With "Halloween Kills" marking the 12th installment in the long-running slasher series
you could probably imagine that there were a lot of sequel ideas that never saw the light of day,
as they were either outright rejected for being too off-brand or were just downright terrible.
And while it does seem like some of them did end up slipping through the cracks,
the repertoire we got probably consisted of the best options that were available at the time.
But just in case they weren't, we're gonna dive into some of these lost sequels of the Halloween franchise
starting with one that almost became the official "Halloween 4"
What is up Scream Team, Zack Cherry here, and if you're as obsessed with horror movies as I am
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This will be the first chapter in a new video series chronicling the unmade sequels of the Halloween franchise,
starting as early as "The Return of Michael Myers" and leading us all the way up to the current David Gordon Green timeline.
Just as a reference, all of the information in this video has been sourced from the book "Taking Shape II"
which is a very in-depth look into the pre-production of each Halloween installment.
With that said, if you're wanting to dig even deeper, I highly recommend picking yourself up a copy.
Otherwise, just for ___ and gigs, toss this video a thumbs up, and meet me in the comments down below
to let me know how you think this script compares to the "Halloween 4" that we got. Let's get into it.
Just a little background to start, if you're wondering why we're beginning this series with "Halloween 4"
it's because there really was no alternative scripts for either "Halloween II" or "III".
Granted, there were musings of setting "Halloween II" in a high-rise apartment complex several years after the original,
however, John Carpenter and Debra Hill were very adamant that the only way they could feasibly continue the story of Laurie, Loomis, and the Shape
was by having the events pick up immediately after. Hence they only ever wrote the one script.
As for "Halloween III", it was always intended to continue the franchise as an anthology,
and therefore only one script was ever optioned for that.
Written by Nigel Kneale, who ultimately had his name removed from the project,
the script underwent major rewrites from both Carpenter and director - Tommy Lee Wallace,
and as Carpenter had already been trying to distance himself from the franchise at that point, Wallace ended up retaining the sole writing credit.
Now when it comes to "Halloween 4" and why it spent six long years in development hell,
we need to understand where the franchise was in 1982.
With the release of "Season of the Witch", Universal (whose two-picture deal for the franchise's production rights had just expired),
declined to pursue a fourth instalment, as they no longer felt Halloween was a viable property.
For more context, slasher movies had become all the rage at the time,
and with "Halloween III" taking a huge departure from the story of the first two movies,
the audience response was quite resoundingly negative and it didn't seem like it was going to bounce back any time soon.
With Universal bowing out, this returned the franchise's rights back to the five original partners:
John Carpenter, Debra Hill, Irwin Yablans, Joseph Wolf, and Moustapha Akkad.
And while Yablans and Akkad were eager to make "Halloween 4", fulfilling the moviegoers demands of seeing more Michael Myers,
Carpenter and Hill weren't as enthused about the idea.
In fact, they had been quite vocal about their disdain for returning for "II" and "III",
but maintained that the paycheck earned from those movies gave them the financial freedom to say no to doing it for a fourth time.
This created a 5-way power split that posed a major creative impasse for the franchise
as no new sequels would ever be made unless all parties were on board.
To further complicate things, Akkad had sued Yablans for withholding millions in contractually guaranteed royalty payments from the original film,
a similar issue that Carpenter and Hill had had with Yablans prior to the release of "Halloween II".
And although this was all settled out of court, it created bad blood amongst the production partners.
Yablans would later blame these issues on the accounting practices of his Compass International business partner, Joseph Wolf,
before finally taking over his shares of the franchise, whittling the ownership rights down to just four.
However, with franchises like "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" flourishing at the box office with sequel after sequel,
the foursome was missing out on untold millions each year from literally sitting on a proverbial gold mine.
Against threats from Akkad and Yablans of suing both Carpenter and Hill for blocking their efforts,
Carpenter finally caved when he was offered a multi-picture deal with Canon Film Group,
on the condition that one of the films be "Halloween 4".
Carpenter agreed to the deal, but only if his participation would be limited to supervising the creation of the screenplay, rather than writing it himself.
And while the opinions of all four partners differed greatly, they all agreed on at least one thing: Michael Myers needed to return.
Carpenter, who didn't want to pander to slasher audiences by giving them more of the same,
decided to go a more stylish route and hired science-fiction and horror author Dennis Etchison
who had previously been affiliated with the franchise for having written the official novelizations for "Halloween II" and "III".
Similar to "The Return of Michael Myers", Etchison's story returns to Haddonfield in 1988,
ten years after the events of the first two movies. However, unlike "The Return of Michael Myers",
which shows us a town in full Halloween swing with decorations and trick-or-treaters abound,
this version finds Haddonfield crippled by fear in the wake of Michael's 1978 massacre.
The adults of the town have fully banned Halloween, making it illegal to trick-or-treat, watch scary movies,
or buy and sell any sort of Halloween paraphernalia, and even candy...
Joey: Well if that's the way you feel, forget it Vic, just forget it!
...very much in the same vein of a plot we saw in "Halloween 6"
where we find out that the town had done something similar in the years following the events of "Halloween 5".
Essentially, this script is described as being the slasher version of "Footloose",
the Kevin Bacon movie about the town the banned dancing.
In terms of the characters, the story is full of practically every survivor from the first two movies:
Tommy Doyle, Lindsey Wallace, Sheriff Brackett, Deputy Hunt, Mr. and Mrs. Wallace, Lonnie Elam and his friends,
Marion Chambers, and Robert Mundy, the local news reporter, who is given a much bigger role this time around.
In some later drafts, Bracket would be removed altogether, in which Hunt would take on the title of Haddonfield's new sheriff.
Noticeably absent though are both Laurie Strode and Dr Loomis.
However, in a reversal from their fates in the eventual "Halloween 4",
we learn that Dr. Loomis' death at the end of "Halloween II" is considered to be canon,
while Laurie Strode on the other hand, rather than having died in an automobile accident, just decided to move away from Haddonfield instead.
As for Michael Myers, his death at the end of "Halloween II" also remains canon, meaning that human Michael is very much dead,
so the question remains, how does the story amend this?
Etchison's incarnation of Michael Myers is very different from the slasher's two earlier appearances
in a sense that his story fully embraces the supernatural elements of the shape,
whereas the first two movies only ever hinted at them.
In that regard, there is nothing human about Michael Myers in this script, other than the fact that he retains a similar flesh and blood facade.
There are minor differences to his appearance however, as this version is described as
having traded his mechanic's coveralls for a black shirt and black coat,
but the mask remains the same and shows no apparent fire damage, or wear and tear from his previous injuries.
As far as 'how?' and 'why?' Michael returns, is perhaps the biggest anomaly here
as he just kind of magically appears in a pumpkin patch outside of town.
More specifically, he explodes out of a mound of pumpkins.
And while this does seem very "Terminator", almost like he's being sent back in time,
it's never really given any explanation, or even questioned by the characters outside of the concept that
his evil spirit was manifested from the fear brought upon by the townspeople.
In that regard, Michael is very similar to Freddy Krueger here, the key difference being that he hasn't been relegated to the dream world.
There is one sequence though where Mrs. Wallace has a nightmare in which
Michael appears to her as a little girl, standing at the top of the stairs (presumably being little Lindsay),
Only for the Shape to come splitting out of her, as he chases after the woman while the walls and furniture start to bleed red.
Other than that however, elements of the story seem almost identical to "Freddy vs. Jason",
in which Haddonfield adults have psychologically conditioned their children to forget about Michael Myers.
Especially where Lindsey and her mother are concerned,
making Mrs. Wallace out to be somewhat of a secondary antagonist, as she's basically shown to be a "Karen" on a crusade.
But while her overbearing nature has caused Lindsey to lose all memory of "the night HE came home",
Tommy remembers it vividly, and has adopted more of a rebellious angsty nature
as he's presented here as more of a Luke Perry bad boy type.
Naturally due to this behavioral incongruence, Lindsey has been forbidden to talk to him,
and with the two still living across the street from one another, it creates another echo of "A Nightmare on Elm Street"
with Nancy and Glen being neighbors whose parents try to keep them apart.
But it is important to note that unlike Nancy, Tommy's willfulness is rooted in his skepticism
of Michael Myers ever coming back. Meaning that the fear and paranoia that runs rampant throughout the script
is exclusively felt by the adults of the town.
An interesting aspect of this script is that there isn't really a main character.
The story cycles between multiple threads that include the teenagers, their parents, local law enforcement,
news reporter Robert Mundy, and least of all the Shape himself, who doesn't really appear to have very much screen time.
His initial introduction in the pumpkin patch sees him murder a teenage girl named D'Arcy (one of Lindsay's friends),
but there isn't really any major bloodletting to speak of until the final act.
The main theme here is 'repression versus acknowledgement', and it's highlighted in a town hall meeting where
the parents object to the fact that the owner of The Lost River Drive-In (which was a location mentioned in "Halloween II")
plans on running an all-night horror movie marathon.
Since the establishment is on the outskirts of town,
the outdoor theater technically doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of Haddonfield police.
Therefore, there's nothing legally stopping the planned event from taking place.
This does however put pressure on Sheriff Brackett and Deputy Hunt
to call in police reinforcements from the neighboring county just to ensure an uneventful night.
It's also here where we learn that not every adult is in favor of the halloween ban
as it's created an economical crisis for certain business owners,
with some having to resort to selling costumes and candy under the counter as contraband
to keep it out of sight from the angry mobs of "Karens".
This highlights a nice little callback to the original
where we see that Tommy has to hide his horror comic books under the couch, because his mom doesn't like him having them.
Among other things that the parents are angry about is the fact that local journalist Robert Mundy
has chosen to do a retrospective on the 1978 murders, as such a news story would surely trigger more repressed memories for the teenagers.
The reporter's interviews take him to Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where he meets with the new administrator Dr. Stern
who is revealed to be Nurse Marion Crane, now married, and somehow a doctor since we last saw her in "Halloween II".
She allows Mundy to read through portions of Michael's psychiatric history where
it's discovered that he was feared as a 'dark god' within the hospital, and
was known as 'the lord of the dead' by the other patients.
It's also here where Dr. Loomis would have made a cameo in the form of a videotape of a therapy session between him and Michael,
where we get more of Loomis going on about Michael not being a child, but rather the reincarnation of evil.
It's even suggested that he physically abused Michael, as he's seen threatening the young child to speak,
even raising his arm to strike him before the tape cuts out.
Two more scenes of note include a double kill that features a teenage couple having sex in a drug store
where Michael plunges his knife into the boy's back, killing him instantly.
This goes unnoticed by the girl, who mistakes the thrusts of Michael trying to dislodge the knife as typical coital motions,
where upon the grisly realization, she too is quickly murdered when Michael finally gets the knife out and uses it to slash her throat.
The other scene, which was somewhat repurposed for the eventual "Halloween 4",
finds Lonnie Elam and his friends playing a prank on Sheriff Bracket and Deputy Hunt,
where they ambush the two in a cornfield while all wearing Michael Myers masks.
The difference here being that there are thirteen masked bodies in total,
at which point the realization dawns on them that there are only twelve pranksters, meaning that one of them is indeed the Shape.
This segues into the climax, that takes place at the earlier mentioned Lost River Drive-In
which would have featured a set piece containing the highest body count of not only Michael's slasher career,
but also the highest body count of any slasher ever. Certainly eclipsing Jason's record
as the Shape manages to slaughter the entire drive-in audience by going car to car,
where the muffled screams of his victims are indistinguishable from the sounds of the horror movies playing on screen.
By the end of the bloodbath, it's all described as a graveyard of vehicles beneath the projector beam,
where a million moths flutter in the light.
Among the movies playing at the all-night horror marathon are: "Re-Animator", "Texas Chain Saw Massacre",
"Christine", "Psycho", "The Fog" and nondescript entries in the "Friday the 13th" franchise.
At one point, Michael would have even been killing people alongside with Jason killing people on screen,
making this script somewhat meta, before "Scream" even treaded that territory in the 90s.
Alerted to the massacre, all of the characters coalesce at the drive-in for the final showdown
which is probably where things start to go off the rails.
After Marion tries to talk Michael into coming back to Smith's Grove with her
he starts attacking them, only for the police and Tommy to open fire.
It's here where literal chunks of Michael's body start flying off, only to regenerate (another Freddy Krueger ability),
and he also starts to absorb the bullets being shot at him, which only make him stronger and allow him to grow up to 12 feet tall.
A stray bullet strikes the gas tank of one of the parked cars, igniting the outdoor theater into an inferno
where Michael once again is engulfed in flames and disappears when the smoke settles.
The final scene finds Tommy and Lindsey hiding in a nearby barn where they all of the sudden join in a romantic embrace,
despite there being no clear indication of any sparks or chemistry in any of their interactions throughout the film.
It's here where they decide to leave town and start a new life somewhere else,
leaving their families to believe they died in the fire, because... why not?
There are definitely some memorable set pieces here which would have been really nifty to see play out on screen,
but the fact remains that this story does take a lot of creative liberties
crafting a mythology that goes against everything that had already been pre-established in the first two movies.
And while future sequels would delve more into this kind of supernatural territory,
it was still only ever suggested, rather than blatantly presented to us in text ("Halloween 6: Producers Cut" notwithstanding).
But the biggest offence here is how none of it is ever explained; not Michael's reappearance or his disappearance at the end.
If these supernatural abilities were prevalent in the earlier films that would be fine,
but since Michael is a character already grounded in a human world it just makes this plot very jarring,
especially how none of the characters really question any of it.
Despite the script being blessed by Carpenter, and him having lined up Joe Dante of "The Howling" and "Piranha" fame to direct,
Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad kiboshed the script after they felt the supernatural approach was the wrong direction to pursue.
Akkad wanted something more similar to the first two films, and of course Carpenter and Hill were opposed to that
as they were tired of making the same movie over and over again.
Frustrated that the partners would never come to a mutual agreement,
Hill and Carpenter put their collective stake in the franchise up for sale which was then purchased by Akkad,
thus ending their contractual oversight and whittling the franchise's rights holders down to just two.
However, with all the numerous legal battles surrounding the shared intellectual property,
Yablans became disillusioned with filmmaking and retired from the business for good, also selling his stake.
And with Akkad being left as the sole rights holder to the franchise, with complete creative control,
he could now pursue the script he wanted. One more closely resembling the Shape as we saw him in the first two movies.
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if you guys wanna check out even more Halloween related content, including the next lost sequel as it becomes available,
you can click right here on either of these links.
Until then, I've been Zack Cherry, and I'll be right back.