Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Blu-ray Movie Review

The masked slasher comes home to Haddonfield.

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson October 19, 2016

Dwight H. Little's "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Austrian label NSM Records. The supplemental features on the disc include three audio commentaries; one featurette; a convention discussion with the cast; and an American trailer for the film. In English, with optional German subtitles for the main feature. Region-free.

Watch out for the Shape as he may be lurking around the corner!

Following the bewildering critical reception and underwhelming box-office performance of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), producer Moustapha Akkad decided to go back to the well and rejuvenate the original ingredients that made the famed horror franchise's inaugural 1978 movie the most successful independent film up to that point. Akkad hired Dwight Little (The Phantom of the Opera) to direct and enlisted series fan Alan McElory to write the screenplay. With a WGA strike looming, McElroy had to come up with a script quickly and did. It took Little about thirty-six days to film H4 throughout parts of Utah. As two midwestern natives, Little and McElroy brought a shared vision to the autumnal look of Haddonfield, Illinois. The opening credits montage is one of the most aesthetically beautiful of any horror picture. Little studied photography books of the late harvest season, picking out iconographic symbols representing Halloween. Diverting from the visual pattern of the camera pulling inside a jack-o'-lantern as seen in the first two films, Little and his cinematographer Peter Lyons Collister lensed magic hour shots of a skeleton mailbox, farm tools, a strung-up ghost, and scarecrow. The timbre of composer Alan Howarth's brushy winds produces a sense solitude on the farm and portends the dread Haddonfield's townspeople will feel. Collister also recreates the nighttime atmosphere Dean Cundey achieved in the original film, accenting white shafts of light and "midnight blues."

It is tempting to call this film Halloween 1988 Redux for the narrative structure and plot situations parallel John Carpenter's classic. Little's fillm also follows the story events of Halloween II (1981) ten years later. Late one evening, attendants from Smith Grove Sanitarium arrive at Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium to make a patient transfer. Michael Myers has somehow survived the immolation and building explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital but is classified as an invalid. The scene where the paramedic takes Michael's blood pressure contains a nice genre departure. Rather than scare the nurse out of her wits when Michael's arm drops from the gurney, as Joseph Zito does twice with Jason's arm in Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter (1984), Little chooses to photograph Michael's left arm from the nurse's opposite side, making only the audience privy to the Shape's possible physical resucistation. (It befits Hitchcock's notion of the difference between surprise and suspense. Suspense happens if the audience knows beforehand, for example, that a bomb is underneath the table and is about to go off.) The next morning, Dr. Hoffman (Michael Pataki) receives a phone call that an "accident" occurred to the Smith Grove ambulance along the road. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence, reprising his role a second time) is furious that Hoffman never notified him of Michael's transfer and is certain that the missing Myers, as in the first film, will head back to his birthplace.

The film's action takes us to the suburbs of Haddonfield and the Carruthers household where Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell) lives with her half-sister Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). We learn that Jamie is Laurie Strode's daughter but with her parents gone, Jamie has been adopted by the Carruthers family. Jamie has recurring nightmares of her boogeyman uncle stalking her and fears that he may return to get her on Halloween. Admittedly, Jamie is given more to do in Halloween 5 (1989) but in this superior film, she conveys a sense of genuine fright and all-knowing awareness of Michael's ubiquitous presence. Little slows down the narrative momentum and suspense he built with an extraneous romantic subplot. Rachel and Kelly Meeker (Kathleen Kinmont), Sheriff Ben Meeker's (Beau Starr) daughter, compete for the affection of Brady (Sasha Jenson), a handsome guy in town. Other than serve as a plot device for all the characters to meet at the Meeker house for a stakeout of Michael, the triad doesn't really have much of a purpose. This is not a knock on Jenson, who is good as Brady. Although Brady's behavior is unsavory, the audience sympathizes with his plight when Michael confronts him.

Like Halloween II, extra "kill shots" were added following principal photography of H4 but unlike its predecessor, Little's film keeps the gore to a minimum. Those who saw the first two films in the series will inevitably feel familiarity with the story events in H4. However, Little and his cast/crew keep the material relatively fresh.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Halloween 4 comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Austrian distributor NSM Records on this AVC-encoded BD-25. While content on the Blu-rays is identical, NSM has several releases of the film with different packaging, including a standard case as well as a Mediabook with a DVD and soundtrack CD. The edition reviewed here is a Star Metalpak with a 3D lenticular pressing depicting of a new cover illustration by Nathan Thomas Milliner. The inside features the original theatrical poster art and a new artistic rendition of Michael Myers. The Metalpak has the same kind of feel as a steelbook and is very nice. (The various editions are available on Amazon.de.)

The film appears in a ratio of around 1.78:1, which is close to its theatrical exhibition of 1.85:1. This is not the same video transfer that my colleague, Martin Liebman, reviewed on Anchor Bay's Region A Blu-ray of the film. It should be pointed out, though, that both A.B. and NSM appear to use the same Divimax master from the movie's Region 1 2006 DVD. (Divimax was a brand name that A.B. and other indie studios invented to indicate a High Definition film transfer process that provides state-of-the-art picture quality.) Screenshot #s 6-35 provide a comparison between the two Blu-rays, with NSM on the top. (Please note that #s 31 & 32 are not exact frame matches.) At first glance, it seems that the two are very similar but a closer inspection reveals some substantial discrepancies. A.B. has inserted a thin black bar that masks information from the top and bottom of the frame. Notice that #12 shows more of Michael's left arm and #14 shows the top of a window in the left background. Besides the cropping, A.B. has also filtered the image, removing some grain. Notice the presence of tinier details in the middle portion of #28. NSM is also a shade brighter than A.B., which apparently attempted to darken the image somewhat, resulting in a loss of texture. The NSM is not perfect (it sports some white and black speckles on the print) but it delivers the most organic presentation to date. Although I didn't see H4 theatrically in the fall of 1988, I can surmise based on a perusal of its home video history that the color timing on the NSM very likely replicates its original appearance.

NSM has divided the film into twelve chapter stops.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

NSM has provided several audio options on this disc, with the two most significant being the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. I listened to both tracks but the 5.1 mix was primarily analyzed for this review. One aspect that stands out is the discreteness of ambient nature sounds in each front channel. Raindrops and thunder show nice separation at times. Sound is clear and crisp. The surrounds are used to anchor Howarth's electronic score, a theme-and-variation based work that utilizes the main theme as well as secondary themes from Carpenter's iconic score. In the third commentary track, McElroy complains that the gunshots are not loud enough but he's actually listening to an old DVD. Gunshots are reproduced well on both surrounds. Dialogue is perfectly audible and while English subtitles would have been appreciated, they're not required. The film was originally recorded in Ultra Stereo so it's an added bonus to have the 2.0 mix.

NSM's audio tracks provide a more satisfying listening experience compared to A.B., which uses Dolby TrueHD 5.1. NSM is also technically more robust with an encoding of 2421 kbps, compared to A.B.'s 1184 kbps. Separation is superior on the NSM.

NSM has provided optional German subtitles for the English soundtracks. Two German dubbed soundtracks are also included on the disc.

Note that the later A.B. reissue of H4 contained an audio sync issue occurring around the 40-minute mark until resolving near the end of the movie. This was also present on the A.B./Scream! Factory box sets of Halloween: The Complete Collection but two years later, the defective disc is still included, although it presumably houses the corrected disc too. A.B. created an exchange program but owners of the Austrian Blu-ray won't have to bother with that anomaly.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Dwight H. Little and Author Justin Beahm - Also on the A.B. Blu-ray, this recent commentary features moderator Beahm asking Little solid and pretty specific questions about his working relationships with actors, logistical decisions, and other subtopics. There are some gaps but this is overall an informative track. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary with Actors Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris - a running commentary with two of the film's female stars that initially appeared on the Divimax DVD. Cornell and Harris haven't seen the movie in years and are spotty when recalling specific details. They also haven't kept up with the series and seem sketchy about certain facts. Still, this is an amiable chat as the pair provide a lot of fond memories of performing in the film. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary with Screenwriter Alan B. McElroy, Moderated by Anthony Massey - a Blu-ray exclusive, this full-length commentary features scribe McElroy along with moderator Anthony Massey, editor of Halloweenmovies.com. Massey is certainly knowledgeable about H4 even delving briefly into the revised, limited-edition novelization of the film. Massey prepares several really good questions for McElroy that fans have wanted to know more about. The screenwriter doesn't disappoint, laying out scenes that he wrote in earlier drafts that either went unfilmed or didn't make their way into the finished film. He commends Little for not tampering much with his script and explains editorial decisions that affected the arrangement of certain shots. Massey is delightful and inferential, maintaining a lively conversation throughout the track. McElroy answers his questions well and occasionally interjects recollections of scenes as they pop up. McElroy has a very sharp memory of what transpired on and off set. The best of the three commentaries. In English, not subtitled.

• Halloween 4 / 5 Discussion Panel (18:28, 480i) - another recycled DVD extra, this is a "Cast Panel" at a convention commemorating twenty-five years of Halloween films. Actors Danielle Harris, Sasha Jenson, Kathleen Kinmont, and Jeffrey Landman (from H5) field questions from the moderator and audience. In English, not subtitled.

• "The Making of Halloween 4: Final Cut" Featurette (16:48, 480i) - appearing on prior A.B. DVDs, this archival featurette shows cast and crew members as they reminisce about making H4. We hear from executive producer Moustapha Akkad, director Dwight Little, screenwriter Alan McElroy, producer Paul Freeman, composer Alan Howarth, and three of the actors. In English, not subtitled..

• Theatrical Trailer (1:36, 480i) - the official U.S. trailer sourced from interlaced video. Not subtitled.

• Halloween 3-6 Trailer Reel - a collection of trailers for the sequels. There are two unsubtitled U.S. trailers for Season of the Witch, a German-subtitled trailer for H4, a German dubbed VHS-sourced trailer for H5, and a German dubbed trailer for H6.

• Biographies/Filmographies - bios and filmographies of six of the filmmakers. Slow, scrolling German text.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Halloween 4 has always been regarded as one of the better films in the series and rivals Halloween II (1981) and Halloween VI: The Producer's Cut (1995) as the finest of the Myers-included sequels. NSM has put together as close to a definitive package of the film that fans can hope for. It has several advantages over the Anchor Bay release. It is region-free, uncropped, doesn't have any audio sync issues, and includes the McElroy commentary that was not on the North American Blu-ray. Don't hesitate to pick this up. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.