DIRECTED BY: Dwight H. Little
STORY BY: Dhani Lipsius & Larry Rattner & Benjamin Ruffner and Alan B. McElroy
SCREENPLAY BY: Alan B. McElroy
MUSIC BY: Alan Howarth
DISTRIBUTOR: Galaxy International Releasing Co
STARRING: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, intruducing Danielle Harris, Michael Pataki, Beau Starr, Kathleen Kinmont, Sasha Jenson, and George P. Wilbur as The Shape
RUNNING TIME: 88 Minutes
Ten years after the events of Part 1 Michael Myers escapes while being transported in an ambulance. Everyone thinks that he died in the ambulance crash except for Dr. Loomis, who deduces that Michael is heading to Haddonfield to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd, who's mother Laurie Strode had died in a car accident. Michael arrives in town and proceeds to kill his way to Jamie, who has been living with the Corruthers family. He kills all of the police officers at the station, but is hunted down by a bunch of shot gun wielding good-ol-boys and shot multiple times and falls into a mine shaft and is believed to be dead. In the final scene we see a POV shot of someone attacking Darlene Corruthers with a knife. We see that the attacker is non-other than little Jamie Lloyd.
After the poor reception of Part III John Carpenter and Debra Hill ended their involvement with the franchise. Moustapha Akkad still owned the rights to the "Halloween" name and characters, and could do what he pleased with them; but Carpenter and Hill decided that whatever he did would be done with out them. Akkad and his producer friend Paul Freeman decided to make another sequel. They knew that fans were disappointed by Part III because they felt that without Michael Myers it was simply not a Halloween film. Just as Carpenter and Hill had, Jamie Lee Curtis opted out of appearing in this movie.
Unlike parts II & III none of the major studios were interested in making a fourth entry in the series, particularly without Curtis, Carpenter, or Hill. When they could get no major backing Akkad & Freeman formed their own company, Trancas International Films, and decided to make the film independently, just like Part I. Unlike Part I they did have a bit more money to play around with, $5 Million; a definite step up from Part I's $300,000 budget.
They contracted several writers to come up with story ideas and scripts for this Laurie-less sequel. They also hired Dwight H. Little as director. When they were nearing the time to begin production they ran into another problem. The Writer's Guild (the screenwriters union) was about to go on strike and Halloween 4 did not yet have a completed script. Little suggested his friend Alan B. McElroy to take the various drafts, and concepts and consolidate them into a coherent whole script. McElroy was a big fan of the original, and jumped at the chance to write a Halloween script. He wrote the script in just 11 days, in order to avoid the strike.
As on the first 2 Donald Pleasence returned to play Dr. Samuel Loomis. Just like before, he was paid for only a 2 weeks of work. All of his scenes were shot in the first two weeks of the movie so that he would have to only be paid for the whole shoot. For the important role of Jamie Lloyd, 10 year old Danielle Harris was cast in her first film role. She had her 11th birthday on the set of the movie. I would also like to take this opportunity to complement the producers on their casting choice of Danielle Harris. It is hard to find a little kid who can act; and even harder to find one who is cute but doesn't let the cuteness stop all of the movie's momentum every time that they are on screen. Harris not only seems perfectly suited to this role; but she is also great in some scenes that many adult actors would have a hard time with (especially the "Michael Myers vision" sequences in Part 5)
The movie was shot in Salt Lake City Utah during the spring of 1988. As on the first movie pumpkins were rather hard to find at that time of year. Art Director Roger Crandall and Director Dwight H. Little went through a book of spooky old Halloween images (i.e. scarecrows, pumpkins on porches, tractors) and based the look of their film on those images.
During the summer of 88 advertisements for the movie started appearing. The ads made sure to let all of the people who were disappointed by Part III know that "HE is Back!" They wanted to capture the kind of excitement that the first two installments had. The movie was released on October 21, 1988. It spent its first 2 weekends as the number 1 movie in America. It ended up making $18 million; which is lower than the first two, but pretty good for a movie with a 4 after the title, and damn good for a film that was made for $5 million.