Tag Archives: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

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(VIDEO)The “Halloween 4” VHS Retailers Promo That Kicked Off The 1989 Summer Of Horror Rentals!

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I’m almost certain that I hold the record on the horror blog Internet for writing the most pieces about HALLOWEEN 4– Dwight Little actually agrees with me– and it’s a crown I wear with pride as the Queen of Vincent Drug. To my surprise, however, I’ve never thrown in this little doozy of a retailer promo, which is another kryptonite of mine featuring THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS in all its glory.

In case you’re unfamiliar, a retailer promo is an early release of a VHS tape sent to video store owners that will ultimately either sway them to stock the shelves with said movie or give it a hard pass. In addition, some of these screeners would be sent to the media for review. Hard to imagine a time when critics would have to actually wait on the postman to deliver physical media as opposed to a screener email that can be obtained in under 60 seconds, eh?

Can we also appreciate this standee that was seen in Mom and Pop video shops? I covet thee so hard.

That being said, I don’t think HALLOWEEN 4 was ever going to be a hard sell to horror movie fans, but that, of course, never stops the PR machine from pimping the sequel for home video release like it was one of its top hookers on Broadway St. Hell, they were so confident in their success on the video rental market, they couldn’t even bother to spell Freddy’s Nightmares right when talking about television promo partnerships.

That’s a big dick move there, Mikey.

The street date for HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS landed on May 18th, 1989, just a few weeks after THEY LIVE and CHILD’S PLAY hit the shelves and five days before PUMPKINHEAD was added to the VHS horror movie rentals of ’89. 1988 was a HUGE year for horror movies-you can check my top 15 here-so therefore the Summer months following were a banger for us at the video rental stores.

I mean, they never had to oversell me. I’m the proud mom of two copies, while three others over the past 30 years have been laid to rest from being played to death.

Anyway, enjoy something that brings me a lot of personal joy and fuzziness. Huge shout-out to Tripsy Trailers for uploading this treasure for the rest of us!

Editorials

Here’s The Story Behind Those Opening Credits In “HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS”

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In case you’re new here, I hold HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS on a ridiculously high pedestal. It’s the ultimate 80s horror slasher sequel where a lot of nostalgia resides. It brings back characters from a horror franchise in the CORRECT way while giving us new characters to the plot who are actually likable. And it’s the only entry in the series where we get a glimpse as Michael Myers in a very KEN form.

Fun in the Sun Myers is not to be trifled with.

Ok so maybe those are just my biased opinions, but there’s one thing that we can all collectively agree on making it a fact: the opening to RETURN is regarded as one of the greatest things about the movie, and stands as possibly, one of the most atmospheric intros for the Halloween holiday of all damn time. Something so simple as a few eerie scenes of a basic farm shot on the dusk of Halloween Eve in the middle of fuckwhere America, with no context, set the tone and the mood for the whole film. As light slowly fades into dusk throughout the secular shots of the farm in Autumn along with a sinister soundtrack that crescendos into your very spine, the message to the audience is clear: Evil is coming, and it is angry.

Back in October, celebrating HALLOWEEN 4‘ 35th anniversary, I spoke with director Dwight Little about his experiences and memories of the film. Of course, one of the questions I asked was about that marvelous intro and how the inspiration for such a departure from the previous two Myers films’ i.e. pumpkin credit intros, came to be. My instincts on the answer to this being something much deeper than just a few shots on a farm that were taken for budgetary reasons that just happened to strike gold, turned out to be correct.

You know, we put a LOT of energy into that, and I had asked the writer on set, ya know, how much do we actually KNOW about the origins of Halloween? I looked up some references on it and found out there’s some old Scottish agricultural tradition where the fields have gone bare and everyone has to do their last harvest to get ready for the Winter. And so there’s all this iconic imagery of scarecrows and pumpkin men, and looking back into the roots of it all is how we came up with that title sequence that seems so beloved. I just didn’t want to do the pumpkin [intro sequence again] and wanted to try something else.

So when people say, “It ain’t that deep.” Yeah. Yeah, it is. The fact that the opening sequence provides hidden context into old harvest culture and using imagery that we all associate with the Fall and Halloween seasons in a much deeper way was a clever move. To a superstitious agrarian society, not only would scarecrows keep birds away from crops, but they could also scare children away from the fields where there might be strange things hiding. The hanging ghost on the farm, representing Myers returning from the dead, is another, with Danielle Harris’ name (who plays Jamie Lloyd-Myers’ niece) splashed on the screen next to it as if to say he’s coming back just for you, babydoll. Although that in itself is MY OWN speculation, let me just have that theory, fellas.

You can read the entire interview with Dwight Little here.

It’s just a beautiful new way to look at those banger opening credits. Don’t you think? So with that in mind, let’s just bask in all its malevolent glory, eh?

Interviews

Interview: Dwight Little Looks Back on 35 Years of “HALLOWEEN 4: The RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS”

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A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing HALLOWEEN 4 director and Samhain aficionado, Dwight Little on all things horror, the new film NATTY KNOCKS, and duh, of course, HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS; and in case you’re new here, is one of my own personal Kryptonite films. Put that sucker on, and I’m pretty much dead to the world. With the 35th anniversary of the 1988 movie looming over us, I used this opportunity to gain a deeper insight of the film I rented over and over again at my local Mom-and-Pop video store and that has become not only a fan favorite over the years but a beautiful throwback to the nostalgia of Halloween in the 80s.

Which begged Dwight Little to ask me himself,

“Why do YOU think people love this movie so much, right, now?“

To which I gave the obvious answer of-

“Mr. Little, HALLOWEEN 4 is thee perfect seasonal Halloween film. It holds so many memories and nostalgia for us children of the 80s and embodies the look and feel of the holiday with an added bonus of Michael Myers slowly walking around chasing folks.”

Tell me I’m wrong…

DL:

“Those streets of Haddonfield, all the dead leaves, the old drug store, and the shallow fields, the movie on top of it being Michael Myers, just has that nice atmosphere of what it was like to go trick or treating.“

NN: And that opening is a banger as well!

DL: You know we put a LOT of energy into that, and I had asked the writer on set, ya know, how much do we actually KNOW about the origins of Halloween? I looked up some references on it and found out there’s some old Scottish agricultural tradition where the fields have gone bare and everyone has to do their last harvest to get ready for the Winter. And so there’s all this iconic imagery of scarecrows and pumpkin men, and looking back into the roots of it all, is how we came up with that title sequence that seems so beloved. I just didn’t want to do the pumpkin [intro sequence again] and wanted to try something else.

NN: With RETURN turning 35 this year, tell me some of your fondest memories of being on set, or something that sticks out to you looking back on making the film.

DL: “Well, I was such a goofy fan of Donald Pleasence. Growing up, ya know, this was the guy from THE GREAT ESCAPE, and he was a James Bond villain so in my eyes he was English Royality. So, to be able to work with Donald as a young director, it was such a thrill, To be honest, I was intimidated for about the first two hours on the first day of filming with him on set, but we fell into such an easy actor/director relationship and he never made me feel like he didn’t want to be “directed” and so I was able to really dig in with him and not be scared away by his star status and that was something I really enjoyed.”

“I also loved both the girls, Danielle Harries and Ellie Cornell. They found a chemistry on their own, I didn’t even have to do much, and Ellie is just naturally took care of Danielle, and seemed bonded right from the beginning, which gave a real heart to the movie.”

NN: Yeah, it’s a tragedy what they did to her in Part 5. To me personally, I think she’s the greatest final girl of the franchise!

DL: Well, I didn’t have anything to do with 5 and to be quite honest I haven’t even seen all of 5. I think it’s a shame and I think they should have kept her alive in the end. Ellie’s takedown of Myers, is one of the most ferocious Final Girl things ever. The way she drives the truck and the way handles herself is fierce. She was really terrific and such a believable actress. She never tried to overdo it, and she’s sexy without even trying to be.

NN: Yep. She feels really relatable to a lot of us female horror fans.

DL: Yeah, she’s not just a hottie. She’s a lot more than that.

NN: In the community, there has been rumors, that there’s a scene that was filmed that explains how Loomis and Myers survived that fire at the end of HALLOWEEN II. Is that true?

DL: “No that is not true, but here what is true. Alan McElroy, the writer, and I decided we needed to do all the heavy lifting explaining what happened in one elevator ride. So what happened was you see the attendants come into the mental facility and then the guard takes them down the hall and tells them the whole story on the elevator ride. By the time the doors open at the end of that elevator ride, basically we’ve done all the explaining we needed to do there. And then when you see Michael on the gurney, and the camera comes down, you can see that his hand is covered in burn scars and has been in a coma for ten years, face still wrapped… and that felt like we helped the audience make that turn from 2 to 4. By the time they put Michael in the ambulance, you’re not even questioning it.“

“HALLOWEEN 4 was a great experience for me and holds a lot of great memories.”

HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS has given us 35 years of sweet Halloween nostalgia, a goofy Myers mask blooper, and a final girl that comes correct in her stance against Myers. Upon the news of Miramax picking up the rights to Halloween in plans to make it a series, like the upcoming Friday the 13th: Crystal Lake show, I sincerely propose that this fan-favorite attempt to pick up from the events of after 4 and make an adult Jamie the killer in a clown costume. Myers can be dead and laid to rest for a while, I think. I would be at peace with that. Hell, maybe even make an episode where we finally get some justice for Ted Hollister! I would like to see it go that route OR pursue John Carpenter’s original plans and explore different Halloween urban legends throughout the series.

Either way, we’ll always have Halloween 4 and me, personally, the fact that Dwight Little did tell me I probably know more about that movie than he does. I know it’s Halloween and all, but Christmas came a little early for me this year.

Grab your Nightmare Makeup Kit, if you know a guy named Wade, tell him to fuck off and rewatch Return for its 35th anniversary this year.

Kathleen Kinmont is calling you, now.