10 Things You Learn Rewatching Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers (1988)

After kickstarting the slasher subgenre in the late '70s, the Halloween franchise found itself in a strange place in the early '80s.

Delivering two incredibly successful Michael Myers-featuring films, creators John Carpenter and Debra Hill then went in a distinctly different direction for Halloween III. They abandoned the slasher subgenre just as it was reaching peak popularity.

This meant that after Halloween III's disappointing box office pull, the early to mid-'80s were devoid of Halloween films, but full of slashers. So when Michael Myers finally made his return in 1988, things were drastically different than when he left. There had been five new Friday the 13th sequels and three Nightmare on Elm Street films, along with countless other imitators.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was a gargantuan box office success upon release, cementing the future of plenty of sequels to come. But without Carpenter, Hill, Jamie Lee Curtis, or Dean Cundey returning, how does the film hold up to prior installments? Does it give Michael the king's return he deserved?

Or did it merely stoop to the levels of the other slasher sequels of the time?

Thanks to some disagreements over the direction the franchise should take with producer Moustapha Akkad, Halloween 4 marked the first time in the history of the franchise that John Carpenter was not involved in any capacity.

Luckily, his collaborator on the scores for series' prior two films, Alan Howarth, was more than willing to return. And while Carpenter is sorely missed, its a joy to hear Howarth go all-in on a Halloween score that is completely his own.

As a whole, the score is much more moody and atmospheric than prior incarnations. Howarth opens the film with airy synth pads, distinctly holding back on the iconic theme. He hints at it with some playful melodies here and there but doesn't fully cue up the theme until Michael appears on-screen, making it that much more impactful.

The Halloween Theme itself is amped up in typically '80s fashion, complete with a delightfully bonkers moment of Howarth replicating the theme's melody on reverb-heavy toms. Much like the film, the music is more-or-less a return to familiar territory, just through the lens of the late '80s.