Halloween: Ranking Every Movie From Worst To Best

After John Carpenter and Debra Hill's experimental venture in the third film, the producers wanted a back-to-basics Michael Myers-led sequel that would scare up big business for them.

And in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, they got just that.

The film is a solid '80s slasher that has more than its fair share of strong moments, like the rooftop sequence or literally any scene with Donald Pleasence's Dr. Loomis. But in the context of the franchise now, it's hard to not look back on this installment with a bit of regret.

In many ways, it was what would set the franchise up for the failures to come. The paint-by-numbers approach is one thing, but perhaps the film's biggest flaw is in making Michael so inconsistent. The Michael Myers of Carpenter's original film is scary because he's just a man, just a voyeur fixated on stalking people. Here, Michael is nearly omniscient, able to be in multiple places at once and able to kill the entire Haddonfield police force, single-handedly.

It's more than a bit goofy and it sets Michael off on a path that leads him directly to the Cult of Thorn storyline in Halloween 6. Overall, this is a fun sequel, but one that gets weighed down by its own lazy writing.