After failing to turn the Halloween franchise into an anthology series with Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which bombed at the box office, John Carpenter and Debra Hill begrudgingly agreed to bring back the Michael Myers character. Carpenter and Hill teamed up with author Dennis Etchison- who had written several novelizations for them, some under the pseudonym of Jack Martin (including the adaptations of Halloween II & III)- to write the script, and approached Joe Dante (Gremlins, Piranha) to direct.
Unfortunately, producer Moustapha Akkad didn't much care for the script, which found Haddonfield, Illinois banning the holiday of Halloween altogether, which only caused fear to take over and the kids of the town to essentially will Michael Myers into existence. If this sounds a bit familiar, that's because it's not too far removed from what went down in Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street series, already a huge hit franchise in its own right by the late-80's.
Ultimately, Carpenter and Hill opted to wash their hands of it all and sold the exclusive rights to the franchise to Akkad, though Carpenter wisely allowed him to continue to use his signature music, as the movies just wouldn't be the same without it. Deciding to go back to basics, Akkad hired Alan B. McElroy (Spawn, Wrong Turn) to write the script, instructing him to keep it as simple as possible. This wouldn't prove that hard, as an impending Writer's Strike forced McElroy to hammer it out in a mere eleven days.
As Jamie Lee Curtis had decided not to return to the series for the time being, with her non-horror career starting to take off and movies like Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda taking her in a more comedic direction, the film's lone returning character- besides Myers, of course- was Dr. Sam Loomis, to once again be played by Donald Pleasence, who joked that he'd stop playing the role once they hit Halloween 22.
However, McElroy did manage to sneak in some references to the original via making one of the main characters Laurie's niece, Jamie, a direct reference to Curtis herself, who did allow pictures of her to be used in the film. In addition, a bar owner mentions that his son was one of the victims of Myers in the original, and there's a "cameo" from Lindsey, aka presumably one of the kids Laurie babysat, though she seems none the worse for the wear from her experiences.
Sadly, the latter character never reappears, oddly enough, though it would have been a neat idea to have Myers go after her and perhaps an older Tommy, the other kid Lauris babysat in the original. Tommy does crop up in the credits, but I'll be damned if I know where in the film he is located- maybe the scene in the costume shop? (Tommy would show up in a considerably bigger role, however, in Halloween 6.)
Such are the things that fall by the wayside when you're writing something in eleven days, I suppose. At least McElroy tried to have some direct connections, though, which is something, and he obviously holds the original Halloween in high regard, as evidenced by the interviews on the DVD/Blu-Ray.
The main idea was that Michael, after somehow managing to survive a fiery death at the end of Halloween II (as did Dr. Loomis), comes to ten years later, as he's being transferred to another hospital after essentially being comatose for all that time. Myers kills the paramedics and escapes, fleeing to a nearby gas station and stealing a truck and heading back to Haddonfield to continue the slaughter, with niece Jamie being a main target, and Dr. Loomis in hot pursuit.
That's about it. Like Akkad said, they kept it simple, as it should be, really. Note how into the weeds later installments would get, which is why they have to keep rebooting the thing, time and again.
Little Jamie was played by rising child star Danielle Harris, then a regular on the soap One Life to Live, who beat out none other than then-future Sabrina the Teenage Witch Melissa Joan Hart for the role.
Harris would go onto to some modest successes in the 90's in films like Marked for Death (with Steven Seagal), City Slickers (with Billy Crystal), Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead (with Christina Applegate), The Last Boy Scout (with Bruce Willis), Free Willy (with a giant killer whale) and Daylight (with Sylvester Stallone), albeit mostly in supporting roles.
She also played a recurring character on the original Roseanne and had a memorable turn on ER, as well as a leading voice-over role as Debbie on The Wild Thornberrys. Oddly, it would be her role on Roseanne that caused Harris to get a IRL stalker, not her turn in the Halloween films. Luckily, the guy was caught and arrested.
However, it was when she returned to her childhood Scream Queen roles that she would find her biggest success, beginning with 1999's Urban Legend (she was the ill-fated Goth chick) and continuing with her triumphant return to the Halloween series, in Rob Zombie's reboot of the franchise, still the most successful of the bunch.
She went on to appear in the much-ballyhooed sequel to Zombie's flick, then a slew of other horror flicks of varying quality, from the solidly-entertaining slasher series Hatchet and the vampire flick Stake Land to stuff like ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2 and See No Evil 2. She remains one of my all-time favorite Scream Queens, regardless.
Getting back to the main plot, Jamie Lee Curtis' Halloween character, Laurie, was said to have "died in a car crash," though they would later ret-con this with Halloween H2O, when Curtis decided to return to the series after all.
Laurie's daughter, Jamie, as a result of her mother's untimely death, was then adopted by a local family, who raised her as Jamie Lloyd, though it was common enough knowledge who she was in town, resulting in the poor child getting tormented by school bullies for having "The Boogeyman" as her uncle.
Laurie's daughter, Jamie, as a result of her mother's untimely death, was then adopted by a local family, who raised her as Jamie Lloyd, though it was common enough knowledge who she was in town, resulting in the poor child getting tormented by school bullies for having "The Boogeyman" as her uncle.
Serving as her older Foster sister and frequent caregiver was Rachel, played by Ellie Cornell, who made her film debut in Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob earlier in 1988, the same year this film was released. Cornell's initial success was sadly short-lived, as she all but disappeared from films in the 90's, in part to raise a child, in a case of art somewhat imitating life.
However, in the late 90's, she resurfaced as both an actress and a producer, on films like The Specials and Free Enterpise, a Star Trek-themed rom-com. As with Harris, she likewise returned to her Scream Queen roots in the early 2000's, with a turn in the dubious video game adaptation House of the Dead, from the notoriously-bad director Uwe Boll, a role she would reprise in the sequel.
Roles in other horror films followed, like All Souls Day, The Darkroom, Dead Calling, The Thirst, Room 6 and Dead and Deader. She also had a recurring role on the cable series Femme Fatales. Her last credit was 2017's Boston Marathon bombing-themed thriller Altar Rock.
Another familiar face to horror fans is that of actress Kathleen Kinmont, as Kelly Meeker, another ill-fated Sheriff's daughter, this one a little nastier than her predecessor, Annie, as she nabs Rachel's boyfriend behind her back when Rachel has to bow out of a date to babysit Jamie.
Needless to say, Kelly doesn't get a happy ending, though her father, Sheriff Meeker (Beau Starr, Goodfellas, Speed) manages to avoid his intended fate, having originally been meant to die in a fire at his house during the big battle with Myers, which was later written out of the movie because of budgetary constraints.
Of course, that means that, like Sheriff Brackett before him, Meeker has to live on with his daughter's death on his conscious- even more so, with it having happened in his own house. That said, he didn't exactly have his eye on the ball in the first place, what with his daughter having sex there just before he arrived, so... yeah. But hey, at least Starr got to be in the sequel, which is more than we can say for Kinmont.
Anyway, Kelly is arguably the best "new" character in the whole movie, thanks in no small amount to Kinmont's effortless charm, in spite of playing the sort of character one is meant to love to hate. It doesn't exactly hurt that she's extremely easy on the eyes, with a body that should have stopped Michael dead in his tracks, if he cared for such things.
Kinmont, aside from this film, is arguably best-known for her excellent turn as the titular terror in the fun Bride of Re-Animator, Brian Yuzna's bonkers follow-up to Stuart Gordon's cult classic The Re-Animator. She was also married to actor Lorenzo Lamas, with whom she frequently co-starred, including a turn on his TV show Renegade and in the CIA: Code Name Alexa films, the second of which she co-wrote.
Other notable credits include the teen romps Hardbodies and Fraternity Vacation, the fantasy flicks She-Wolves of the Wasteland (aka Phoenix the Warrior) and Roller Blade Warriors: Taken by Force (which is every bit as awesome as it sounds) and the horror flicks Rush Week, Midnight, The Art of Dying, Dead of Night, Stranger in the House, Psychotic and Prank.
Other familiar faces in the film include Sasha Jenson (Ghoulies II, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dazed & Confused) as Brady, Rachel's cheating boyfriend; Michael Pataki (another horror regular- see also The Return of Count Yorga, Grave of the Vampire, The Baby, The Bat People, Dracula's Dog, Graduation Day, Dead & Buried, Sweet Sixteen) as the Doctor who unwisely- or perhaps wisely, given what happens- transfers Michael at the beginning; and veteran character actor Carmen Filpi (Escape from New York, Beetlejuice, Alligator II, Ed Wood) as the wacky priest that picks up Dr. Loomis when he gets stranded.
Taking over the director's chair this time out is Dwight H. Little, best-known these days for his work on various TV shows, including Freddy's Nightmares, Millennium, Wolf Lake, The X-Files, John Doe, The Inside, Prison Break, 24, Bones, Castle, Nikita, Dollhouse, Sleepy Hollow, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Notable film credits include Getting Even, Bloodstone (the film which brought him to the attention of Akkad), The Phantom of the Opera (the one with Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund), Marked for Death (also with Danielle Harris), Rapid Fire (with the late Brandon Lee), Free Willy 2, Murder at 1600, Deep Blue, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Tekken (based on the video-game of the same name) and Last Rampage.
Little does a great job of replicating the feel of the Halloween season, especially in the opening montage, which alone feels more Midwestern than the entirety of the original films, which were shot in California. Part of this was no doubt to the film being shot in Salt Lake City, Utah.
However, as with the original, the film was shot out of season, so leaves had to be imported and painted squash served as pumpkins! In addition, Little consciously kept gore to a minimum, as with Carpenter's film, although, as with Halloween II, a few scenes were re-shot to "beef up" the gore- the male paramedic kill and the truck driver towards the end- with FX by John Carl Beuchler, of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and From Beyond fame.
Props as well to cinematographer Peter Lyons Collister, who also did the honors for Little's Phantom and the Amityville Horror remake. He does a solid job of recreating the vibe of Carpenter's film, even if the overall feel is slightly different- understandably, given that ten years had passed since then. Be that as it may, the film doesn't particularly feel 80's, either, giving it a timeless vibe that serves it well for repeat viewings.
The film's actual biggest debit is that the look of Michael Myers is all wrong. The mask looks way off and almost cartoonish, and even worse, changes throughout the film, and not from intentional wear-and-tear, either. At one point, the hair on the mask goes from the previously-established brown to a noticeable blonde! Not good.
Just as silly, Myers actor George P. Wilbur was rather thin, so they added padding to "beef" him up as well, which is also very distracting. I guess shoulder pads are the one 80's element the movie does have, lol. As such, this version of Myers isn't near as scary as it could have been, if they had gotten this relatively simple thing right.
Actually, I say "simple," but given how off the mask has looked in almost every installment since the first one, I guess it's easier said than done. Only Rob Zombie's Halloween gets it relatively right- though even he blows it in the sequel! (Time will tell if the new entry nails it or not, but judging from the trailer, it seems to look alright.)
On the plus side, Akkad recruited composer Alan Howarth for this entry, who had worked with Carpenter on both Halloween II and III, and Howarth does a solid job here as well, if not quite as adventurous as the work he did for those sequels, which are arguably the best, musically, of the series. He would, however, go onto outdo himself with the score for Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers. (More on that soon.)
All in all, Halloween 4 is a worthy follow-up to the first two films, and definitely feels more like the original than the first sequel, which actually has the vibe of a giallo, of all things, for the most part. While it doesn't add that much new to the proceedings, the connections to the original films are appreciated, and the cast is good throughout.
Loomis gets some choice "crazy doctor" lines about Michael that are among the series' best, including: "You're talking about him as if he were human. That part of him died long ago." Also, "We are talking about evil on two legs." And, of course, the inevitable: "You let them take it out of here!' to the administrator that transferred Michael, only for him to escape. You'd think they'd learn by now, but no...
One can understand how audiences might have thought this was the end for Myers for real this time, given that they shoot him up with all manners of firepower, including the massive gun the Terminator used to shoot up the police precinct in that movie's famous scene (the one that starts with: "I'll be back."). I halfway expected them to pull out a flamethrower or missile launcher, lol.
For good measure, they also inadvertently "Tall Man" Michael's ass, which is to say, drop him into a mine shaft or at least a big hole of some kind. But, of course, the movie was a hit, so Michael's resurrection was perhaps inevitable. So long as people keep going to these movies, they'll find a way to bring him back.
Halloween 4 ended up the fifth highest-grossing film in the franchise to date, landing it smack dab in the middle of the series, success-wise. While the new entry is likely to change that, if estimates are accurate, it was just enough to warrant a direct sequel. Though, predictably, Halloween 5 opted to disregard some of the plot elements here for that one, notably the twist ending, which saw Jamie taking up her brother's mantle, which could have been interesting.
At the time, the film received iffy reviews, with most critics and audiences alike determining it to be no better or worse than most slashers of the time, which were clearly on their way out by then, popularity-wise. But time has been kind to the sequel, with many fans of the franchise in particular calling it the second-best of the entire series, behind the original.
I don't know if I'd go that far, but I will say it comes closest to replicating the feel of Carpenter's film, even more so than the second one. But it's just not that scary, unfortunately, not in the least because of that unfortunate mask and the padding on the suit, both of which make Michael look kind of ridiculous. Had they gotten that aspect of it right, I might rate it a little higher.
As it stands, though, I like the cast a lot, especially Danielle Harris and Kathleen Kinmont, who are easily the best things in it, aside from Pleasence's typically wacky performance- loved that bit with him and the preacher- and some of the excellent kills and action set-pieces, notably the rooftop confrontation (which, if they'd had the budget, would have also involved the house being on fire, which would have been even cooler) and the truck chase at the end.
Granted, the truck thing is a bit unbelievable, in terms of no one noticing Michael is there until it's too late. But it's still a really cool scene if you can suspend your disbelief and that throat rip is one of the best kills in the series. Note also that Rob Zombie cribbed some of the final showdown between Michael and the police for his Halloween II, though he ended up tweaking things a bit from the original cut to the theatrical one, in terms of who died and the like.
In the grand scheme of things, much like its box office gross, this one ends up right in the middle for me. Obviously, the original is my favorite, but I also prefer some of the other entries to this one, which we'll get to soon enough. Is one of them Halloween 5? Join me later this week for the answer, when I review The Revenge of Michael Myers! 🎃
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