Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 American slasher film directed by Dwight H. Little, written by Alan B. McElroy, and starring Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, and Danielle Harris in her film debut. It is the fourth entry in the Halloween franchise and marks the return of Michael Myers, as the primary antagonist, after his absence in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), a standalone film.

Initially, John Carpenter and co-producer Debra Hill intended to create an anthology series, with only the first two films being connected. Halloween 4 was originally intended to be a ghost story, but after the poor reception of Halloween III, the idea was abandoned.

Halloween 4 released in the United States on October 21, 1988. Despite mostly negative reviews from critics, the film grossed $17.8 million domestically on a budget of $5 million. It has developed a strong cult following since its release and has enjoyed positive reappraisals in the years since its release.

The film begins the "Thorn Trilogy" story arc which would be continued in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995).

In 1998, the franchise did a soft reboot with the release of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, which serves as a direct sequel to Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) and thereby ignores the events, themes and new characters introduced in the Thorn Trilogy story arc.

Plot
On October 30, 1988, Michael Myers, who has been comatose for ten years since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, is being transferred from Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium to Smith's Grove Sanitarium. During the transfer, when Michael overhears that he has a niece living in Haddonfield, he awakens, kills the ambulance personnel and heads back to his hometown to kill her. Dr. Loomis, who also survived the explosion, learns of Michael's escape and gives chase once again.

Loomis follows Michael to a gas station and diner, where Michael has killed a mechanic for his coveralls, along with a female clerk. Michael escapes in a tow truck, hitting the gas pumps causing an explosion, destroying Loomis's car in the process given by Ridgemont and disabling the phone lines. Loomis continues to pursue Michael on foot. Loomis then hitches a ride with a priest in a pick-up truck.

In Haddonfield, Laurie's daughter Jamie Lloyd suffers from nightmares about The Shape and is bullied at school for being the niece of "the boogeyman." On Halloween night, her foster parents Richard and Darlene go to a party and leave their teenage daughter Rachel to babysit, forcing her to cancel a date with her boyfriend Brady. Rachel picks Jamie up after school to buy ice cream and a Halloween costume. Jamie decides on a clown costume when Michael suddenly appears to steal a new mask. He goes after his niece but flees when she screams in horror.

That night, as Rachel and Jamie are trick-or-treating, Michael breaks into the Carruthers' house and kills the family dog. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and warns the new sheriff, Ben Meeker, that Michael has returned. As they search for the girls, At the power station Michael throws an electrine worker into a transformer, plunging the entire town into darkness. He proceeds to kill most of the town's police force, prompting the locals to form a lynch mob.

Meeker and Loomis find Rachel and Jamie and take them to the sheriff's house, where Brady is having an affair with Meeker's daughter Kelly. They barricade the premises as Loomis departs to find Michael, who has already snuck into the house. The lynch mob accidentally killed a teenager who they thought it was Michael. After Meeker leaves to respond the shooting Michael kills Brady, Kelly, and a deputy as Rachel and Jamie flee to the attic and onto the roof. Rachel lowers Jamie down to safety but is attacked by Michael, falling to the ground and losing consciousness.

Pursued by Michael, Jamie runs down the street and runs into Loomis. They seek shelter at the school, but Michael finds them and tosses Loomis through a glass door. He chases Jamie through the school, until she falls down a flight of stairs, Michael prepares to kill her when Rachel reappears and subdues him with a fire extinguisher. The lynch mob arrives and agrees to help the girls get out of Haddonfield. Along the way they meet a lone trooper who tells them there's a substation up the road where they'll be safe. Michael, who has been hidden underneath their truck, climbs aboard and kills the men Including Earl. Rachel takes the wheel, throws Michael off the truck, and rams into him. Meeker and Loomis arrive with the rest of lynch mob and the state police, while Jamie approaches her uncle and touches his hand. As he rises, Meeker and the others shoot him until he falls down an abandoned mine.

Back at the Carruthers' house, Darlene goes upstairs to run a bath for Jamie when she is suddenly attacked. Loomis hears her cries and sees Jamie in her clown costume holding a pair of bloody scissors, reminiscent of when Michael killed his older sister. Rachel, Richard, and Meeker look on in horror as Loomis sobs, realizing that the evil inside of Michael has infected Jamie.

Development
After Halloween III: Season of the Witch, executive producer Moustapha Akkad wanted to move further with the series, and bring back Michael Myers. Producer Paul Freeman, a friend of Akkad with a long list of credits to his name, explained to Fangoria magazine in 1988 that 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. Originally, Joe Dante was Carpenter's choice in mind of director for the project.

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 said, "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 Freddy's Nightmares and the film Getting Even.

Screenplay
On February 25, 1988, writer Alan B. McElroy, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, was brought in to write the script for Halloween 4. The writer's strike was to begin on March 7 that year. 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 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, 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.

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, 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."

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 idea was scrapped due to budget issues. Instead, a more "soap opera" feel was incorporated, which included a love triangle subplot between Rachel, Brady, and Kelly Meeker, the sheriff's daughter.

Director Dwight H. Little stated in 2006 that his interpretation of McElroy's screenplay had the Michael Myers character played as a literal escaped mental patient, not a supernatural figure. Little approached the screenplay as though Myers was pursuing Jamie as a means of "connecting with her", but that he had no social capacity to interact with her, and thus resorted to violence. The screenplay references the events of Halloween II (1981), in which a fire breaks out in Haddonfield Hospital, by having both Myers and Loomis display burn scars on their respective hands and faces.

Casting
The cast of Halloween 4 included only one actor from the first two films, Donald Pleasence, who reprised his role as Samuel Loomis, Michael Myers' psychiatrist. According to Little, Pleasence was "committed conceptually" to the role, but did not sign on to the project until having read a finished screenplay. Before McElroy's script was chosen, the producers asked Jamie Lee Curtis, another original cast member, 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 the seventh Halloween film. As a result, her character was written out and died, 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. Danielle Harris, who previously had a reoccuring role on the ABC daytime soap opera,  One Life to Live (as Samantha Garretson) was ultimately cast in the role after auditioning in New York. Rebecca Schaeffer had auditioned for the role of Rachel Carruthers, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Twenty-three-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. 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. George P. Wilbur was cast to play Michael Myers.

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 and around 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. "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."

George P. Wilbur, who was cast as Michael Myers, wore hockey pads under the costume to make himself look more physically imposing, and he was often filmed in mirror reflections or off-center so that the audience could witness him "in pieces" rather than have an encompassing view. 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.

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, the customized 1975 Captain Kirk mask was unavailable and a new one was purchased from a local costume shop. The producers wanted to test 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. Director Dwight H. Little thought the use of the blond mask stemmed from a tired crew member grabbing an incorrect mask from the prop area. Though nobody on set caught the error, it was acknowledged in the later stages of production. Little confirmed the mistake was left in the film and would have been fixed if his team had more time.

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 Part VII: The New Blood) 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, LP Vinyl Record, and Cassette Tape on September 28, 1988.

Release
Halloween 4 opened in 1,679 theaters on October 21, 1988 and grossed $6,831,250 in its opening weekend, ranking number one at the box office. It held the top spot in its second weekend. The total domestic gross was $17,768,757 in the United States with approximately 4,323,299 tickets sold during its initial theatrical run.

Reception
The film garnered a negative critical reception upon release. On Metacritic it has a score of 34 out of 100 based on reviews from 10 critics, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews".

Caryn James of The New York Times criticized the film for abandoning the original film's strengths saying "suspense and psychological horror have given way to superhuman strength and resilience." Variety found the film to be "a no-frills, workmanlike picture." Richard Harrington of The Washington Post declared the film "very much the cheap knockoff of its prototype, but not half as visceral." Kim Newman for Empire said "It's incredible that a film could be so closely patterned on Carpenter's still-thrilling original movie and yet be so stupid, unscary and plodding as Halloween 4 is." In 2000, Kim Newman for Empire Magazine rated the film, 1 out of 5 stars calling it "unimaginative, uninspiring, predictable and dumb."

Over two decades after its release, the film received some positive reception from reviews by online horror centric websites such as JoBlo.com said, "The movie is tight, has good murders and a kicked my butt ending. The Shape is back and in good form; this is my favorite Halloween next to the first one." IGN declared "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers stands out as the second best film in the entire series." In 2017, Davey Conner (now attributed to Alan Smithee as of 2023) writing for Dread Central said, "Halloween 4 is a strong sequel, horror film and Halloween movie." DVD Talk said "Despite its flaws, Halloween 4 is one of the best slashers from the late 1980s, standing out in an era when the sub genre was in steep decline."

In retrospect, Director Dwight Little said:"“ That’s another movie that was not received very well. It did well commercially, but the critic response was not great. I don’t know what the expectations were with Michael Myers. There’s an initial resistance to that movie, but later over the years, there have been several reissues on DVD and Blu-ray, and so forth. And of course, it plays every year, and I think people really love it now.“"

Home media
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 2006, Anchor Bay Entertainment released special editions of this film and its sequel on DVD. Supplements include the Halloween 4/5 panel at the "Return to Haddonfield" convention in 2003, a documentary titled "Halloween 4 Final Cut", a commentary with Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell, another commentary by Alan B. McElroy and Anthony Masi and the film's theatrical trailer. Halloween 4, Halloween 5, a Blu-ray, standard DVD and extended edition of Halloween and the documentary Halloween: 25 Years of Terror were released together with a replica Michael Myers mask in a limited edition 30th anniversary box set of the first film. The film was released on Blu-ray in Germany on May 4, 2012, and in the US on August 21, 2012.

In the United Kingdom, Halloween 4 was originally released on VHS format by Braveworld in the early 1990s, and then, Legend distribution. On June 17, 2002, Digital Entertainment released the film on VHS, while a second version from the company containing a "Widescreen Presentation" was released on September 5, 2002. Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film for the first time on DVD in a "Special Edition" on January 28, 2002, while Digital Entertainment released the film several months later on September 5, 2002 to coincide with their newest VHS release. Hollywood released the film individually on October 27, 2003, and released a set containing the film with Ulli Lommel's The Boogeyman, Boogeyman II, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Hollywood also released a double feature containing the film alongside Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood. Anchor Bay then acquired rights to all subsequent home video releases, and released Halloween 4 with the 1986 film House in another double feature on February 6, 2006. Anchor Bay re-issued the DVD on October 11, 2010, which features the theatrical trailer and the featurette, "Inside Halloween 4". Anchor Bay released the film again as part of a DVD set, which contains the first five films in the franchise, on October 15, 2012. This release contains new special features: audio commentary with actors Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris, audio commentary with director Dwight H. Little and author Justin Beahm, Halloween 4/5 discussion panel, and theatrical trailer. Shout! Factory also released the first ten films on Blu-ray in a limited edition box set in addition to Halloween 4 on Ultra HD Blu-ray under the Scream Factory label.

The film was also released on Blu-ray in Australia on October 2, 2013.

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.