While it didn’t ultimately get made, the John Carpenter/Debra Hill produced version of Halloween 4 may have had the largest slasher movie bodycount ever. The original Halloween is a landmark horror title, but the multiple sequels and reboots have seen it become something of a “choose your own adventure” series. There’s the Jamie Lloyd saga (Halloween 4 to 6), the Rob Zombie duology or the one-and-done anthology of the Myers-free Halloween III: Season Of The Witch.
The latter outing is a cult favorite now but was considered a franchise killer back in 1982. It took six years for the series to return for Halloween IV: The Return Of Michael Myers. While this entry arrived late to the slasher sequel party of the 1980s – exemplified by Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street – it still revived the ailing series after a long slumber. Of course, creators John Carpenter and Debra Hill had jumped ship from the fourth entry, but before this, they developed a very different take.
This Halloween 4 would have picked up ten years on from the events of the first two movies, with Haddonfield having banned Halloween entirely. It turns out their attempts to ban horror movies or suppress their own fears play a part in bringing back Michael, but instead of being a flesh and blood killer, Myers literally becomes “The Shape,” a phantom made reality. A major subplot would have seen teenagers attending a drive-in marathon of horror movies – which included Psycho and Friday The 13th sequels as well as Carpenter’s own The Fog – but as they’re distracted by the movies, The Shape would arrive. This climactic sequence would have seen him kill everyone attending the drive-in, with the bodycount reaching triple figures.
Halloween Kills is promoting its own high bodycount, but the Carpenter/Hill Halloween 4 was set to have the highest kill count of any slasher. The heroes Tommy Doyle and Lindsay Wallace were set to come across this graveyard of cars in the final battle, which would have made for an eerie sight. That said, the movie’s portrayal of Michael Myers/The Shape would have undoubtedly been controversial. He’s not quite the Michael from past movies, and in the showdown with Tommy and the police, he’s able to regrow missing fingers and even grow 12 feet in height whilst being shot; he eventually just vanishes.
Ultimately, this Halloween 4 was rejected for being “too cerebral” and Carpenter and Hill sold their stake in the franchise and moved on. Joe Dante was one name linked to this bogeyman version of Halloween 4, and it’s easy to see him having fun with the more meta elements. The resulting fourth movie might be a xerox of the original in many ways, but it made for an entertaining slasher that introduced fan-favorite Jamie Lloyd. The final product wasn’t afraid of a little gore, but it certainly lacked the bodycount of the unmade version.
