and Michael ended up in an asylum where he's been for the last 10 years. It's not until he's getting transported to another facility (without Loomis' knowledge) that he hears about Jamie's existence, goes crazy and makes his way back to Haddonfield.
Instead of the fake out scares that populated H2, H4 offers more general suspense as you never really know what's going to happen. The directing and screenwriting has some really inspired moments like when three or four kids in Michael Myers masks and coveralls surround Loomis and the new police chief. One of them might even be Michael as only two called out and/or took off their masks. Another scene I really liked takes place before either Michael or Loomis get to Haddonfield when they end up both in the garage. They stare at each other from across the station, Loomis has a great speech, fires a few shots and then Michael drives out of the station and sets the gas pumps and Loomis' car on fire.
Which reminds me, kids in the Halloween-verse are big time jerks. Remember in the first one where the three kids pick on Tommy and give him crap about the boogie man? Well, this one tops that with three kids dressed up in those costumes where you basically wear a mask and then a plastic shirt with what you're supposed to be on it making fun of her for her mom being dead and her uncle being a serial killer. These kids must really taken to heart the old saying that kids can be cruel. But that's not all as a car with two jocks and two cheerleaders pull over to offer a ride to the stranded Loomis and then drive off laughing at him. Hopefully Myers killed them at some point off screen.
Oh, and those kids that made fun of Jamie? She ends up trick or treating with them later, which results in her getting separated from Rachel who found her crush Brody ready to bone the sheriff's daughter because Rachel canceled their date in order to take Jamie trick or treating. What a jerk (even though Kelly, the sheriff's daughter is super hot). Brody is played by Sasha Jenson who was in both the Buffy movie and Dazed and Confused (two big favorites from my younger days). I can't believe he was 30 when he did Dazed and Confused.
Anyway, back to the story. My mind's all over the place. Back before trick or treating there's a scene where Rachel takes Jamie to a drug store to get a Halloween costume. Brody works at the store too (this is when she tells him she can't make their date that night). So while Rachel's talking to Brody, Jamie's looking at the mask section by herself, which brought back memories of the costume store that used to be by my house growing up. They always had those huge crazy monster masks that you never say anywhere but in the store, which was a fun bit of nostalgia. But the scene gets even better as Jamie picks pretty much the exact clown costume we saw Michael wear as a child when he killed his sister in the beginning of H1. But THEN we see Michael's scarred hand grab a new Shatner mask and appear right behind her. Jamie understandably freaks out and crashes into a mirror and then Michael disappears.
Which got me to thinking about something. Is it a plot hole that he wouldn't just kill her right there (if in fact that was him)? The answer I came up with was no because Michael doesn't just want to kill his main target, he wants them to suffer all kinds of mental and physical trauma. Sure, if you were just one of the friends or a side character you'll get a shotgun stabbed through your guts or a thumb through your face, but if you're Laurie or Jamie or even Loomis, he wants bad bad things to happen to you, which is why he takes the time to set up the bodies. He's theatrical that way I guess.
Okay, again, back to the story. The girls wind up with Loomis and the sheriff and a deputy in the sheriff's house with Brody and Kelly (awkward). But Michael's there too and he slowly picks off the ancillary characters (the sheriff and Loomis leave on their own accord). Rachel and Jamie have this great scene with Michael chasing them on the roof. For a few minutes, it turns out to be just Michael after Jamie which is kind of terrifying because, what chance does a kid stand against a dude who has survived gunshots and explosions? Then Loomis comes to the "rescue" gets them to the school and then promptly gets thrown through a door, leaving Jamie on her own again. Rachel and a group of rednecks who have formed their own "lynch mob" to take out Michael.
The rednecks drive away from the city with the two girls as cops from the town over (or something) drive past. There's a sense of relief as they roll into town, but of course it's not that simple as Michael was under the truck the whole time (or something). And then there's the one part of the movie that I just can't buy. Michael pulls himself up over the tailgate and attacks the two or three guys in the back, but the driver and the two girls in the cab don't notice ANYTHING. Ah well. The girls are left alone with Michael on top of a truck and then crash into a cemetery. Then the rednecks and the cops show back up somehow (how'd they know to turn around?). The guns ring out and Michael falls back into a pit where all kinds of dirt and graves fall in on him.
As if the above wasn't SPOILERY enough, now I'm going to talk about the very end, which I love. Rachel and Jamie get back to their house and Loomis and the sheriff show up so everything's cool until we get a replay of the ultra creepy opening scene from H1. You're not really sure who it is and then we hear a scream and see little Jamie standing at the top of the stairs holding a pair of bloody scissors that she used to kill her new mom. And THEN Loomis pulls his gun out and almost shoots him until the sheriff stops him. Then it just ends. Great stuff, even though I'm not sure why Loomis expects Michael to stay buried. SPOILER, he won't there's 2 of 4 more movies in the continuity depending on how you count.
Return turned out to be a really really great horror movie and I highly recommend it. I haven't seen H2O or the sequel to that one, but it's one of the better sequels in my opinion (depending on how I'm feeling it and H2 switch places in the favorite sequel category). Good times!
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