The Reel Rejects - HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988) IS A KILLER RETURN TO FORM!!

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

MICHAEL MYERS IS BACK!!! Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Save & Invest In Your Future Today, visit: https://www.acorns.com/rejects Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ With the Carpetner Originals & Season of the Witch under their belts, The Scream Queens return to Haddonfield to continue their marathon thru the HALLOWEEN Franchise giving their Halloween 4 Reaction, Recap, Analysis, & Spoiler Review! Roxy Striar & Tara Erickson revisit Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), the slasher sequel that brought the infamous masked killer back to Haddonfield a decade after John Carpenter’s original horror masterpiece. Directed by Dwight H. Little (Rapid Fire, Free Willy 2), the film follows Michael Myers as he escapes from a prison transfer and sets his sights on his young niece Jamie Lloyd, played by Danielle Harris (Urban Legend, Hatchet II), in her breakout role. Donald Pleasence (The Great Escape, You Only Live Twice) returns as the iconic Dr. Sam Loomis, once again racing against time to stop his relentless patient. Ellie Cornell (House of the Dead) portrays Rachel Carruthers, Jamie’s protective foster sister, while Beau Starr (Goodfellas, Due South) plays Sheriff Ben Meeker, who tries to rally the town against Michael’s unstoppable rampage. Kathleen Kinmont (Bride of Re-Animator) and Sasha Jenson (Dazed and Confused) also appear in memorable supporting roles. The film is remembered for its suspenseful atmosphere, brutal kills, and Michael’s chilling pursuit of Jamie—most notably the rooftop chase sequence and the shocking ending that teased Jamie inheriting her uncle’s murderous legacy. Halloween 4 is often credited with reviving the franchise after the detour of Halloween III: Season of the Witch and remains a fan favorite among horror enthusiasts for bringing Michael Myers back into the slasher spotlight. Follow Roxy Striar YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhirlGirls Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxystriar/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/roxystriar Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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land rover.ca. There you are, pushing your newborn baby in a stroller through the park. The first time out of the house in weeks. You have your Starbucks, Venty. because, you know, sleep deprivation. You meet your best friend. She asks you how it's going. You immediately begin to laugh. Then cry. Then laugh cry?

That's totally normal, right? She smiles. You hug. There's no one else you'd rather share this with. You know, three and a half hour sleep is more than enough. Starbucks. It's never just coffee. This week's video is sponsored by Acorns,

the money app that makes it simple and cheap to make small yet significant investments. Today is Horror Thursday, so happy Thursday to you guys. And like I said, we're watching Halloween 4, the return of Michael Myers, so shall we get to it? Let's freaking go. Aye. Count us in. Three, two, one. I clicked it.

Wow. Tara. I can't believe that just happened, dude. That was freaking awesome. That was amazing. That was so cool. I did not see that. that coming me neither and you're right

she touched his hand yeah and she was like that's my uncle and yeah also bloodline you know like oh my god wow we have so much to talk about before we do that if you're on Apple Spotify 5 star if you're on YouTube thumbs up thank you so much to Prepper for helping edit

us down we appreciate you we know with horror movies it can be very difficult with the amount of blood and gets and gore and all that and Bunda so thank you for doing your job all right Let me ask you this, Tara. Yeah.

As you know, the patrons submit questions for us, and we get to them every single review because we love the Patreon questions. We also talk a little bit about the movie. Do you want to go to the Patreon questions first, or do you want to talk about the movie a little bit first? We have a lot of questions. I feel like we'll get out all of our opinions. Yeah, let's jump into it. Let's dive in. I haven't even, I've normally just given my whole opinion in the questions.

Yeah, okay. so let's just dive into it guys this is Halloween 4 return Michael Myers Patreon questions if you want to submit questions for us become a patron today patreon.com slash the rail rejects here we go I'm like in utter shock right now me too Michael Medina

Kotheria Shadeg Nation unite how did you feel about the introduction of Jamie Lloyd and the performance Danielle Harris gave at such a young age she would go on to have a great career Okay, we got to look and be in several B-level horror franchises as a scream queen as well as even appear in Rob Zombie's version of Halloween as an adult.

I hope you guys watch as well. Yeah, we're watching all of them. All right, I got to look her up, dude, because Daniel Harris, I wonder what other, maybe we've seen her in something else. Yeah, maybe we have. Maybe that's why you kept saying I kind of recognized her. But all of them I recognized. Like the blonde girl, like I really recognized so many of the people. but Daniel Harris, okay, Daniel Harris, don't tell mom, okay, da-da-da, don't tell mom the babysitter's dead. I've heard of in 91, but I didn't see. Oh, she was in Halloween 2. Oh, 2009 Halloween 2. Oh, okay, that's what they're talking about.

I don't know a lot of these movies. Oh, she was in the 2001 creep show movie, which I did not see. I haven't either. She was in once upon a time in Hollywood. Oh. She's worked a lot, dude. Good for her. Yeah. She has 195 credits on IMDB.

Get it, girl. Get it, girl. What do you think about this? How did you feel about her? I mean, I thought she was phenomenal, really great at being emotional and being believable. Because sometimes kids, when they, like, do the fake cry or whatever, I'm always, like, so surprised at when a director can get, like, a little kid to, like, actually cry. she was really she was great i had zero issues and she was also adorable i believed her so i'm not surprised that she went on to to do a bunch more yeah i'm with you completely and uncharged the

whole time terror what the hell oh it didn't and i also think we'll definitely do probably the rob zombie version of Halloween we're we'll watch a hundred percent dude aren't we yeah yeah i think we're definitely uh scheduled to do ow totally oh yeah she just hit her head on the light she's trying to charge her phone it's not working over here i'm with you that obviously we're going to do the rob zombie ones we're going through the entire franchise yeah i thought she was amazing she did such a great job so young awesome um brian reed how do you think oh my head hurts so bad how do you think about bringing how do you think about bringing michael meyer's back instead of going with where the third one what how do you think about bringing michael mire's

back instead of going with where the third one was so maybe just yeah i'm glad they didn't pick up after the third the third one was a snooze to me i didn't i mean i just wasn't you you saw our opinion or at least mine i was in love with that movie so i'm glad they didn't pick up where three left off because i michael wasn't in it and i i assume a lot of people were like where the f is michael so i i'm glad they did this ditto alicia oartiz let's go she jucks this is one of my favorite entries in the Halloween franchise. I think Danielle Harris has such a great job at such a young age. However, it is one of my least favorite Michael Myers

mask. What do you guys think about the mask in this one compared to the first two movies across your mind? Yeah, I almost said it out loud because it does look so different, but I actually really liked it. It looked so rubber. It just looked floppy. Yeah. I really enjoyed it.

But I think it was easy for other people to replicate it and wear the same one. Totally. Really, you can't see the eyes or anything at all. So I actually loved that. I think that Danielle did a great job and I totally get why this is one of your favorite entries in the Halloween franchise. That ending really like was powerful.

It kind of does remind me though what was the movie in which Cory Feldman Halloween one. Corey Feldman ends up being the killer. Oh, I don't know. No, we watched it together, babe. We did? Yep. He ends up like taking after

it was either Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday 13th is one of those. remember and the kid ends up taking after the you don't remember this at all i might not kids but what does he end up taking after the killer the same way in here this it's the same bait was that was swamp boy yeah i think that's was swamp boy i think maybe yeah with corey fellman right yeah i think yeah and i forgot about that but this ending though was amazing was a stunner and and when i first noticed that she was picking out the clown. I was like,

it took me a minute to get there. And then I was like, dude, that's like freaking Michael. And wow, what a reveal. Bravo. What about the mask? The mask? I didn't mind it.

I did realize the differences. I think of the first one it was like a little tight or less floppy, but maybe it's just showing that like they're sold everywhere. And I don't know if he probably has changed it a couple times, maybe. I don't know.

I didn't mind it, though. Resonance Z. Halloween 4 doesn't have Lori Strode, but do you still feel like the Halloween series is also her series as well as Michael's? I've only recently watched the whole series and even before watching them, it was

synonymous with both Michael Myers and Lori Strode. Well, in all fairness, Halloween, the last Halloween didn't have Michael or Lori. Right. Yeah, I still feel like it's hers. I mean, I guess it depends on where it goes. I'm assuming that she's in the rest of them, but I don't know. Right. I don't know either.

I think that they show that It probably is definitely hers from going from three, which was like, what the hell is that, to bringing her back, at least in a picture, showing us some relatability is going, I think we might carry this on. So I hope we do. I do believe it's definitely hers and Michaels,

and I hope to see them in the next one. Brandon N for Halloween for outside of Michael's mask. Holland 4 is a lot of people didn't like it, or two, is one of my favorite sequels in the franchise. do you feel that Rachel Ellie Cornell is a underrated final girl for her performance in Halloween 4? What do you think, Tara?

I do think that she's underrated. I mean, for me, I'm surprised that people, oh, yeah, sorry, that people aren't like, oh, for Rachel, for Ellie Cornell, sorry, I was blanking and thinking you were obviously talking about the little girl. Her name's not Rachel.

Yeah, I thought she did a good job. I don't know if it was like, stand out, but I believed her. I don't think there was any moment actually where I didn't believe her. I think she was really well written. I agree. The actress did a good job, but also

the beginning of like, is it my sister, not my sister? Like, and she's like, I won't be. And then by the end, she really saves her. I agree. I think she is underrated because we haven't heard. There's not a lot of like talk around her of like Ellie Cornell or like hoeing for Final Girl status because when you said Final Girl, I thought of little sister clown mask knife.

But I haven't heard of her either. Lori Stroke. Exactly. Yeah. So I do think underrated, yes. She did a really good job. She did some stupid things. You know, we see it in every franchise, but like, she didn't clap her hands enough.

We know this. Yeah. But also, like, piggybacked. Set off zero alarms. It set off no alarms. Didn't honk the horn either. At all. Piggy backing on the roof.

Yeah, the weird. Weird move. I am with you on that. Like, what is going on there? Not helpful to anybody. No. And unnecessary. And that's obviously.

a writing thing. Talking to the boyfriend instead of going with the girl and then yelling at the girl for going off. Right. Yeah, whatever, you know. She was pretty good. Jay Rushden, okay, this movie was... Okay, this movie was it scary? And was this nice return of Michael to film there?

I assume you're asking if it was scary and if we liked the return, yes. It wasn't as scary as the other ones. I think there was only one moment that got me versus the other ones. I jumped a lot more i know how i know that's accurate yeah there was no moment for me to really purge you there was no like tension building no i didn't even i wasn't scared really at all of like oh is it gonna come

out i was just like uh this is a it was a fun one uh because i didn't feel like i was like terrified something to jump out at me so i still really liked it and very glad michael returned her rejignation i'll be honest money has always made me anxious if i'm low on money i stress out about how will I make more? And if I actually have money, I stress out about, oh, I'm afraid I'm going to lose all this. That's why I've made a discipline, a real discipline, not just to manage money, but change how I relate to it. And that's where something like Acorns comes in. This, it is today's video, yes, it is today's video sponsor. And Acorn is something that before we ever agreed to work with them before I ever agreed to sign up with them is that we had a testimony from someone

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Obviously. I completely agree with everything you just said. Yeah. Alex Danner. Hi, Shejex. I'm so excited for you both to be on your journey in the Halloween franchise. It was one of my favorites. The Halloween franchise, as it stands today, is very much a choose-your-own-a-venture-type

of franchise with various timelines that are present. The Studios slash John Carpenter's original version for the franchise was for it to be an anthology. With each movie taking place in a random home. Halloween night, which is why part three had nothing to do with Michael Myers. But by that point, he had become the face of the franchise, so the rest of the sequels all came back to be centered around him.

My question is, between Nightmare Friday and Halloween, which of the big slasher franchises have the strongest start in your opinion? My start, do you mean first movie? She must mean that. Like, getting off... Is Alex a girl?

Oh, Alex might be a guy, actually. Who knows? They must have a guy. They they must mean that. Biggest, so the big slasher, Nightmare and Elm Street, Friday the 13th, or Halloween. We loved the first movie of all three of those franchises. We really did. But I feel like this franchise

has been better than the other two overall so far because the other two kind of fell off at times, especially Swamp Boy. I agree. I agree. I think Halloween as like getting right to it as a slasher, had a really good story arc. With him being a fricking cloud, you're like, he killed his frickin' sister, what?

Nightmare on Elm Street, it's such a good start, dude. But Nightmare and Elm Street, whoa, especially when they come through the wall and she's up on the ceiling. Yeah. Beautiful. That was a really good star. We still watched a lot of them with even maybe they up the effect they used CGI,

and I was like, take me back to the first one. This one blows. Not like totally, but I was upset. set at it like the first nightmare brilliant first friday the 13th what happened like exactly in that i can't just we found out about the counselor and then the boy goes in the lake and then remember it the mom yeah and he falls in jason's mom yeah okay yeah yeah yeah yeah that's why i started calling him she didn't want to be in it that the script was awful that's right that she ends up coming up showing up yeah okay that was good too i mean that was good too they all kind of have like a

mysterious like switch up at some point yeah they're all really good starts i think i'm partial to nightmares first one but uh by a small we're talking about specifically the first one but i think to the fact that all Halloween one and Halloween four are both so good yeah this one was so good yeah and not just because the ending but the ending too and it didn't have its main final girl so that's really interesting uh i can't believe how bad i didn't like this franchise without Michael and how much I was still okay with it without Lori I wouldn't have thought I would have been me me too like it wasn't like I was like where are they in three I was we were just sort of like where are they I guess they're not going to show up okay let's focus here

but then we gave her opinion or at least I did I didn't think it was great writing but I didn't I didn't like hate it and so I am glad that Michael is back but I also I'm still loving this film even though Lori Lori wasn't in it. So they did something right there. I'm still a little confused by this that you guys are all telling us. You continue to tell us last episode and this episode that this was an anthology series. So why was Michael in the first two and Lori was the first two? Like if it was supposed to change every year, why do they do the first two movies is that?

You have to know the fans are going to be pissed about that then. Right. That doesn't make any sense. Right. because we cling on to things like the nostalgia. And maybe he just thought, oh, I can do Halloween 2. And then maybe, I wonder, did Halloween 2 do bad? And then they were like, let's get rid of Michael do something brand new.

But I'm with you on that. It should have done something completely different if it was going to be an anthology that still just lands on Halloween night. Also to Alex's comment, I'm kind of confused too on the various timelines. Because I'm like, so the last one was a different timeline. And then, you know, I wonder what the Rob Zombie thing is. Exactly. I feel like, yeah, man, this franchise is like a lot.

Yeah. A lot of different things to keep up with. I agree. I had no idea that Lori was not in this one. Me neither. Except then when I saw her picture and it said, mom, I was like, oh, so we're just going out. She's dead. And unless we missed it, they never addressed what happened 11 months ago with Lori, other than...

No, they... Or who Lori's husband or slash baby daddy was. Right. No. They didn't go into detail on that at all, which maybe I assume they did that on purpose and that's where we going for. But here's what we know. Jamie always does press for the Halloween movies. So we know she's in them.

Still, moving hard. Right. Unless that's a completely different timeline, like they said. Right. But then I'm telling you, Tara, I know, no spoilers, but in the most recent Halloween movie, which is the only one I remember at all, if she's Michael's sister, that went right over my head. Okay. But I feel like they would have mentioned it. Right.

Like, and they hear, they call her the girl his niece. So that was true in this one too. So same time line. It's sister stuff all over. I can't believe she's like her uncle. And she's coming back for the Rob Zombie one, they said. Oh, right. They said she makes an appearance or she's back.

Yeah. Which I assume it might be like an Easter egg appearance, not like as the psycho niece. But if she is a psychon niece, I'm here for it. Sign me up. What a reveal. Best ending ever. Thank you, Patreon. Patrons for those Patreon questions.

We appreciate you guys so much, and they really, like, it means a lot to us that you guys care about. Our thoughts on specific things. Your questions are always so great. We love you sending in questions. Thank you. Tara, I'll ask you, this is there anything that you wanted to mention that you didn't get to talk about in these questions since we did love this movie? I would say that I did love all the practical effects, starting in the beginning when I was like, oh, it's a cool explosion. The car blew up and then it flipped over.

Cool. Great practical effects when he rips the neck off. That looked nars. early as hell that looks so good and really good stunts those guys flew off the back of that moving truck that was a rolling shot we were there I was like that looks

like a great stunt so I liked all the practicality that they used in this that they used in the old school movies but it all looked really good and on the opposite side of that I feel like you that's typically what you entices you in a movie I always it's about the score and the music and the sounds

there was a little bit of it wonky ADR throughout but it is the 80s so I don't really care Right. The fact that John Carbender continues to, like, surprise and move the story forward, I just think that this score is brilliant. Yeah. And it screams, spooky, Halloween, like, you know what's happening. And the fact that even at the end, we're surprised because that's Michael's song.

Yeah. That's Michael's sound. Totally. And then it's her, it's like, that's how much of a character the score is. Totally. Because it's like, we knew those holes, that sound, that's Michael's. And it's like, oh, yeah, I agree. Especially when you come in, we missed that in the last one.

But when it comes in with that, dunna, dunna, dunna, you're like, yes. And we didn't get that. Bring it on. Yeah, I just think that one, two, and one to, one to, one was amazing. Two, we were like, huh, we wished that there was a three to two. Right. Which I'm wondering if we'll get in the future.

And then four was amazing again. Four amazing. So. For that ending, man. Do you prefer one to four? I think I still do because I really liked just the there was a lot more surprises and more jump scares in that I think so I think I do still prefer one over four but it's close and I will say that the ending in four really makes it for me like it was still a fun ride but what that is obviously the thumbnail is being you at the end I mean clearly It shook. Shooketh to the core.

I want you guys to remember something, too, though. If you walk away from us watching the Halloween franchise with one thing. Yeah. It is. Alarm. Honk the horn. If you're strangled and you know it. Clap your hands.

Clap your hands. Alarm. Plan B. Plan C. Horn. Run out. And if you don't feel like that's on you. Yeah, run by the slasher as quick as you can. get out the door find a car break into it

start honking the horn that is like our pall of this franchise it totally is Tommy like if you guys haven't if you guys are just joining us for Halloween 4 you need to go back so you're on the inside of of this especially if you continue with us because I guarantee it's going to keep coming up it's she's a ganon and you want to be part of it

yeah you don't want to be on the outside otherwise you're like this is an inside joke at this point Tara and I have so many inside jokes. So many. And I'm obsessed. I read every comment, as you guys know. I'm obsessed with all you guys whenever Paul comes up and you're like, I was waiting for Tomi to come back. And like, it's just amazing.

So good. And on our last video, people kept commenting, clap your hands. Like, dude, bring it back. It's so good. I'll just never forget thinking every first of a minute. I mean, you calling me out being like, what? What? It made perfect sense.

This rocks yourself, the best class, everybody. Clap your hands. And on that note, later, rejects. Want to know what life on the tennis tour is really like? We're here to give you all of the dates. From our most chaotic travel days to our late night laughs, we're pulling back the curtain on the stories you've never heard. This is the Players Box, hosted by me, Madison Keys, Jessica Baguola, Jenny Brady, and Desiree Crabcheck.

We're taking our conversation out of the group chat and into the podcast so you can have an all-access pass. We'll talk Breaking Tennis News, behind the scenes, our hot takes, and everything you don't see. We'll even let you sit in our Players' Box with us by answering your real-time questions right on the podcast. So listen now to the Players' Box on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your players' box. podcasts and watch us on YouTube.