Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, George P. Wilbur, Michael Pataki
It's been a decade since Michael Myers had his last killing spree in Haddonfield. But tonight, October 31st, 1988, that's going to change - it's Halloween again!
While being transferred from the Ridgemont Maximum Security Hospital, Michael Myers, who's been sleeping dormant in a coma for the last ten years, awakens when he hears that he has a neice. Meanwhile, back in Haddonfield, Myers' niece Jamie Lloyd (daughter of [supposedly] deceased Laurie Strode) is having nightmares about her evil uncle. Her step-sister, Rachel Corruthers, takes her out trick-or-treating, but instead of finding a night of fun, they find Michael Myers!
But Dr. Loomis also survived the explosion of the second film. He tracks Michael back home, enlisting the help of Sheriff Ben Meeker. Together, they shelter Jamie in Meeker's not-too-safe house. Myers makes his way in, taking his revenge on victims Kelly, Deputy Logan, and Brady. Jamie escapes to the local schoolhouse, but her fiendish uncle is hot on her track. A high-paced finale leaves Myers buried in hell. As everyone begins to calm down from the night, a scream is heard from the upstairs of the Corruthers' house - the evil has only started!
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The first two HALLOWEENs were successful, but everybody came out of the third saying, 'Where's Michael?'" producer Paul Freeman, a friend of Moustapha Akkad with a long list of credits to his name, explained to Fangoria magazine back in 1988. HALLOWEEN 4 was welcomed by audiences who longed for the Return of Michael Myers. "Michael Myers is the real thing...and there is no substitute for the real thing."
"I think [Michael's] the way you want to take him. I don't think we set out to present any particular sort of person," Donald Pleasence told Horror Fan magazine.
One of the obvious challenges in making a part 4 of anything is to interest a contemporary audience in old characters and themes," said director Dwight 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 humerous 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."
The movie was filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah. The scenes at Sheriff Meeker's house were shot inside the Ellis Mansion."What we did," says art director Roger Crandall, "is get a book of odd, spooky Halloween images, still photographs." The art department looked to this book for haunting imagery - from scarecrows on tractors to pumpkins on a porch. Most of the pictures in the book were a bit odd. "Just something a little bit eerie about them." The movie was shot during March. As in previous films, pumpkins weren't the easiest thing to find. A crew member fell and cut his wrists while filming the Michael/Brady confrontation in front of the large window. The film ended up costing $5½ million.
"We had so many scripts for another HALLOWEEN sent to us," Moustapha Akkad told Horror Fan. "There were so many stories pitched to us. Dwight Little recommended Alan B. McElroy to do the rewrite, and he came out with a fantastic script. We sent it to Debra Hill, one of the original producers, and she said, 'That's the greatest script I've read out of the hundreds I've seen."
"The first two HALLOWEEN movies were the cornerstones of my college years," screenwriter Alan 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 firector, 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 wrote the script in 11 days to avoid a Writers Guild strike.
Donald Pleasence Dr. Sam Loomis
Danielle Harris Jamie Lloyd
Ellie Cornell Rachel Corruthers
Beau Starr Sheriff Ben Meeker
Michael Pataki Dr. Hoffman
Kathleen Kinmont Kelley Meeker
Sasha Jenson Brady
Gene Ross Earl
Carmen Filpi Rev. Jackson Sayer
Geroge Wilbur The Shape
Dwight Little Director
Alan B. McElroy Writer
Paul Freeman Producer
Alan Howarth Music
Moustapha Akkad Executive Producer
The fourth installment in the series (only the third time Michael was the storyline) was released to theaters in 1988, on October 21st. Moustapha Akkad's Trancas International Films produced and distributed the movie after winning the rights to further the franchise. The movie used "Ultra Stereo" instead of the common Dolby Surround format.
In its box office run, it brought in almost $18 million total in the U.S., from a budget of less than $5 million. It spent its first two weekends at number 1 at the box office.
The videocassette was released on May 18, 1989 from CBS/Fox Video, in pan and scan format. A laserdisc was also released. The film was shown on Pay-Per-View in October, 1997 - remastered and featuring letterboxed opening titles. Anchor Bay currently distributes the film on videotape. A few early copies of a letterboxed edition on tape slipped out, but Anchor Bay did not officially distribute the tape until late summer, 1999.
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