Taking Shape

by Dustin McNeill

  Like the original film, Halloween 4 boasts a narrative simplicity that works to its benefit. The filmmakers are careful not to stray too far outside the formula. If we should fault them for anything, it should be for not envisioning a path forward beyond this installment’s twist ending. Not that filmmakers ought feel responsible for future sequels, but this lack of forethought proved a serious handicap for Halloweens 5 and 6. With nothing to go on, Halloween 5 would immediately renege on the future suggested by Halloween 4’s ending. Formulating a major cliffhanger with no resolution is creatively irresponsible, especially when your goal is to support an ongoing franchise. And, unfortunately, the next two sequels would continue the lame tradition of burdening future screenwriters with the task of resolving half-baked cliffhangers.

  BLOOD FILMING

  In patterning itself after the original film, Halloween 4 is particularly light on graphic violence. This despite the fact that, going with the times, the Shape has moved on from slashing throats and is now ripping off limbs and impaling foreheads. While Halloween 4 boasts a higher kill count with fifteen corpses, only seven of these deaths were designed to be seen onscreen. The brisk production schedule allowed little time for gory effects, not that the script much called for them. To the filmmakers’ credit, most of the kills are accomplished through shadow, lighting, sound, and camera trickery.

  Having adhered to Moustapha Akkad’s mandate on gore, the first cut of Halloween 4 proved a little too conservative with regard to bloodletting. The filmmakers discussed the issue and agreed that a few more sanguinary visuals were needed to enhance the kills. One additional day of “blood filming” was commissioned with effects legend John Carl Buechler to expand the deaths of several characters. Buechler and Little began by enhancing the film’s very first kill. This scene finds the seemingly comatose Shape in the back of an ambulance with a male and female medic. He suddenly wakes and attacks the male attendant, slamming his head against the wall before jamming his thumb through the poor man’s forehead.

  Buechler’s most gruesome contribution would come near film’s end as redneck vigilante Earl drives Jamie and Rachel to safety. The effects maestro designed an elaborate effect that depicted the Shape ripping open Earl’s neck, which gushes blood. As effective and shocking as these additions were, there was one gag Buechler designed that never made it into the film.

  While en route to Haddonfield, the Shape stops at a gas station and murders the mechanic for his clothes. Buechler and his team designed an effect that would depict the Shape actually jamming a crowbar down the mechanic’s throat. This scene still appears in the final film, but cuts away just before the crowbar goes in. The filmmakers instead opt to show the aftermath of this kill later on as Loomis investigates the gas station massacre.

  DELETED SCENES

  In retrospect, Halloween 4 stands as one of the most thoroughly developed films in the entire series. There are no alternate cuts to speak of and few scenes that failed to reach the screen. This owes to the fact that Halloween 4 was tightly scripted. The sequel does, however, have several smaller moments that were discarded. Beyond these, we have early versions of the screenplay to sift through for alternate material as well as an expanded novelization.

  As originally filmed, the opening sequence at Ridgemont was to contain an additional moment before we meet Dr. Hoffman. The creepy security guard was to have dished grisly background details on the hospital’s more notorious patients. This shocking lot included a man who cooked hitchhikers in a stew, a woman who buried her husbands and children, an obstetrician who murdered every ninth child, and a ten-year-old who ate his family for Christmas dinner before sharing the leftovers with classmates in sandwich form. These stories gave additional emphasis to the guard’s line, “Jesus ain’t got nothin’ to do with this place.”

  Dwight Little later confirmed this scene’s existence in an interview with the B-Sides and Badlands website. “Initially, when the two medical attendants go down the hallway with the guard, there were shots inside those padded cells. You could see these crazy people who were locked up and in straitjackets.” Little would ultimately cut this digression in order to get to the Shape more quickly. “The idea was supposed to scare the attendants and also the audience. After it was all sampled in the editing process, it was…fine. But it wasn’t really adding anything we didn’t already know.”

  Erik Preston, who briefly portrayed young Michael in the sequel, has recalled being present for the filming of a scene that appears in the script but not the film itself. After picking out Jamie’s costume at the drugstore, Rachel and Jamie depart for ice cream. Upon exiting the parlor, Jamie freezes as she spots “the nightmare man” around the corner. Rachel goes to investigate and briefly disappears, much to the alarm of her sister. After a beat, she reappears to assure Jamie that the “nightmare man” only exists in her imagination. Despite serving as a nice callback to the original, this scene was likely cut for pacing reasons.

  Lastly, Halloween 4’s shocking ending was trimmed ever so slightly before reaching audiences. Theatrically, the film cuts away from Jamie’s point-of-view before she attacks her foster mother. Yet as originally filmed, this scene fully depicted her stabbing of Darlene Carruthers. This excised footage would later appear in the opening moments of Halloween 5.

  WRITTEN BUT NOT FILMED

  Although Halloween 4 enjoyed the largest budget of any Halloween yet, it was unable to accommodate everything in the original screenplay. As a result, the filmmakers were forced to nix several scenes prior to the start of filming. Many of these were dropped due to cost, though some were also cut for pacing.

  First among these casualties was Halloween 4’s originally planned opening, which took place not at Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium but at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. The film was set to open on a blank wall that soon explodes with fire and debris. Through the damaged wall, we would see the Shape engulfed in flames from the ending of Halloween II. Also visible would have been a badly burned and partially ablaze Dr. Loomis. Ignoring his injuries, Loomis crawls toward the crackling Shape pleading, “Let it burn! Let it burn!” This scene would have ended with a freeze frame on his pained expression. Given that this flashback would have required stuntwork, makeup effects, and pyrotechnics, the cost savings of eliminating it were obviously huge. Another reason for its deletion was the decision by Dwight Little to focus primarily on the original Halloween and not its first sequel. Consequently, the events of Halloween II are only fleetingly referenced in Halloween 4.

  The next cut scene would have appeared after Rachel and Lindsey pick Jamie up from school. (And yes, McElroy specifically intended that this film’s Lindsey was actually Lindsey Wallace from the first Halloween.) This scene recreates yet another moment from John Carpenter’s original. While en route to the drugstore, the Shape’s stolen tow truck nearly collides with Lindsey’s car. Yelling out her window, she calls him a “stupid jerk!” This causes the Shape to make a U-turn and face the girls head on from a block away. “Great,” Rachel comments. “I think you pissed him off.” After a tense moment, he drives away.

  From here, there are several smaller moments present in the script but missing from the final film. Jamie encounters one of the school bullies while trick-or-treating. Much to her surprise, he delivers a halfway decent apology for his mean comments and invites her to join his group of friends. The script also contains a scene of the Carruthers at a dinner party when the local news announces Sheriff Meeker’s curfew. Concerned, they head home to check on their children despite being implored to stay by an employer. This same employer mentions having bought the old Myers house on the cheap, which he plans to expand and “sell for five times what I paid.” This remodeling might have explained the house’s drastically altered appearance in Halloween 5 only a year later, though not its poor condition.

  One sequence that changed considerably from script to screen was the Shape’s assault on the Meeker house. Theatrically, the sheriff is absent during this sequence as he�
��s out trying to stop the redneck mob from accidentally shooting ordinary citizens. Per the original script, however, Meeker was home and encounters the Shape in his basement. Their violent scuffle leaves the lawman dead and his residence on fire. This creates an additional sense of urgency for Rachel and Jamie to get out of the house. Imagine, if you will, the harrowing rooftop chase as it appears in the film but with flames billowing up from all sides.

  Early drafts also featured an extended sequence at the elementary school with Jamie, Loomis, and Michael. After wounding Loomis, the Shape was to have chased Jamie into the dining hall where she hides beneath a table. Unable to find her, the Shape was to begin angrily flipping cafeteria tables as she crawls between them to evade capture. While this scene didn’t make it into Halloween 4, it was recycled ten years later for use in Halloween H20.

  Lastly, the film’s ending was slightly different as first written. The theatrical finish shows Rachel throwing the Shape from the truck before ramming him with it. Earlier drafts alternately saw her strike him with the truck not once but three times. The screenwriter noted that the Shape made no attempt to avoid any of these collisions. In fact, he actually charges the truck on the second pass. From here, the ending plays out much the same except for an additional line by Jamie. “I forgive you, Uncle Michael.” As in the film, the Shape springs back to life and is blasted away by the police and rednecks. One final difference is that Meeker wasn’t originally present for this death by firing squad as the Shape had already killed him in his home. An injured Loomis, however, was originally present for this moment, though you have to wonder how he managed to travel from the school to the mineshaft so quickly.

  THE GRABOWSKY NOVEL

  In mid-1988, author Nicholas Grabowsky was approached by Guild Press to pen a novel adaptation of Halloween 4 for release alongside the film. Like Richard Curtis and Dennis Etchison before him, Grabowsky peppered his adaptation with numerous additional details that allow the reader a wider look at the world of Halloween 4. Some of these extra moments were originally planned for the film but ultimately cut, though most came from Grabowsky’s own imagination. In 2003, the author released an expanded version of his novel with even more detail and scenes added to the story.

  One of the first major differences in the novel involves the confrontation between Loomis and Michael at the gas station. In the film, Loomis fires his gun at the Shape but misses. In the novel, all three bullets strike him and he drops behind the counter. Loomis goes to investigate but finds his nemesis has still managed to escape. The scene outside unfolds much the same, except that the exploding pumps trigger Loomis into a flashback of Halloween II’s ending. The tortured doctor recalls the smell of his own burning flesh and begging first responders not to save Michael from the flames. This strongly evokes Halloween 4’s originally scripted opening, which would have picked up directly from Halloween II.

  The book also contains an additional moment with Dr. Hoffman, who disappears in the film after Loomis investigates the ambulance crash. Sitting in his office at Ridgemont, Hoffman tries calling the Haddonfield Police Department but is unable to as the lines are mysteriously down. Knowing this is no mere coincidence, Hoffman mutters to himself, “Damn it, Loomis. Why did you have to be right?”

  Grabowsky adds much tension to the scene where Jamie dresses in her costume by having the Shape sneak into the Carruthers home through an upstairs window. He hides in Jamie’s closet and stealthily watches her get ready to go trick-or-treating. As she leaves with Rachel, the Shape is discovered by Sunday the family dog. In a particularly rough scene, the book depicts him killing the pet in order to evade detection. From here, he sifts through a box of family photos that includes pictures of Laurie Strode, Jamie’s father, and of young Michael standing with Judith on that fateful night many years ago.

  In a nod to Halloween II, we learn that Brady vividly recalls Halloween night ten years earlier. As a young boy, he watched the pandemonium unfold after the bodies of Michael’s first victims were discovered inside the Wallace house. (Grabowsky mistakenly writes that Brady saw ambulances surround the Strode residence, but the action in Halloween was confined to the Doyle and Wallace homesteads.)

  Speaking of Laurie Strode, the former final girl has a much larger presence in the Grabowsky novel than in the theatrical film. The book adaptation references her eight times in total. Her final mention comes as Jamie frantically attempts to revive an unconscious Rachel after their fall from the rooftop. Scared and alone, Jamie hallucinates a vision of her dead mother. “Jamie. I want you to live for me. You’re not going to give in and let him take you. Snap out of it. You must snap out of it and run. Go, run!” Entranced, the little girl responds by asking if she’s going to go to heaven now. The apparition abruptly vanishes as Jamie notices the Shape standing over her. She later mentions her vision to Loomis, who dismisses it. “You were going into shock. No one should go through what you are tonight, most of all a girl your age. You were seeing what you wanted to see.”

  The last major difference in the Grabowsky novel involves Reverend Jack Sayer, who appeared only once in Halloween 4 giving Loomis a ride to Haddonfield. (“You can’t kill damnation, Mister.”) Sayer enjoys an expanded role in the novel, cropping up periodically throughout the story. He and Loomis further discuss damnation while sipping the reverend’s hooch. After parting ways, Sayer decides he wants to know more about his passenger’s plight and lies his way into the police station in search of him. Sayer encounters the Shape on his way out after being turned away by a deputy. (“There, directly before him, stood the face of Apocalypse.”) The Shape gouges out the reverend’s eyes before massacring the town’s police force. Loomis and Meeker later find Sayer bloodied and blind. The old man delivers an ominous warning that channels Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th: “You’re all doomed to death. There’s no stopping it! You’re all dead. You, and whoever else stands in its way!”

  INTERVIEW: Larry Rattner

  (Larry Rattner: Writer (Story) - H4)

  How did you first become involved with Halloween 4?

  My story is kind of interesting and not very typical of the industry. I had a friend that worked for Moustapha Akkad’s distribution company. She told me they were working on Halloween 4 and were going back to the Michael Myers storyline. Akkad had decided not to go through the agencies to hire a writer. They were instead going to take submissions, probably for the purpose of having a non-guild writer, but I could be wrong about that. This meant anybody who wanted to submit a synopsis could do so. My friend said there were only a few days left to submit an idea, so I got together with Dhani Lipsius and Benjamin Ruffner and that’s what we did.

  Were you or your friends horror fans?

  I don’t think any of us were really big horror fans. I had never even seen Halloween. We immediately went to the video store to rent the first three movies on VHS. We watched them all a few times each to try and understand the characters and themes. We wanted to study what John Carpenter had done so that we could adhere to the rules of the first two. We didn’t pay much attention to Halloween III. So we came up with our story and submitted it. Then we got a call back maybe a week or two later saying they had chosen three finalists. They asked us to give our treatment another try to see if we could improve it. My understanding is that whomever submitted the best treatment would then be picked to write the full screenplay.

  So we re-wrote it and and now they came down to two finalists this time. They said, ‘You guys were the best. We’re going to pay you to write a first draft of the screenplay.’ I remember it was Thanksgiving 1987. We really worked really hard across the next several days to develop our full script. Ultimately, they picked ours and we continued to work on it with Moustapha. I don’t believe there was a director attached yet, but they eventually hired Dwight Little, who brought the film’s official credited screenwriter - Alan B. McElroy.

  Did you know or work with Alan B. McElroy?

  No, he was a friend of the director who was
brought in to improve the script. He did make some tweaks to it. It also became a little more violent, but the main elements were all still there from our draft. The characters and big twist were our ideas. Actually, Alan made quite a few changes to our script including new character names and dialogue throughout, but we weren’t involved any further once he came on. We only ever worked with Moustapha Akkad and sometimes the line producer. We also weren’t invited to the premiere screening. We just went to a normal theater to see it, which was actually pretty great. Halloween 4 was the #1 movie when it opened for the first two weeks of release. That was quite an experience. The franchise has only continued to become more important since then. It’s great just to be a part of it.

  You weren’t invited to the film’s premiere? That doesn’t seem right, does it?

  We were young and it was all new for us. You learn not to take things too personal in the entertainment business. I think they were probably more focused on the director and stars. Actually, I don’t even know if they had a premiere. Maybe they didn’t? We were just excited that it was coming out and getting a lot of attention. It did really well too, so that was great. We weren’t upset or anything. You have to remember that this was an independent film, not something by a major studio. So that could’ve been it.

  Was it at all frustrating that you and your friends had developed a full screenplay but that the director brought in an additional writer anyway?

  No, it wasn’t. You have to be careful in this business. You can easily get too close to the material, which can make you oversensitive. You always want to make the best movie possible, but at the same time, it’s a business investment. That’s why it’s best not to take things too personal. There are often reasons why people make decisions that may not be related to the creative part anyway.