10) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

The “return” in the title of this tepid 1988 entry refers to the fact that the third Halloween movie did away entirely with the Shatner-masked villain. But as advertised, he’s back for some repeat business in this one, which picks up 10 years after the fateful night chronicled in Halloween and Halloween II. It also refers to Michael’s journey home to Haddonfield, Illinois, which he easily achieves despite being doped up and restrained as part of an ill-advised October 31 psychiatric inmate transfer. His target this time: Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the young daughter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, glimpsed only in photographs; her character is explained to have died in a car crash a year prior), who’s been taken in by a new family including the teenaged Rachel (Ellie Cornell).

There’s really not much that’s remarkable about Halloween 4 as far as style or story goes (director Dwight H. Little’s other feature credits include another not-great sequel: Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid), and one can sense that returning star Donald Pleasence, who plays the weary, Michael-obsessed Dr. Loomis, might have some regrets that his character survived the inferno at the end of Halloween II. The film tries to pass the torch from Michael to Jamie in its final scenes, and while the little girl’s creepy clown Halloween costume is a nice homage, it all feels a little too obvious. The idea that Haddonfield’s resident good ol’ boys would leap off their barstools to organize an anti-Michael vigilante posse, however, is actually a pretty clever one.