Halloween 4: The Rehabilitation of Michael Myers
“Not another one!”
“Wait! I'm getting paid for this? Keep 'em coming!”
“He is so cute!”
Halloween 4: The Rehabilitation of Michael Myers is the 1988 sequel to Halloween and is the fourth entry in the Halloween Series of horror-slasher films. It is the first film in the series to not directly involve John Carpenter or Debra Hill, who had sold their rights to Moustapha Akkad and independent studio Cash Cow International Films.
In this sequel, serial killer and mass murderer Michael Myers (Played by Mike Myers) -- having been absent from the previous Halloween III: The Nap of Michael Myers storyline -- is ordered by his psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) to undergo rehabiliation after his Halloween 1978 rampage.
Halloween I and II star Jamie Lee Curtis was unable to reprise her role of Laurie Strode because of the film's lower budget. This lead writer Elroy Jetson to create a new victim for Michael, his eight-year-old niece Jamie (Michelle Trachtenberg). Laurie was killed off in a bizarre gardening accident.
Plot[edit]
On the morning of October 30, 1988, Michael Myers (Mike Myers), having been dormant for the past decade, receives orders from Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) that he is being transferred to a rehabilitation facility that will help rid Michael of his evil. Loomis's murderous patient will have to receive on-the-job training under his doctor's supervision. Michael's stints at McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Sears, Old Navy, Victoria's Secret, Alfredo's French Restaurant, and even Hot Topic and Spencer's don't exactly go as planned, so he is moved to a cashier job at Wal-Mart, much to Michael's dismay.
That night when a customer is frustrated with Michael's laziness and lack of social skills, he grabs a knife that he had just purchased and threatens to kill Michael. Michael, knowing better than this, grabs the man's knife and forces it into his gut, punches out for the day, gets himself a late lunch from the store's McDonald's, and heads to Haddonfield for one more scare.
Michael has no idea that Laurie has died (supposedly -- see Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later), so he expects to see her in the same Haddonfield neighborhood. When he asks for directions from a guy named Jim (John Goodman), he learns of Laurie's death and the fact that she left a daughter behind, adopted by the Carruthers family.
Nothing much else happens in the movie, but Loomis does deliver great lines.
Cast[edit]
- Michael Myers...Mike Myers
- Dr. Loomis...Donald Pleasence
- Jamie Lloyd...Michelle Trachtenberg
- Rachel Carruthers...Ellie Cornell
- Greg Brady...Sasha Baron Cohen
- Kelly Meager...Christina Applegate
- Sheriff Meager...Ringo Starr
- Jim...John Goodman
Reception[edit]
The film was met with positive reviews from the horror press, but the mainstream film critics weren't so kind. Roger Ebert, a huge fan of the original, gave Halloween 4 two fingers up, calling it the biggest crapfest since Ernest Goes to See "Howard the Duck II: Howard Goes to See Dragnet" -- an abysmal movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie.
The film did far better commercially than it did critically. Halloween 4 made $44 Million at the box office, $32 Million in its opening weekend, a blockbuster for a horror film. It has since made 15 times its box office gross in home video and DVD sales.
Horror films