31 Days of Spooky Movies: Halloween 4, 5, and 6

Okay... so the next 3 movies in the Halloween series are not ones I would recommend watching. They aren't terrible... but I'm not planning on watching this series again and there isn't much I have to say about them individually... so I'm combining them to one post. In these movies- the characters make the worst decisions that I think I've ever seen any horror movie character make... Plus they seem to sort of retcon the plot, characters and ideas of the previous movie in the beginning of the movie that follows. So... they do some interesting things in these movies... but overall they aren't that good.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

This movie is ten years after the Michael Myers attacks from the events of the first two movies. And it's our first time going back to Haddonfield and seeing the outcome of the effects of those two movies. They say Michael Myers has killed almost all of his family- except his niece, a young girl named Jamie who is hinted to be the daughter of Lori Strode. In Halloween 2 we learn that Lori is actually the sister of Michael Myers and that's why he was attacking her. I'm not sure that this is really relevant to most of the series but that's the plot of this movie.

This one is a little bit boring and a little bit basic for the Halloween Franchise- it doesn't really add anything to the series besides the character of Jamie- who... isn't all that important in the end anyway. We do see at the end of this movie that she has a dark side like her Uncle... and that is interesting.

This movie is directed by Dwight H Little and it is Rated R. You can stream it on Shudder or find it one DVD, Blu Ray, Digital, 4k and probably VHS. I had trouble finding this one at Wal Mart years ago- it wasn't as readily available as the other movies... so I had to watch it on Shudder.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

This movie is better than Halloween 4 and Halloween 6... but it still isn't that great. The intro shows Michael Myers floating down the river like hes on that one Sesame Place slide that's traumatized everyone in the areas around Sesame Place... no matter their age. That was the best part of the movie!

This one also tries to subvert expectations like the Final Girl- our Final Girl from the first movie dies pretty early on... but they don't really mention her. They also show her best friend character in this one... who doesn't seem to care about Jamie- even though she's been traumatized and can't speak anymore and she says her name... and then she immediately goes to the Halloween party.

My one big complaint about this movie- and sort of with this whole trilogy of movies is that these characters all know that there's a killer on the loose and this killer is after them specifically... but they don't really do anything that helps them get away from the killer. They have Halloween parties still- which you would think maybe Haddonfield wouldn't do... plus they do things like leave their key outside the door and dress up like the killer the cops are looking for just to taunt them... even though the cops are protecting them specifically. The cops also see the real killer and just assume its one of the teenagers from this group... it's a little bit crazy.

There's a good scene at the end with Michael and Jamie and some good moments with Loomis and Jamie... but this isn't a movie I think I'll be watching again or seeking out to own or anything.

Halloween 5 is Rated R and directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard. It is available to own on DVD, Blu Ray, 4K and most likely VHS if you look hard enough. You can also own or rent it digitally and it is streaming on Shudder or AMC+ I assume. This was harder for me to find when I bought all of the other Halloween DVDS a few years ago.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

This one I was able to find on DVD but because it's not called Halloween 6- I didn't know there were 2 movies before it... so I had watched like 20 minutes of this movie before my boyfriend and I realized something was wrong and we needed some context for this movie because it just kind of starts with no real warning. We then realized this was the third movie in a trilogy- so we had to find 4+5 before we watched this one. Very confusing... and honestly it's still confusing if you watch this movie after those two movie because they don't really establish the characters that well, the timeline doesn't make sense and they do kill the main character of the first two movies within the first 20 minutes of this movie... so it's a lot.

There are also 2 cuts of this movie that are very different. I watched the Theatrical cut- but there is also a Producer's Cut out there that is a slightly better version of this movie. It still is not a great movie- but they do some more interesting things in the Producers cut- and some of the ideas they introduce in this movie and the previous movie are actually in the Producer's cut while they aren't in the theatrical cut. Miramax distributed the theatrical cut... and not only are they pretty evil (Harvey Weinstein) they also didn't understand the vision of this movie and just wanted to put more gore in it to appeal to the teenagers that they showed the Producer's Cut to in a test screening. It's totally wild and I will link the video I watched that breaks down the two cuts of the film- just in case you want to see what the other cut looks like but you don't want to sit through the movie again. The movie isn't great either way- but the Producer's Cut looks a little better in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ19bXJcjgI

Anyway- the better parts of this movie are that it stars a very young Paul Rudd in an early acting role for him- and it is one of the last performances by Donald Pleasance who plays Loomis. This movie had to do a lot of reshoots in 4 days and Donald Pleasance had passed away before the reshoots were filmed. It's sad because you can see his health declining in the movie- and they don't even have the scar on his face that he had in the previous 2 movies... which I think is because he probably couldn't really sit down for makeup. The Producer's Cut explains that he got Plastic Surgery to get rid of his scars.

The plot of this movie is kind of all over the place. The main characters I guess are related to Lori Strode but they don't really explain why Michael Myers is after the Strode family- other than the fact that they're living in the old Myers house I guess and that they're Lori's adopted family? There's also kind of a cult subplot that the Producer's cut explains but the version I saw really didn't go into.

I just didn't like this one. It's not a great movie- and it's gotten me a little fatigued with the Halloween Movies. I should have maybe watched all the Chucky movies instead of this because the Chucky movies are pretty consistent with Chucky's backstory.

This movie is rated R and available to stream on HBO Max. It was directed byt Joe Chappelle. You can also own this movie on DVD, Blu Ray, 4K and Digital and probably vhs again. This one was easier for me to find at Wal Mart a few years ago when I tried to buy all the Halloween Movies.

Bye!

-Shannon