Halloween 4 - The Return of Michael Myers (1988)This & 2 are my favorites of the series & of slashers in general (haven't seen the new film yet).
Small spoilers...
Nitpicks/Cons...- Worst mask of the series.
- Officer Logan's characterization is inconsistent. We see him appropriately panicked when he hears about the police station but in his next scene he calls the fortifications the Sheriff is putting up at his house paranoid & later casually calls the situation "hell of a night".
Pros...- Great moody opening credits surveying farm equipment adorned with Halloween decorations.
- Solid score.
- The film certainty has a different feel from the original 2 films but is still very suspenseful & atmospheric in it's own way.
- Like 2 the film does a decent job of fleshing out Haddonfield as a real town with culture & history.
- Donald as always is great.
- Harris as Jamie remains among the best performances from a child actor I have encountered in a horror film.
- Rachel is a solid final girl.
- Sheriff Meeker (beau starr) I have always thought to be cool, his professional & trusting interaction with Loomis is more enjoyable then the more strained back & forth between Brackett & Loomis in 1/2. We get a faint hint of laziness/denial on his part with him initially trying to blow Loomis off but once he takes things seriously he goes into war mode like a boss.
- I liked that they wrote both Loomis & Myers as having learned from the events of 78, what with Loomis not hesitating to demand a town wide curfew which he resisted doing in 78 and Myers taking out both the Police & Power stations early on & letting officer Logan take him directly to his targets.
- Build up to & reveal of the police station massacre is chilling as well as the triple Michael sequence.
- This is easily the most powerful we have ever seen Myers on film.
- Entire ending from the battle atop the truck to the shootdown, to the twist is epic as hell.