YMMV / Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Although Halloween 5 would clarify that Jamie was somehow possessed by Michael Myers' evil spirit when she stabbed her foster mother in a clown costume, ^note Likely to keep her sympathetic after dropping the evil Jamie Sequel Hook for the next film. alternative interpretations of that scene suggest that Jamie was Not Brainwashed but rather another Myers in the making, her evil awakened by the trauma she endured over the Halloween night.
  • Following the release of the Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers and the Cult of Thorn reveal, some fans wonder if Dr. Hoffman is merely an incompetent bureaucrat, a cultist who deliberately engineers Michael's escape by transferring him without telling Loomis, or an Unwitting Pawn who Dr. Wynn tricked into facilitating Michael's escape.
  • Whether Kelly was genuinely trying to apologize to Rachel over Brady (albeit with a poor choice of words) or was just trying to make excuses for herself is somewhat unclear, with it being possible to read the scene either way.
  • How accurate is Kelly's briefly mentioned Really Gets Around reputation? She only seems interested in Brady and shoots down Bit Character Wade's attempt to hit on her right before she learns that Brady might be available to pursue after his fight with Rachel. Still, that could just be a matter of personal taste, as Wade doesn't exactly come across as a heartthrob.
  • Is Reverend Sayer, the talkative clergyman who gives Loomis a ride, a Hero of Another Story who has spent years pursuing some unspecified evil person or force? Or is he just a kooky drunk who is being metaphorical or delusional when he talks about chasing evil?
  • Michael's atypical use of a shotgun to kill Kelly and discarding the rifle he takes from Brady are usually chalked up to a distaste for guns, but he has practical reasons for both: shooting Kelly would have revealed his presence in the house, giving Jamie time to run and creating more problems for Michael, and using Brady's gun would have meant aiming at moving targets in the dark, giving Jamie and Rachel more time to flee.
    • Another possibility is that Michael doesn't know how to use a gun; him learning to drive can be chalked up to observing others (or, as Loomis sarcastically noted, someone at Smith's Grove giving him lessons), but Michael's experience with guns is restricted to being shot by pistols, which wouldn't give him any context on using long guns.
• Ass Pull: One of the biggest criticisms of the film is the ending just comes completely out of nowhere and feels like a twist forced in there for the sake of a twist. Most likely a victim of What Could Have Been as the next film was supposed to make Jamie the killer.
• Base-Breaking Character: Many fans see Kelly as an assertive, somewhat funny female character with some Pet the Dog moments, while others hate her for stealing Rachel's boyfriend.
• Complete Monster: Michael Myers. See here.
• Contested Sequel: For the longest time, Halloween 4 was widely seen as a return to form for the Halloween series after the poor fan reception of Season of the Witch, with many ranking it pretty high as one of the best sequels for its great cast of characters and ramped up slasher elements. Over the years, however, it has attracted more negative attention from some fans who see it as a sloppy retread of the original film that doesn’t do anything new to the series, saw the plot as overly contrived and felt the new faces were either just lazy replacements of the original characters or too Unintentionally Unsympathetic to like, often ranking it as one of the worst sequels. Depending on where one stands, it’s either one of the series best, one of its worst, or just an alright slasher movie.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Jamie Lloyd, and by extension Danielle Harris, are often considered the best aspect of the film and for good reason. Between being a new take on the Final Girl formula (a child instead of a teenager) and an overall strong and likable character, she's remained one of the most popular characters in the franchise to this day, such that Rob Zombie cast Harris as Annie in his remake of Halloween.
  • Sheriff Ben Meeker is also quite the beloved character as well, being an overall welcome aversion to the usual Police Are Useless cliche present in slasher flicks and Beau Starr's intense performance being praised. He's genuinely competent at his job and actively assists Dr. Loomis in his efforts to stop Myers. Being the one leading the shootout against Michael at the end helped garner him a lot of fans. His Boyfriend-Blocking Dad moment is also well-liked.
  • Rachel also gets praise for overcoming her fear and quickly becoming an Action Survivor determined to protect her adopted sister. She manages to get the best of Michael twice, the latter of which involves her running him down with a truck. Fans were not happy when she fell victim to Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome.
• He's Just Hiding: Meeker neither asks Rachel and Jamie about his daughter's fate in the climax nor displays any rage that indicates he already knows Michael killed her, which could mean that Kelly survived being impaled. A line of dialogue in the next movie, "How many people did he kill last year? Have you forgotten? Your own daughter!" seems to confirm that she did die but could also just be referring to an injury.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Seu desgraçado! (Bang! Bang! Bang!).^Explanation In the Brazilian dub (one of four), Dr. Loomis says "seu desgraçado" (you bastard!) when he meets Michael at the gas station before shooting at him. The memetic aspect comes from the hammy way the dubber says the line (in contrast with the Tranquil Fury Loomis shows in Pleasance's voice) along with how the line was sped up so as to fit into "goddamn you".
• Narm:
  • The original trailer does a nice job of building up the hype for this film - except for one shot of Michael clinging to the roof of a swerving pick-up truck; the sound effect is straight out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
  • Michael himself in this film can be this for some people, as his mask is noticeably much whiter and less detailed than his first two appearances, and the actor was wearing hockey pads to make him look stronger than ever before...despite being in a coma for 10 years, therefore his muscles should’ve been much smaller/weaker. His resulting look is that of a small man wearing stuffed clothing to look bigger than he is, with a surprised, quizzical expression. It's absurd and unintentionally hilarious.
• Narm Charm:
  • The scene of the bullies chanting "JAMIE'S AN ORPHAN" is a bit over the top in its cruelty, but Jamie's emotional reaction to it makes it feel a little too real to laugh at.
  • Dr. Loomis' cries of "No!" when he sees Jamie at the ending is hilarious to some people, however for many others Pleasence's portrayal of Loomis's despair that Jamie has turned out exactly like her uncle is very well done and heartbreaking.
• Nausea Fuel: Loomis shaking Reverend Sayer's hand... just after the latter sneezed into it.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Reverend Sayer, the kooky old priest who gives Loomis a lift into Haddonfield, is quite entertaining.
  • The Properly Paranoid guard at the asylum who escorts the medical team transporting Michael to his room.
• Sequelitis: Michael's motive is taken to the next level and his costume from mask to hockey padded build is comically terrible.
• Signature Scene: There are four scenes from the movie that almost all hardcore fans of the franchise vividly remember if they've seen the film and have heard about if they haven't.
  • The rooftop chase.
  • The scene where Meeker and the state troopers put Michael down with a barrage of gunfire.
  • Jamie’s nightmare at the beginning.
  • The Twist Ending where Jamie is in her clown costume and mask, holding a pair of bloody scissors that she used to stab her foster mother.
• So Okay, It's Average: After the divisive Season of the Witch, The Return was made to closely resemble the first two movies and avoid changing the formula too much, though it did feature a couple switches (child protagonist, the twist ending). Consequently, it's usually seen as this in the broader scope of the franchise, being a competent film, but not one that does enough to be terribly interesting.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: For those who didn't like Season of the Witch, The Return was a welcome return to form.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The scene where kids make fun of Jamie for being the niece of a killer and for being an orphan, even chanting "Jamie is an orphan" over an over. It's over-the-top and cheesy, but it helps cement Jamie's status as an outcast and Danielle Harris' convincing performance certainly helps.
  • While Kelly is technically an Asshole Victim, her death can really be upsetting considering the impact that will bring to her father (an Ensemble Dark Horse), and it was shown that she was capable of compassion for the sake of it, concerning for Jamie when she has a freak-out and preparing a cup of coffee for Logan, showing that she was more than just a shallow boyfriend-stealer.
  • Brady's death. Sure, he cheated on Rachel with Kelly, but his death is quite somber, and Rachel is begging Brady to come with them, and later is on the verge of outright weeping as it becomes obvious to her Michael will kill him.
  • Jamie's terror after her big sister's Disney Death is extremely vulnerable and heartbreaking.
    Jamie: Please, come alive! Don't be dead. You can't be dead! Come alive, Rachel!
    • It's also the definition of Harsher in Hindsight once Michael kills off Rachel for real in Halloween 5.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A teenaged Lindsey Wallace from the original film appears briefly in one scene as Rachel's friend. It would have been interesting to see her reaction to Michael's return, considering she was there the night of his first killing spree. The same goes for Tommy Doyle, who also makes a cameo at the drug store where Jamie gets her clown costume.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The lynch mob, led by a man whose son was one of Michael's victims. They only succeed in gunning down one of the locals by mistake, decide to let the state police handle the situation as soon as they have a chance to engage their prey, and then are easily picked off while escorting Jamie and Rachel out of town.
  • It also would have been neat to have actually seen Michael slaughter the Haddonfield police in their station like The Terminator. Although, that may have been what the filmmakers were trying to avoid, in addition to the Nothing Is Scarier aspect.
  • The Papa Wolf aspect of Meeker's character feels a bit underused after getting set up nicely, and it would have been interesting to see him either trying to save his daughter's life at the house (successfully or otherwise) or show grief at her death and have that further motivate his pursuit of Michael at the end.
• Values Resonance: This film directly messed with the normal expectations of the slasher genre. Rachel was clearly planning on having sex with Brady before being told to go trick or treating with Jamie, Sheriff Meeker is clearly depicted as an incredibly competent and formidable law enforcement officer, and Brady, despite having cheated on Rachel with Kelly, is still depicted positively and his death is treated as sad. This was relatively rare during the 80's, 90's, and the early 2000's. Nowadays, subverting, or outright deviating from the slasher genre norm is becoming increasingly common in cinema.
• WTH, Costuming Department?:
  • The Michael Myers mask used for the film was heavily criticized by fans for its overly blank look and surprised, quizzical expression.
  • When Michael attacks Dr. Loomis at the school, the mask used for Michael was unpainted and undyed.^Explanation  The film had multiple masks created that were flesh colored and then they were painted white later. They also had brownish blond hair that was colored darker later. For whatever reason, not all of the masks were painted. It's baffling that that no one noticed something was wrong while filming.
• The Woobie: Poor Jamie Lloyd.

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