by Brett Hardel

Created on: January 16, 2009

Ten Years Ago HE Changed The Face Of Halloween. Tonight HE'S BACK!

With the lackluster performance of "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" 1n 1982, it was obvious that fans wouldn't accept a "Halloween" movie without Michael Myers. Though it was intended to continue the series without Michael Myers and instead focus on a different storyline in each subsequent movie centering around Halloween, the box office failure of "Halloween III" changed those plans. Series producer Moustapha Akkad put up $5 million to resurrect Micheal Myers and brought on board Dwight H. Little to direct - John Carpenter was briefly involved with a story treatment in 1986 - and filming commenced in April 1988 in and around Salt Lake City.

Ten years after the Halloween night carnage from the first two movies, Michael Myers is allegedly now a badly burned vegetable confined to a hospital bed, and his nemesis Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) is horribly scarred from the explosion at the end of "Halloween II". During a hospital transfer on October 30, Michael overhears that he has a niece in his hometown of Haddonfield. Then the ambulance doesn't reach it's destination and Michael disappears. Loomis now makes a beeline for Haddonfield to protect Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the daughter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Michael Myers' sister. The local police aren't happy to see Loomis again, but this time they heed his advice. After Michael cuts the town phone and power lines, Loomis shepherds Jamie and her foster sister Rachel (Ellie Cornell) to the home of the new sheriff, Ben Meeker (Beau Starr). As they try to reinforce the house and Rachel bickers with the sheriff's daughter (Kathleen Kinmont) over her boyfriend Brady (Sasha Jenson) being caught at her house, the most dangerous man alive is closer than they think...

Released on October 21, 1988, the film earned $6,831,000 in it's opening weekend ending with a total of $17,768,757. Jamie Lee Curtis declined participation in this sequel although she would return ten years later for "Halloween H20". Though critical reaction was mixed, the box office performance had a sequel rushed into production, and the tepid "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" was released in October 1989 to little fanfare and the series then remained quiet until Dimension Films revived the series in 1995 with "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers", the final film for Donald Pleasance.

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