Haloween 4 : The Return of Michael Myers

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Tagline : "10 years ago he changed the face of Halloween. Now, he's back!"

Just when you thought it was safe to go trick-or-treating, along comes Halloween 4. Released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the original film, producer Moustapha Akkad decided to jump on the same sequel bandwagon as the "Friday the 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchises by bringing back Michael Myers and releasing another Halloween film.

Seems Michael Myers and Dr Loomis didn't burn to death at the end of "Halloween 2" after all (remember, Halloween 3 was a spin off movie) and Myers has spent the last 10 years in a comatose state inside a maximum security asylum. But when the head of the institute decides to transfer him, they discover that Myers isn't as comatose as they suspected and promptly escapes.

Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance reprising his earlier role), upon hearing what has happened, realises what Michael is up to and travels back to Haddonfield to try and stop him once again. This time though, Myers isn't after Laurie Strode, who was apparently been killed in a car crash years earlier (kind of ironic). Instead, he spends the film chasing after her young daughter Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), whilst the local rednecks go around causing mayhem as they tear up the place looking for him and the Sheriff's office attempt to track him down.

All in all this was a very good film, and was what they really should have done with Part 3, rather than making that spin off film. A pity that Jamie Lee Curtis wasn't up for reprising her role, but it was certainly good to see Donald Pleasance reprising his role as Doctor Sam Loomis again.

Overall Marks : 7/10

Terrifying Trivia

• An opening scene showing Loomis (Donald Pleasence) being rescued after the ending of Halloween 2 was shot but never finished. In the scene, Loomis tried to stop firemen from extinguishing Michael Myers, shouting "Let him burn!"
• Rachael's friend Lindsay, who drives them to the store, was originally supposed to be Lindsay Wallace from Part 1 and was to have had a larger role in the film. But this was cut for time and budgetary reasons. The third boy hanging about with Brady and Wade in the drug store was originally meant to be Tommy Doyle from the original film.
• The films budget was $5 million
• Stuntman Tom Morga, who played Jason and was the stunt double for the copycat killer in "Friday the 13th Part 5 : A New Beginning", was originally cast as Michael Myers. But the producers were unhappy with his portrayal, so he was replaced shortly after filming began with stuntman George Wilbur. Though some of his scenes still remain in the film.
• Melissa Joan Hart auditioned for the role of Jamie.
• Kathleen Kinmont, who plays the Sheriff's daughter Kelly, also starred played 'The Bride' in "Re-Animator 2".
• John Carpenter was originally approached by Cannon films to write a sequel, but they disliked his script and chose not to pursue it any further. He subsequently sold his remaining interest in the franchise to producer Moustapha Akkad, who also bought the rights back from Universal, who had produced parts 2 & 3 and decided to make it a generic slasher film, to cash in on the 80s slasher boom.
• Writer Alan B McElroy wrote the script in just 11 days, completing it just prior to a writers strike.
• Jamie Lloyd's name was originally going to be Britty, but they renamed the character after Jamie Lee Curtis.
• Due to a mix up, the masks supplied for the film were the wrong colour, having pink skin and white hair. So, the effects crew had to repaint them white and dye the hair brown to match the original. One of the unaltered masks was actually used by accident during one scene, when Myers is chasing Jamie round the school, so his hair briefly turns white between shots.

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