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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.

Editorials

THAT TIME KING KONG ROBBED A HOME RUN

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I know what you’re thinking: Jessica Lange is incredibly distracting. ‘Tis true, and an excellent guess, but you would be wrong. The American League Championship Series gets underway tomorrow night, but twenty years ago I was parked in front of the television hoping the Red Sox would oust the Evil Empire in the 2003 ALCS and head to the Fall Classic for the first time since JASON LIVES (1986) hit theatres.

Alas, that wouldn’t transpire until the following October when Boston became the first team in major league history to storm back from a 3-games-to-none deficit to win a playoff series. But Game 7 of the ’03 ALCS was neck-and-neck, and when it slipped into extra innings, I noticed that KING KONG ’76 was on AMC.

The rest, as they say, is part of dumbass history.

It began innocently enough. Between innings I would flip over to catch a minute or two of Rick Baker in a gorilla suit, but as extra frames stretched deeper into the night, I started clicking “last” on the remote between pitches. To be fair, this was before the advent of the pitch clock, so between mound visits and Nomar Garciaparra’s rain delay routine — there was time. Or so I thought.

After Mariano Rivera finished his third inning of work out of the bullpen–setting the Red Sox down in order in the top of the 11th–I flipped over to AMC..

Therein lies the problem: Kong had reached the World Trade Center. How does one not get lost in that scene? It happened to me. And about the time Jeff Bridges put his hands on the glass in wide-eyed terror it came flooding back — “shit, the game!”

The next image on my screen was Aaron Boone rounding second base as the Bronx lost its collective mind. The Yankees’ third baseman had just blasted a knuckleball over the left field wall off of the late Tim Wakefield (it still hurts to say that). The pennant belonged to New York and I had missed one of the greatest moments in baseball history.

While it’s true Florida would take the title from the Bombers (at Yankee Stadium in a delicious twist) and the Red Sox would exorcise their own demons the following fall, it didn’t change the fact that I didn’t see Boone’s bomb with my own yes. And Kong still fell,

And not for nothin’, but ’03 represented Hideki Matsui’s rookie season in the bigs. Why do I mention this? Matsui’s nickname was Godzilla. King of the Monsters.

One will fall, indeed.

The words Dino De Laurentiis shared with the Philadelphia Inquirer promoting KING KONG held true 27 years later–and remain true today: “when monkey die, everybody cry.”

Editorials

WE NEED A CREIGHTON DUKE ORIGIN STORY

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Pouring out of theatres, we FRIDAY freaks have clearly carried all things Voorhees with us over the years, but let’s be honest, the Camp Crystal Lake saga isn’t exactly the sort that haunts you.

With the exception of a single line: “Son of a bitch. You remember me?”

It’s been 30 years since Creighton Duke blurted those words toward the conclusion of JASON GOES TO HELL (1993) and damn it, we need answers!

I’m not worried about the Deadite bullshit Adam Marcus wants everyone to buy into because — no. Let’s talk about the unseen events leading to the question Duke handcuffed Jason with before Kane Hodder donned Freddy’s sweater and glove and hauled the hock to Hades.

Remember me. The implication is pretty obvious: Creighton Duke and Jason Voorhees have crossed paths before. How did that come to pass? What happened? How long has Duke been in pursuit?

Dude captured six reviled serial killers, so let’s get a glimpse of the past glory that led to Duke’s Loomis-like obsession. How did the baddest bounty hunter this side of Dog and Boba Fett so confidently determine “in a Voorhees he was born, through a Voorhees may he be reborn, and only by the hands of a Voorhees will he die”? Where did that theory come from because Duke seems pretty damn confident he’s cracked the code.

What about talk of meat suits and “I don’t think so” after our beloved momma’s boy suffered “explosive trauma” after being blowed up? Again, seems rather evident this ain’t Duke’s first rodeo.

Also, why does Creighton’s idea of scoring digits differ from ours?

How in the hell can Steven Williams still play the part? That cat hasn’t aged a day in three decades. Whatever elixir Paul Rudd is sippin’ on, he got it from Mr. X.

And should we get said origin story complete with a reimagining of Jason being lured to his “demise,” may I suggest Lauren LaVera for Julie Michaels’ role? Just go back and watch because the resemblance is uncanny.

Look, there are still those who dislike Duke because it should have been Tommy Jarvis, but we can love both my fellow FRIDAY aficionados. Real talk, ‘m not concerned with what happened to Paul (John Furey) at the end of PART 2 because “who is Creighton Duke” remains the only question the Crystal Lake collection has ever dangled in front of us that I still ponder.

We need that Williams intensity and black duster revived because Creighton Duke is one of the few truly fascinating characters the FRIDAY franchise has produced.

Now you know what I want and why I need it. Who’s with me?