"The mask doesn't look right."

That's the sound of me watching every Halloween sequel. And with the re-release of Halloween 4 on Blu-ray Disc, I'm saying it again.

Halloween 4 takes place 10 years after the events seen in Halloween and Halloween II. Against the wishes of Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael Myers is moved from the high security hospital to another facility. During the transfer, Myers learns that he has a niece and escapes. Sensing that danger is afoot, Loomis follows Myers to Haddonfield, his old hometown.

Meanwhile in Haddonfield, we learn that Laurie Strode (the Jamie Lee Curtis character from the original film) has died in an auto accident and that her daughter, Jamie (Danielle Harris), has been adopted by the Carruthers family. On Halloween night, Jamie's step-sister, Rachel (Ellie Cornell), take her trick-or-treating. On that same night, Michael Myers begins his reign of terror on the town. Loomis is able to convince Sheriff Meeker (Beau Starr) that both Jamie and all of Haddonfield may be in danger, so they take to the streets to find the child. Once Jamie and Rachel are located, they are taken to Meeker's house for safety. But can Jamie ever be safe from a seemingly unstoppable killer who is determined to kill every member of his family?

OK, let's go ahead and get the obvious argument out of the way -- Halloween 4 is a totally unnecessary sequel. Halloween II (which was, in its own way, an unnecessary sequel) had nicely wrapped up the Michael Myers--Laurie Strode--Dr. Loomis storyline. Plain and simple, Halloween 4 was made for the money. In many ways, I consider this movie the start of a new series which is totally separate from the films in which John Carpenter was directly related.

In some ways, Halloween 4 is a toss up. If this movie was not a sequel to Halloween and was a free-standing film, then most of it could be considered at least mediocre. The movie is fairly well shot and the acting, for a low-budget horror film, is above par.

However, when watching Halloween 4, one can't help but compare it to Halloween, and in that sense, Halloween 4 is a pretty bad movie. I can't believe that it took four people come up with the limited story in this movie. For starters, it's ludicrous to think that Myers and Loomis survived the explosion and fire at the end of Halloween II. If one can get past that, then there's the idea that after ten years of being strapped to a bed that Michael Myers could get up and walk. (And as Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell point out in the commentary, why is his face still bandaged?) The idea that Michael would be pursuing his niece isn't necessarily a bad one, but again, we must buy the idea that, for some reason, he wants to wipe out anyone related to him.

To be fair, the first half of Halloween 4 isn't all that bad. When the Halloween theme first plays, it's nearly impossible to not get jazzed about the movie. But, the second half is a real snoozer. After being introduced to a group of fairly boring and banal characters, we are treated to a standoff in Meeker's house. These scenes are meant to reproduce the scenes from Halloween where Michael Myers is stalking Laurie and Nancy. However, the story puts so much focus on the other characters that we nearly forget about Myers. And, most likely in response to the films that came between 1978 and 1988, the movie puts too much emphasis on the elaborate kills. Halloween 4 then totally falls apart in the last 20 minutes, as Michael Myers ability to seemingly be everywhere at once goes from being a creepy idea to a fact, as he appears in places where he logically couldn't be. As for the twist ending, it's a good idea, but it's simply not satisfying.

Let me set the picture for you. It was October, 1988, and I, a die-hard Halloween fan, attended a midnight screening of Halloween 4 on opening night. I really wanted to like the film, but it just couldn't hold a candle to the original. (But, for some reason, I saw it twice in theater.) I've read comments from many fans who seem to love this film, and I have to assume that arises from the fact that they were simply desperate to see Michael Myers in action again. The best thing that I can say about Halloween 4 is that it's better than the two films which follow it, but I can't recommend it. And you know what, the mask doesn't look right!

Halloween 4 slashes its way onto Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. The image is fairly sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain in most scenes (although the grain does increase from time to time). We also get some very minor defects from the source material, such as black dots. The warm colors look pretty good, although they are slightly washed out at times, and the image is never overly dark or bright. Halloween 4 does have a low-budget look to it at times and this results in a image which is nicely detailed, but somewhat flat. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 1.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. As one would hope, the familiar Halloween music sounds fine and often provide nice bass. The stereo and surround sound effects are noticeable, but they aren't as detailed as I would like. Thunder and gunshots fill the speakers, but the wash over us instead of containing individual noises.

The Halloween 4 Blu-ray Disc features only three extras. We begin with a new AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Dwight H. Little and Justin Beahm of Halloweenmovies.com. This is followed by a second COMMENTARY from Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris, which was carried over from the last DVD release. Also taken from that release is "Halloween 4/5 Discussion Panel" (18 minutes) which is taken from the 2003 "H25" Convention. Harris, Kathleen Kinmont, Sasha Jenson, and Jeffrey Landman answer questions about the movies from the moderator and audience members. The final extra is the THEATRICAL TRAILER for the film. While a few elements are ported over from the DVD, the Blu-ray Disc is curiously missing an audio commentary from screenwriter Alan B. McElory and a 17-minute "making of" featurette. As Anchor Bay was behind both projects, one has to wonder why these extras were left off.