OK so after Halloween 3 which had no real connection to the earlier films for Halloween 4 the producers very quickly turned back to telling the story of Michael Myers. Jamie Lee Curtis was unwilling to return to the role of Laurie Strode, so this meant that her character was killed off. This is where I have to say something which might prove a little bit unpopular and that's the fact that I really did not give a monkeys that Jamie Lee Curtis didn't return.I know this might annoy some people but as far as I am concerned Strode is not the main nemesis for Michael, I see Dr Loomis as the main force which stands against Myers. As long as we have the excellent Donald Pleasance in a Halloween film then I am a very happy fellow, in fact despite loving Halloween 3 to pieces I still wish that somehow there could be a little bit of Loomis in that one. To me he is very much the Van Helsing of the series an expert in the war against evil and a main foil for our villain.
I guess before I go into what Halloween 4 is I should have a quick shout out about what it could have become. I have heard rumors that if the whole anthology film idea of each Halloween being about something different had worked that this film would have been a ghost related movie, finding evidence for this seems to be hard though. What it is easier to find evidence for though is that at one point when Carpenter was more connected to the film they wanted to bring Myers back as a spirit. The idea was that Haddonfield the film series setting has decided to ban Halloween and not allow cinemas to show horror films or kids to trick or treat and that somehow this would bring Michael back as a spirit that he would be reborn in a pumpkin field as some spirit of vengeance. On the one hand this sounds a little bit silly and also a little bit close to Nightmare on Elm street but then I guess its no sillier than a guy who can be killed again and again and seem to somehow come back and have only been in a coma or knocked out.
OK so lets leave behind what could have been and instead focus on the film we got. So lets start at the start with the most basic of questions. What has Michael been doing since the second one? Well he has been sat in a comatose state for ten years since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, so not very much at all to be fair. It is while Michael is being transferred to Smith's Grove Sanitarium by ambulance that he wakes up after hearing that Laurie Strode, who died in a car accident, has a daughter. So I guess lesson learned right here if your ever around a comatose serial killer just keep your mouth shut just in case anything you say could wake them up and start the whole thing again. Ok If you want to watch the film without having it spoiled I recommend you walk away now as although I am not going to give away every beat of the film I will spoil the ending as well I cant talk about the movies place in cannon without doing this.
OK so lets get back to talking about this movie. So where was I? Oh yes Michael being Michael kills the ambulance personnel, and makes his way to Haddonfield in search of his niece Jamie. Dr. Samuel Loomis basically gives chase and its pretty much business as usual for the pair Michael killing and Lommis telling people Michael is evil while trying to track him down so that he can stop him. All in all as far as I am concerned its more of the same as far as the franchise goes, it takes on board the first two Halloween films while ignoring the third which with this once again being the story of Michael makes perfect sense.
Near the end of the film just before Michael is ''finished off'' Jamie touches his hand, then when things have apparently gone back to normal after the events her step mum goes upstairs to run her a bath, at this point though Jamie attacks old mummy dearest. Loomis hears screaming and starts to race up the stairs before stopping dead in his tracks about midway. We see why he has stopped, there at the top of the stairs stands an emotionless looking Jamie who is wearing a clown mask, holding a pair of scissors in her hand, her costume covered in blood looking pretty much like a young Michael had when he killed his older sister Judith, Loomis raises his gun to shoot her but is stopped. The film ends with Loomis sinking to the floor sobbing leading us to believe that for one reason or another be it something in her blood, the trauma she has suffered or some kind of curse passing from her Uncle when they touched that Jamie will become the franchises new killer. Would this change of killer ending go on to be an important piece of cannon or not? Well I guess you need to wait for my next post to find out, well unless you have seen all of the movies which given there age I am going to guess you most likely have.
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