Editorials
10 Fun Facts You May Not Know About ‘Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers’
I may catch hell for this, but Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is in no way as bad as some make it out to be, and quite frankly speaking, one of the better installments in the franchise series. Personally, I rank The Return a close second to Season of the Witch – another one I constantly get shit on for loving way too much but that’s another bag of dicks for another day – with of course the original two Halloween films tied for that top spot. However, this is all just my own little worthless, humble opinion and I surely expect for many to disagree, which is exactly how this should work. The wide world of the interwebs would be incredibly boring if we all agreed on everything, now wouldn’t it my fellow Pilgrims?
Because of my weird obsession along with the sacred blood oath I’ve taken to defend this movie until peace on Earth commences, and with the glorious awakening of fall that this installment so beautifully catches in the opening credits, I figured what better way to officially kick off the Halloween season with a few fun facts on Halloween 4. Hey, you’ll most likely be watching it several times courtesy of AMC’s Fearfest, and who knows, maybe you’ll learn something new and see the film through a new set of peelers!
10. Halloween 4 screenwriter Alan B. McElroy penned the entire script in under eleven days, just in time before the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike took effect- the longest recorded strike in WGA history lasting 155 days. McElroy also has a cameo in the film, serving as one of the state troopers at the ambulance crash site seen below on the right.
Image via Patti Pauley/ Bloody Disgusting
9. Melissa Joan Hart of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” fame auditioned for the role of Jamie but was ultimately beat out by newcomer Danielle Harris who made her big screen debut in Halloween 4. Had Hart been chosen, Clarissa would have had a whole more explaining to do.
Image via Fanpop
8. Speaking of debut roles, Ellie Cornell who plays Jamie’s foster sister Rachel Carruthers, was also the actress’s first acting credit. Cornell also auditioned for another role that same year in a fellow little infamous horror franchise you may have heard of. Ellie had eyed and auditioned for Alice Johnson in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, but was beat out by Lisa Wilcox.
7. Vincent’s Drugstore, which served as Brady’s after school job and THE go-to-place in Haddonfield for the hippest Halloween costumes, was also used in Stephen King’s The Stand miniseries in 1994 and The Sandlot the previous year; making the mom and pop market sort of a historical filming location for awesome childhood films. Yes, The Stand television event is totally a childhood relic to me.
Image via Headhunters Horrorhouse
6. Dennis Etchison, who had written novelizations of Carpenter’s Halloween classics, originally wrote the first script for Halloween 4 in conjunction with Debra Hill and John Carpenter. The unused story placed Halloween 4 ten years after the events in Halloween II placing focus on Tommy Doyle and Lindsay Wallace in a sort of Footloose–style plot where Halloween is banned from Haddonfield. Of course, that doesn’t stop from Michael Myers showing up and showing the townsfolk what a real Halloween Havoc looks like- take that WCW.
However, of course, Carpenter and Hill left the project over differences with the studios and Etchison’s script never came to be.
5. In Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, we got to see that adult version, and kind of creepy, Tommy Doyle. However, we never fully got an adult Lindsay Wallace like we may have seen in The Return. Not only was she the main character in Etchison’s unused script, turns out Rachel’s friend Lindsay who drove the trio to Vincent’s Drug was actually supposed to be revealed later in the film to be that Lindsay Wallace, and initially had more scenes written for the character but was cut for budget reasons. Well, technically it is her, the film just doesn’t acknowledge it and I’m sticking to that story.
Image via Fandom
4. In the schoolhouse scene when you see Jamie and Dr. Loomis scurrying up the stairs, there’s an awesome albeit a bit fuzzy shot of a paper cutout of Michael Myers on one of the classroom doors of the second floor. * I really tried to get a good shot for you readers. Unfortunately, I’m a much better rambler than a photographer.
Image via Patti Pauley/ Bloody Disgusting
3. Sheriff Meeker was originally supposed to die in the film via Man vs. Myers in a combat battle in the basement of the Meeker residence. The struggle would have resulted in a knocked over furnace engulfing the house in flames, which in turn put Jamie and Rachel on the rooftop. However, the effects deemed too much for the film’s budget and were cut and Meeker’s screen life saved in the process.
Image via Heard County
2. If you’ve seen Halloween 4 at least 100 times like I have, you know of what I speak when it comes to the scene that sticks out like a sore thumb with that blond-haired Michael Myers in the schoolhouse. That one little scene, in particular, is the one shot of George P. Wilbur in a backup “Ben Tramer” Myers mask that was leftover from the Halloween II film. Several stories have made the rounds giving an explanation for the California fun in the sun Myers, however, the one that rings the most truth is that it was simply a mistake from the crew and budget restraints didn’t allow for a reshoot. This is all according to Gorezone magazine via the January 1988 issue.
Image via Jack’s Attic
1. There’s a long lost deleted opening scene rumored to have been shot but never finished for Halloween 4 that explains Loomis’ rescue and survival of the hospital fire at the end of Halloween II by being blasted out of the building. It’s also said to contain a shot where Loomis attempts to stop the firemen from extinguishing Michael by yelling at the men, “Let him burn!”
I would pay all the money in the world to see that ladies and gents. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, maybe $20; and $20 well spent I’d say.
Maybe you knew some of this stuff, or perhaps you caught some new knowledge of the underrated Halloween installment today! Either way, let’s discuss below if you have some more trivia tidbits regarding the night he came home….again!
Image via Compass International
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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