 What's going on guys welcome back to the channel critical overload here. So we'll be talking about Dennis Etchison's Howling for Ghost Michael Myers concept screenplay. They got scrapped. We never got it musta for a card I think is cited as throwing this in the trash as well along with the other things that he's throwing the trash And he just didn't want to do I think he's apparently found this one to be too cerebral For whatever reason, but we're gonna go over and recap that scrap story Going to what could have been as opposed to the Halloween 4 that we all have right now that I know a lot of you know and love Just as me. So Dennis Etchison's Halloween 4 would have fully embraced the supernatural elements of Michael Myers The shape would have quite literally been a shape some sort of ghost supernatural entity because this story I'm gonna be reading most of what I'm talking about today from the horror syndicate who did a great job recapping a lot of the important story beats and the article does include a Link to the PDF copy of the screenplay if you want to check it out Which I will leave a link to the site in the description But the story takes place 10 years after the events of John Carpenter's Halloween and its direct sequel Halloween 2 it's Not doing any of what we actually have gotten with Halloween 4 meaning it's not retconning what happened at the end of Halloween 2 where Loomis and Myers died and now they're magically alive. Both of these characters are still dead So what happens is the events from that night in 78 Continue to haunt the town of Haddonfield as the local residents particularly the adults live in fear and uncertainty as they are unable To let go of the past and find closure Some believe that Michael will return to finish what he started while others fear that one of the town's children will grow up to Be like Michael and bring a rain of terror to the citizens of Haddonfield similarly to what happened in 78 as A result of this widespread of fear throughout the town the celebration of the holiday has been banned and anything Halloween related is Illegal even horror movies are deemed forbidden in an effort to repress the children into avoid another incident but it's only a matter of Time before people begin to push back against the Halloween prohibition and as a result the shape emerges once again now This script began with Lindsey Wallace's mother having a nightmare about the night in 78 when she and her husband returned home to discover that the Terrible things or to discover those terrible things that had happened in their house and that her daughter had been a witness and was in harm's way She awakens from the nightmare just after Lindsey breaks open revealing Michael Myers Who lunges out at her? Mrs. Wallace is so frightened that she intentionally attempts to keep Lindsey Who does not remember anything from that night away from Tommy Doyle who recalls everything so that's an interesting development So the story primarily would have focused on teenage Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace as Mrs. Wallace tries to keep her daughter safe at least from her perspective Tommy makes efforts to reach out to Lindsey and tries to get her to remember and embrace what had happened when they were children He believes that the adults efforts to repress and control the youth is damaging them And he tries to convince her to leave the town with him and to never look back You have sheriff Lee Brackett back as well as deputy Garrett Hunt who have an eventful day dealing with protesters multiple robberies and an overbearing PTA calling for stronger censorship as local and neighboring businesses Fight to keep their doors open by pushing back against a relatively new law that has been established by the town The television news station is looking to stir the pot amidst the protesters and threats for running the ads for the Lost River Drive in and In an effort to boost ratings news anchor Robert Mundy is assigned to cover a retrospective on Michael Myers and the murders of 1978 Mundy is actually one of the more likeable and down-to-earth characters in the screenplay He reluctantly takes the assignment after some arm twisting by his boss But he clearly just wants to leave things be and move on Aware that the topic in events has already had a negative effect on the community He begins trying to contact the survivors for interviews after being unable to gather contact information for Louis Strowed Who left town after graduating in 1979? He attempts to interview Tommy, but angsty Tommy isn't very cooperative Which is a which is a silver lining of a missed or which is a silver of a missed opportunity? Because both characters essentially felt the same way about how Halloween had changed the town But instead Tommy lashes out at Mundy for keeping it going Mundy followed this up with a trip to Smith's Grove to ask about changes to security measures And of course one or two questions about Michael Myers Here he is met by the facility's new director doctor Marion Stern formerly known as Marion Chambers Here Marion is on full damage control mode and shows Mundy a VHS recording of a Michael and Loomis session While making a bold suggestion that Michael may have been a product of Loomis Loomis's madness Now we'll say the treatment of Loomis in the screenplay is a little bit baffling and disheartening and Very pitiful I would say the way to depict Dr. Loomis Then you have the secondary characters or secondary teenagers like Keith and Richie They are basically the secondary teenagers in the screenplay aside from Tommy and Lindsay who are both Recognized as outcast among their peers the story eventually brings all the characters together for a third act All the teenage characters make their way to the Lost River drive-in Unaware that some of their friends have already been killed by the shape a lot of these kills from what I read in the screenplay Seem to be off-screen so that obviously I would have tweaked that if this ever came to be An actual fourth movie Meanwhile the police are on the search for Tommy and Lindsay when they catch the word that there have been multiple murders as the new Spreads panic parents and the police as well as Marion Stern and Robert Mundy flock to the drive-in But they are too late most of the kids have been killed leaving only Lindsay left as the shape pursues her Tommy who disappeared for a chunk of the script after pulling a gun on hunt shows up and gets the first shots off Putting Lindsay in the clear and allowing bracket and the police to open fire Now as the shape is getting peppered with bullets This is the weirdest part of this story He begins to grow becoming 10 feet tall at one point and then as bullets hit parked vehicles There's a wave of explosions when the smoke clears The shape is nowhere to be found and Tommy and Lindsay escape on the opposite side of the drive-in From their parents and police deciding to leave town for good Monday in the cameraman Cast your two teenagers leaving and Mundy blocks the camera telling the cameraman that he didn't see anything and Request the cameraman hand over the tape. I will say that the screenplay again if you read this From the brief pages I read through There was a potential for this to end up being better than the halloween for we got the problem Is there are also several other things that I would have never have done such as the fact that I would not have Done a ghost Michael Meyer story That's not to say that again that the overall quality could not have potentially ended up being better than the fourth movie We have I also would have tweaked the treatment of Loomis and his relationship with Myers and how he was portrayed as this madman Granted, that's how he was eventually portrayed in Halloween 5 But with a little bit more of a good reason at least he's the one actually doing it It's not coming from one of his colleagues previously marrying chambers the off-screen deaths I would have changed that the 10 foot tall Myers that could have been very comical to see on screen so we probably dodged a bullet since this didn't happen but Focusing on Lindsey and Tommy Lot of potential there a lot of potential there definitely has some nightmare in Elm Street vibes to it as well with the town trying to suppress Michael from the kids out of fear and the way they're treating Michael I like that angle, but there's also these other aspects of it that I think really just I would not have done It's kind of a mixed bag for me. I see its potential, but I'm kind of glad we didn't get it Let me know what you guys think about this down the comment section below if you haven't already course Make sure you subscribe turn on post notification in this video in the description. I have links on my social media accounts I am on Facebook sort of Instagram you can message me there of course There's any movies news or reviews you like me to cover in the future and with all that in mind guys I will see you in the next video