Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 horror film directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. It is the fourth installment of the Halloween film series and focuses on Michael Myers (Jonathan L. Dee) returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the daughter of Laurie Strode, with Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) once more pursuing him.

As the title suggests, this film marks the return of Michael Myers after being absent in the previous installment, Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Initially, John Carpenter and co-producer Debra Hill retired the Michael Myers storyline 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—Halloween 4 was originally intended to be a ghost story.

However, due to the disappointing financial performance of the third film, Halloween 4 reintroduced Michael Myers.

Plot[]

Michael Myers has been in a coma for ten years since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and is being transferred to Smith's Grove Sanitarium via ambulance. Upon hearing that he has a niece, Michael awakens, kills the paramedics, and makes his way to Haddonfield to look for her. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael's former psychiatrist, who also survived the explosion, learns of Michael's escape and gives chase. He follows Michael to a small gas station and eatery, where Loomis finds Michael has killed a mechanic for his clothes, along with a clerk. Michael then escapes in a tow truck and causes an explosion, destroying Loomis's car in the process. Loomis catches a ride to Haddonfield to renew his search for Michael.

Meanwhile, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the orphaned daughter of Laurie Strode and Michael's niece, is living in Haddonfield with her foster family, Richard and Darlene Carruthers, and their teenage daughter, Rachel. It is Halloween and Jamie's foster parents, Richard and Darlene, are heading out for the night and Rachel (Ellie Cornell) is left to baby-sit her, causing her to miss her date with her boyfriend Brady (Sasha Jenson). Jamie knows about her uncle Michael, but she is unaware he is the strange man she has been having nightmares about. After school, Rachel takes Jamie to buy ice cream and a Halloween costume. Ironically, Jamie picks out a clown costume and as she holds it against herself while looking into a mirror she imagines her Uncle Michael (Erik Preston as young Michael Myers was uncredited) on October 31, 1963 holding a butcher knife and wearing a bloody clown costume shortly after having murdered her Aunt Judith Myers. However, Michael has already arrived in Haddonfield, and almost attacks Jamie in the store. Regardless, Rachel purchases the clown costume for Jamie. That night, Rachel takes Jamie trick-or-treating, and Michael goes to the electrical substation and murders a worker by throwing him into live high voltage parts, plunging the town into darkness. Dr. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and teams up with Ben Meeker (Beau Starr), the new sheriff, whom he warns about Michael's escape and return. 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 (Kathleen Kinmont), and loses Jamie. After being chased by Myers, Rachel reunites with Jamie. Sheriff Meeker and Dr. Loomis arrive and take the girls 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 and undetected. 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 crushing his skull, 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. Being pursued by Michael, Jamie runs down the street, screaming for help and runs into Dr. Loomis. They take shelter in the school, but Michael appears and throws Loomis through a glass door before chasing Jamie through the school. Jamie trips and falls down a flight of stairs. Before Michael can kill his niece, Rachel appears, alive, and sprays him in the face with a fire extinguisher.

The lynch mob and the state police arrive at the school after hearing the alarm. 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 Michael off. She succeeds in doing so and saying "Die, you son of a bitch!", 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.

The next scene has some eerie similarities to the events of what happened on Halloween night of 1963 when Michael murdered Judith Myers. The films ending starts with Jamie and Rachel having been taken home and Darlene and Richard-who have arrived home-console their traumatized children. Darlene goes upstairs to run Jamie a bath, and Jamie, overwhelmed by Michael's essence, dons a clown mask and stabs her stepmother with a pair of scissors, though not fatally. It ends with Jamie standing at the top of the stairs with the scissors in her hand and stained with blood, with Dr. Loomis screaming as Richard, Rachel and Sheriff Meeker stare in horror.

Cast[]

Donald Pleasence as Dr. Samuel Loomis
Jonathan L. Dee as Michael Myers
Danielle Harris as Jamie Lloyd
Ellie Cornell as Rachel Carruthers
Michael Pataki as Dr. Hoffman
Beau Starr as Sheriff Ben Meeker
Sasha Jenson as Brady
Leslie L. Rohland as Lindsey
Kathleen Kinmont as Kelly Meeker
Gene Ross as Earl Ford
Carmen Filpi as Rev. Jackson P. Sayer
Raymond O'Connor as Security Guard
Jeff Olson as Richard Carruthers
Karen Alston as Darlene Carruthers
Alan B. McElroy as State Trooper at Ambulance Crash Site (uncredited)
Erik Preston as young Michael Myers (uncredited)

Movie production[]

After Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Moustapha Akkad wanted to move further with the series, 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?"

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.

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. 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."

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." As Carpenter refused to continue his involvement with the series, a new director was sought out. Dwight H. Little, a native of Ohio, replaced Carpenter. Little had previously directed episodes for the film Bloodstone.

Writing[]

On February 25, 1988, writer Alan B. McElroy, a Cleveland, Ohio native, was brought in to the write the script for Halloween 4. 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, a homage to Laurie Strode actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

"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, I got completely blitzed and saw it, and I 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."

— McElroy speaking to Fangoria

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. 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 Kelly Meeker. In addition, in the finale, Jamie was originally intended to have murdered her foster mother, Darlene Carruthers, while drawing the bath, and become evil. This idea was rejected for Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989).

Casting[]

The cast of Halloween 4 included only two actors from the first two films, Donald Pleasence, who reprised his role as Samuel Loomis, Michael Myers' psychiatrist. Akkad approached Jonathan L. Dee to return as Michael Myers and the actor was willing. He had gained further success playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare On Elm Street series and was happy to return.

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: 10/31/98 and Halloween: The Thorn ten years later. 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. Up against her was Danielle Harris, who had previously starred in One Life to Live as Samantha Garretson. Rebecca Schaeffer 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 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.

Filming[]

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. As filming was taking place in March, 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."

Jonathan L. Dee, who had returned to play Michael Myers, almost immediately took a disliking with Little's directing style and ideas for the character. Rather than film his eyes (which Dee considered an important element to Michael), Little preferred to hide them and use lighting to highlight the white of the mask. During filming, at Dee's insistence, 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, Dee 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. Dee later admitted he was very uncomfortable with the idea of Michael attempting to murder a child and was one of the reasons he didn't return for the next two sequels.

"I didn't like the fact that what little humanity there was in Michael would be erased by the director. And trying to kill a child...? I understand that Freddy is a child killer but in the movies you never saw that. He was killing teenagers. The only children in the film were props used by Freddy to instill fear during the nightmare sequences. I just had no interest in that after Halloween 4."

— Jonathan L. Dee on his rejection of Halloween 5 & 6

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.

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.

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 make-up artist John Carl Buechler (director of Friday the 13th: The Resurrection of Jason Voorhees) was brought in to create the thumb in the forehead kill and neck-twisting of the redneck seen in the film's final cut.

Music[]

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". The soundtrack was released to Compact Disc on September 28, 1988.

Release[]

Reception[]

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. The film received mixed critical reception. It currently has a score of 43 on Metacritic, which indicates mixed or average reviews; on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "rotten" score of just 29% based on 24 reviews.

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.

Home video[]

The film was first released on VHS in May 1989 as a rental title by CBS/FOX home entertainment. It was made available for sell-through in October 1989 to coincide with the theatrical release of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

In 1999, Anchor Bay Entertainment released special 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 a Blu-ray, restored standard DVD and extended television cut of Halloween, was released with the first disc of the documentary, Halloween: 25 Years of Terror, and The Shape's mask in 2008 in a limited 30th anniversary box set of the first film.

The film was released on Blu-ray in Germany on May 4, 2012, in the US on August 21, 2012, in the UK on October 15, 2012 and in the Australia on October 2, 2013. Australia Blu-Ray Release Extras are a commentary with Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell and Halloween 4/5 panel and theatrical trailer. and The DVD Release Has an Extra commentary by Alan B. McElroy and Anthony Masi.

-DVD Releases-

DVD name	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4	DVD Special Features
Halloween 4	N/A	N/A	15 July 2004	Theatrical Trailer Short Film - "Cut"
Halloween 4: Special Edition		N/A	2 October 2013	Commentary with Film makers and Actors Halloween 4/5 Panel Halloween 4: Final Cut (US Release Only) Theatrical Trailer

-Blu-ray Release-

Blu-ray name	Region A	Region B	Region B	DVD Special Features
Halloween 4	21 August 2012	4 May 2012	2 October 2013	Commentary With Writer Alan B. McElroy and Anthony Masi (US Release Only) Commentary With Actors Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell Halloween 4/5 Panel Halloween 4: Final Cut (US Release Only) Theatrical Trailer
Halloween 4 (Complete Collection Box Set)	23 September 2013	N/A	N/A	Commentary With Director Dwight H. Little and Author Justin Beahm Commentary With Actors Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell Theatrical Trailer
Bonus Disc (Complete Collection Box Set)	23 September 2013	N/A	N/A	The Making Of Halloween 4 (NEW) Halloween 4: Final Cut Halloween 4: Horror's Hallowed Grounds Episode (NEW) Halloween 4: Photo Gallery (NEW)

Note Missing Bonus Special Features Not on the Complete Collection Box Set.
Halloween 4/5 Panel
Halloween 4 Commentary With Writer Alan B. McElroy and Anthony Masi

Novelization[]

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.

In popular culture[]

In the 1997 Steven Spielberg film The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the VHS versions of Halloween 4 and 5 are seen in a video store during the scene where the Tyrannosaurus is running loose in San Diego.
In the South Park episode "A Nightmare on Face Time", Randy breaks into the bedroom of two girls watching Halloween 4 on Netflix.

References[]

External links[]

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