Halloweens 1 & 2 are undoubtedly the "classics," but I must admit a certain affinity for the "middle trilogy," which has been entirely ignored by the recent "resurrections" of the franchise. Halloweens 4 & 5, in particular, are probably most in line with what you think of when you think of a Halloween movie. Halloween 4 is no masterpiece, though it is solid, and being from 1988 doesn't hurt (unironic mullets are always welcome in my book). This one finds Michael Myers, as inexpicably not-dead as in any of the other ones, hunting down his young niece (Danielle Harris) in fictional Haddonfield, Illinois, where he encountered his initial troubles. Babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is now referred to as Myers's sister (she's nowhere to be found, of course, having moved on to better movies), though this idea is abandoned in the later sequels. Donald Pleasence is on hand as Dr. Loomis, who was the killer's therapist and is now somewhat of a questionable sort himself. Though the film is not that scary, nor in any way "great," it's comfortable in a franchise-type way, like your local KFC is with lunch. And while Halloween 4 offers little in the way of originality, I still prefer it to the more recent Halloween films, which, like many films of the 90s and 00s, get by mostly on a cynical self-confidence entirely based on the audience's low expectations of this sort of movie. At least in 1988, they were still, to some extent, still trying. Review by |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z collections music vids
