| Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Dwight H. Little |
| Produced by | Moustapha Akkad Paul Freeman |
| Screenplay by | Alan B. McElroy |
| Story by | Alan B. McElroy Danny Lipsius Larry Rattner Benjamin Ruffner |
| Starring | Donald Pleasence Ellie Cornell Danielle Harris Michael Pataki Sasha Jenson |
| Music by | Alan Howarth John Carpenter (Theme) |
| Cinematography | Peter Lyons Collister |
| Editing by | Curtiss Clayton |
| Studio | Trancas International Films |
| Distributed by | Galaxy International Releasing |
| Release date(s) | October 21, 1988 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000[1] |
| Box office | $17,768,757 |
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 slasher film and the fourth installment of the Halloween film series, directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the daughter of Laurie Strode, with Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) once more pursuing him.[2]
As the title suggests, this film marks the return of Michael Myers, the central villain of Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981), due to his absence in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). Initially, John Carpenter and co-producer Debra Hill retired the Myers plot outline after the second installment of the series, intending to feature a new Halloween-season related plot every sequel, of which Halloween III would be the first. However, due to the lack of success of the third film, Halloween 4 reintroduced a Myers-related plot.
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Michael Myers, who survived the explosion at the end of Halloween II and has been in a coma since, escapes while being transferred from one sanitarium to another, killing the driver and paramedics inside the ambulance in which he is riding. Prior to escaping, Michael learns that his niece, Jamie Lloyd is still alive in Haddonfield, Illinois. Dr. Samuel Loomis, Michael's old psychiatrist, who also survived the explosion 10 years earlier, learns of Michael's escape and resumes his pursuit to try to stop his murderous patient. He follows Michael to a small gas station and eatery, where Loomis learns Michael has killed a mechanic for his clothes, along with a clerk. Michael then escapes in a tow truck and causes a small explosion, destroying Loomis's car in the process. Loomis is then forced to hitchhike to Haddonfield.
Meanwhile, in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois, 7-year old Jamie Lloyd is living with her foster family - The Carruthers - with her foster mother and father and her teenage foster sister Rachel. It is Halloween and Jamie's foster parents, Richard and Darlene, are heading out for the night and Rachel is forced to babysit - causing her to miss her date with her boyfriend Brady. Jamie does not know about her uncle, Michael Myers, and also is unaware her uncle is the strange man she has been having nightmares about. After school, Rachel takes Jamie to buy a Halloween costume and Michael has already arrived to Haddonfield, and almost attacks Jamie in the costume store. That night, Rachel and Jamie go trick-or-treating and Michael goes to the power plant and murders a worker by throwing him onto the electrical box, plunging the town into darkness. Dr. Loomis arrives in town and joins forces with the Sheriff of Haddonfield, Sheriff Meeker. Michael single-handedly takes down a police station and slaughters the police force; later, a group of men form a lynch mob to hunt down Myers.
Rachel discovers her boyfriend Brady cheating on her with the Sheriff's daughter, Kelly, and loses Jamie. After being chased by Myers, Rachel meets up with Jamie and both are found by the Sheriff and Dr. Loomis who warns them about Michael. They take Rachel and Jamie to Sheriff Meeker's house with Kelly and Brady, and a deputy. They lock and board up the house, and Loomis departs to look for Michael. With Meeker in the basement awaiting the arrival of the state police, Michael enters the house quietly, undetected by everyone in it and begins to murder everyone. He kills a deputy off-screen, and then murders Kelly by impaling her with a shotgun. Rachel discovers the carnage, and races upstairs to get Jamie, but she is gone. Brady and Rachel realize they are trapped in the house, and Rachel finds Jamie. Michael appears and struggles with Brady, before breaking his neck and killing him. Michael then chases Rachel and Jamie up to the attic. They climb through a window onto the roof and Jamie is lowered down safely, but Michael attacks Rachel and knocks her off the roof. Jamie has little time to mourn, because Michael begins pursuing Jamie. She runs down the street, screaming for help and runs into Dr. Loomis; they take shelter in the school. Michael follows them, throws Loomis through a glass door, and then goes after Jamie. He chases her through the school and running in a panic, Jamie trips and falls down a flight of stairs. Michael is just about to kill his helpless niece, when Rachel appears, alive, and sprays Michael in the face with a fire extinguisher.
The lynch mob and the state police arrive at the school after hearing the alarm and four men from the mob agree to take Jamie and Rachel over to the next town in a pick-up truck. Michael has hidden on the underside of the truck; he climbs into the bed of the truck and kills the men, including the driver. Rachel is forced to drive, continuously attempting to throw the killer off. She succeeds in doing so, and finally rams him with the truck, sending him flying into a ditch near an abandoned mine. The police arrive and as Jamie approaches Michael and touches his hand, he rises. The police shoot Michael until he falls down the abandoned mine and is presumed dead.
Jamie and Rachel are taken home and Darlene and Richard - who have arrived home - console their traumatized children. Darlene goes upstairs to run Jamie a bath, and Jamie dons a clown mask and stabs her foster mother with a pair of scissors (much like young Michael Myers). Jamie apparently was possessed by Michael when she touched his hand. The film ends with Jamie standing at the top of the stairs with the scissors in her hand, covered in blood, with Dr. Loomis screaming "NO!" as Richard, Rachel and Sheriff Meeker stare in terror.
After the movie Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Moustapha Akkad wanted to move further with the franchise and bring back Michael Myers. According to producer Paul Freeman, a friend of Akkad with a long list of credits to his name, explained to Fangoria magazine in 1988, everybody came out of Halloween III saying, "Where's Michael?"[3] John Carpenter was approached by Cannon Films, who had just finished 1986's release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, to write and direct Halloween 4. Debra Hill planned to produce the film, while Carpenter teamed up with Dennis Etchison who, under the pseudonym Jack Martin, had written novelizations of both Halloween II (1981) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) to write a script to Halloween 4.
| "Halloween was banned in Haddonfield and I think that the basic idea was that if you tried to suppress something, it would only rear its head more strongly. By the very [attempt] of trying to erase the memory of Michael Myers, [the teenagers] were going to ironically bring him back into existence." |
| — Dennis Etchison on his idea for Halloween 4 .[4] |
However, Akkad rejected the Etchison script, calling it "too cerebral" and insisting that any new Halloween sequel must feature Myers as a flesh and blood killer.[5] In an interview, Etchison explained how he received the phone call informing him of the rejection of his script. Etchison said, "I received a call from Debra Hill and she said, 'Dennis, I just wanted you to know that John and I have sold our interest in the title 'Halloween' and unfortunately, your script was not part of the deal."[4]
Carpenter and Hill had signed all of their rights away to Akkad, who gained ownership. Akkad says, "I just went back to the basics of Halloween on Halloween 4 and it was the most successful."[6] As Carpenter refused to continue his involvement with the series, a new director was sought out. Dwight H. Little, a native from Ohio, replaced Carpenter. Little had previously directed episodes for Freddy's Nightmares and the film Bloodstone.
On February 25, 1988, a writer—Alan B. McElroy, a native from Cleveland, Ohio—was brought in to the write the script for Halloween 4.[7] The writer's strike was to begin on March 7, 1988. This forced McElroy to develop a concept, pitch the story, and send in the final draft in under eleven days. McElroy came up with the idea of Brittany "Britti" Lloyd, Laurie Strode's daughter, to be chased by her uncle, who has escaped from Ridgemont after being in a coma for ten years. Dr. Samuel Loomis, who has also survived the fiery explosion at the end of Halloween II, goes looking for Michael with Sheriff Meeker. The setting of the place was once again Haddonfield, Illinois. The character of Laurie Strode was revealed to have died in a car accident, leaving Britti with the Carruthers family, which included Rachel, the family's seventeen-year-old daughter. Britti's name was later changed to Jamie, an homage to Laurie Strode actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
McElroy told Fangoria: ""When I first saw the original, I was dating a girl and took her to a theater in Boston to see it. We were the only ones in the place, but she was climbing all over me. When Halloween II came out, a group of friends and I got completely blitzed and saw it, and we had the best time. So when the director, Dwight Little, asked me to write the script, I jumped at the chance. Here I was going to bring the Shape — Michael Myers — back to life. It's a piece of film history. He's truly an icon."[7]
In the original draft, Sheriff Ben Meeker was to be killed during the Shape's attack on the Meeker house. A fire would have started in the basement and burnt down the entire house. The scene on top of the roof with the Shape, Rachel, and Jamie was supposed to be engulfed in flames. This was cut due to budget issues.[8] A more "soap opera" feel was added to the film, which included the triangle of the teenagers and their relationship situations. Rachel is dating Brady, who is also having sex with the buxom blonde Kelly Meeker. In addition, in the finale, Jamie was originally intended to have murdered her stepmother, Darlene Carruthers while drawing the bath, and become evil. This idea was rejected for Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989).
The cast of Halloween 4 only included one veteran actor from the original film and its sequel; Donald Pleasence, who reprised his role as Samuel Loomis, Michael Myers' psychiatrist. Before McElroy's script was chosen, the producers asked Jamie Lee Curtis to reprise her role as Laurie Strode, the original's heroine. Curtis had become a success in the film industry and had established a career with her roles in films like Trading Places (1983) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988). Curtis declined and did not want to continue her participation in the film, although she did return for Halloween: H20 (1998). As a result, her character was written out and supposedly died in a car accident, which is briefly explained in the film.
The script introduced Laurie Strode's seven-year-old daughter, Jamie Lloyd. Melissa Joan Hart had auditioned for the role, among various other girls.[9] Up against her was Danielle Harris, who had previously starred in One Life to Live as Samantha Garretson. Rebecca Shaeffer had auditioned for the role of Rachel Carruthers, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Twenty-four-year-old Ellie Cornell had also auditioned. Cornell had chosen to audition for Halloween 4 and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) as the role of Kristen Parker, after Patricia Arquette had declined to return as Kristen. Cornell chose Halloween 4 and had successfully landed the role of Rachel. Beau Starr was cast as the new Sheriff, Ben Meeker, replacing Sheriff Lee Brackett (Charles Cyphers), and Kathleen Kinmont was cast as the Sheriff's daughter, Kelly. George P. Wilbur was cast to play Michael Myers.
Principal photography began on April 11, 1988. Instead of filming in Pasadena, California (the original filming location and stand in for Haddonfield) due to high-rising costs, filming took place in Salt Lake City, Utah.[7] As filming was taking place in March,[7] during springtime, the producers were forced to import leaves and big squash, which they would use to create pumpkins by painting them orange, which was also done during the filming of the original Halloween. "One of the obvious challenges in making a part four of anything is to interest a contemporary audience in old characters and themes" said director Dwight H. Little. "What I'm trying to do is capture the mood of the original Halloween and yet take a lot of new chances. What we're attempting to do is walk a fine line between horror and mystery. Halloween 4 will not be an ax-in-the-forehead kind of movie." Paul Freeman agreed. "This film does contain some humorous moments, but it's not of the spoof or send-up variety. It's humor that rises out of the film's situations and quickly turns back into terror."[3]
George P. Wilbur, who was cast as Michael Myers for this film, wore hockey pads under the costume to make himself look more physically imposing. During filming, the cast and crew made it a point to take it easy on Danielle Harris, as she was only a young child at the time, and made sure that she was not scared too badly and knew that none of it was real; to this end, Wilbur regularly removed the mask in front of her in order to remind her that it was just a movie and he was not going to hurt her.[10]
The late night scenes caused issues with the cast. Garlan Wilde, a gaffer for the film, was injured during the scene between Brady and the Shape when he dropped a light and accidentally slit his wrists. He was rushed to the hospital. In addition, while filming the rooftop scene, Ellie Cornell cut her stomach open on a large nail while sliding down the roof, though she continued filming the scene despite losing a sizable amount of blood. During most of the night scenes, Donald Pleasence became so cold that he wore a hat for most of the scenes, unbeknownst to the crew. This caused over six hours of footage to be re-shot. The shoot lasted about 41 days and Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris were required to be on set for 36 of those days.[9]
During filming it was considered that the customized 1975 Captain Kirk mask be reused for this film. However, the mask was long gone and a new one was purchased from a local costume shop. The producers wanted to test and see what it would look like without the edits. The school scene was filmed and when reviewing the producers did not like how the mask turned out. It was allegedly customized again but did not live up to the original and the producers felt it was too old and went for a new mask. Some scenes had to be re-shot with the new mask. The only scene left in is when Loomis is thrown through a glass door; as Michael comes up behind him, the unaltered face and blonde hair is visible.[11]
After viewing the film's rough cut, director Dwight H. Little and producer Moustapha Akkad decided that the film's violence was too soft, and so an extra day of "blood filming" commenced. Special effects makeup artist John Carl Buechler was brought in to create the thumb in the forehead kill and neck-twisting of the redneck seen in the film's final cut.
The score was performed by Alan Howarth, who had assisted John Carpenter on Halloween II and Halloween III. Howarth gained approval from Dwight H. Little before he could accept the offer, creating a new score that referenced the original's but with a synthesizer twist. Howarth also included new tracks such as "Jamie's Nightmare", "Return of the Shape", and "Police Station."
Halloween 4 opened in 1,679 theaters on October 21, 1988, and grossed $6,831,250 in its opening weekend achieving a total domestic gross of $17,768,757 in the United States, becoming the fifth best performing film in the Halloween series.[12] The film has received a mixed to negative critical reception. It currently has a score of 43 on Metacritic, which indicates mixed or average reviews, placing it higher than Halloween II; on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "rotten" score with only 23%.
Halloween 4 was nominated for two Saturn Awards by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for Best Horror Film and Best Writing in 1990.[13] In the 1997 Steven Speilberg film The Lost World Jurassic Park, the VHS versions of Halloween 4 and Halloween 5 are are seen in a blockbuster video store during the scene where the Tyrannosaurus is running loose in San Diego
The film was first released on VHS in May, 1989 as a rental title. It became for "SALE" in October 1989 to coincide with the release of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. In 1999, Anchor Bay's company, Divimax, released transferred, better-quality editions of this film and its sequel for DVD. Supplements include the Halloween 4/5 Panel at the Return to Haddonfield convention, theatrical trailer, Halloween 4 Final Cut – a "behind-the-scenes" documentary, a commentary with Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell, and another commentary by Alan B. McElroy and Anthony Masi. Halloween 4, along with Halloween 5, and Halloween, was released with the documentary, Halloween: 25 Years of Terror, and The Shape's mask in 2008 in the limited 30th anniversary box set of the first film.
To tie in with the film's release, a novelization by Nicholas Grabowsky was published, containing 224 pages. The novel closely follows the film's events, with a few alterations. In 2003, the novel was re-issued with new material and cover art, titled "Halloween IV: the Special Limited Edition".
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