Michael Myers

Michael Myers

Michael Myers is one of the most feared villains in horror movie history.  He is the antagonist in the Halloween film series with the exception of Season of the Witch (Halloween III), which didn’t feature any of the previous cast members.  Although he is described as being pure evil, others argue this, saying that he is a supernatural force, essentially a force that is evil and on the loose.

Getting to Know Michael Myers

Myers is depicted as being an elusive, mythic boogeyman who can’t be killed by fire, bullets or stab wounds.  Carpenter found his inspiration for Michael Myers when he was in Kentucky at a mental institution on a class trip.  There was a young 12-year old boy who had a real evil, schizophrenic stare that Carpenter found creepy and unsettling.  This experience was what provoked the characterization of this villain of superhuman strength.

What makes Michael Myers more frightening than characters in other horror movies is his ability to feel.  In one scene where he removes a mask and sheds a tear, it humanizes him which makes him even more scary because he can demonstrate feelings of regret and love.

Michael Myers has been described as being a sexual deviant because he follows and watches girls, offering characteristics of repressed sexuality.  Michael was fixated on his sister Judith’s murder and because of this, he had to repeat the action continuously because he was excited by it.  As the script developed though, he had gone beyond being a simple man, he became mythical with some deeper force driving him.  Another thing fans were intrigued by was that Michael Myers never spoke during the series until the 2007 remake when he spoke as a child in the very beginning.

Life

• 1978 – Six-year-old Michael Myers kills his sister Judith with a kitchen knife.  15 years later, he escapes Smith’s Grove Sanitarium to return to his hometown, stalking Laurie and her friends. His psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis ends up shooting him in the chest six times and he falls over a balcony but his body is never found.

• 1981 – Dr. Loomis and the police are looking for the body of Michael Myers but he is searching for Laurie in a hospital where she is being treated for injuries acquired in the film’s predecessor. It is revealed that Michael is Laurie’s older brother.  To save Laurie, Dr. Loomis sacrifices himself to burn him and Myers together.

• 1988 – In Halloween IV, it is discovered that Dr. Loomis and Michael Myers both survived the explosion.  Michael has been in a coma for 10 years but wakes up when he learns that his sister has died but that her seven-year-old daughter named Jamie has been left behind.  He returns to Haddonfield, causing a blackout and killing the police force but is eventually shot by the state police.

• 1989 – Michael Myers escapes the mine shaft he was shot down and a hermit is nursing him back to life.  He kills the hermit, returns to Haddonfield once again to look for Jamie but is eventually captured by the police and taken to the station.  Some unknown figure murders the police force and sets Myers free.

• 1995 – Michael and Jamie have both disappeared.  Jamie was kidnapped and impregnated by a cult let by Loomis’ friend, Dr. Wynn.  It is suggested that he was the one who helped him escape from jail in Halloween V.  Michael murders Jamie but fortunately, she had time to hide her newborn who a guy named Tommy Doyle (from Halloween II) discovers.

• 1998 – It is found that Laurie faked her death so she could escape and has been living in California with her son John.  Michael Myers tracks them down to the private boarding school John attends but Laurie decapitates him.

• 2002 – Laurie finds out that she really decapitated a paramedic back in 1998 who Michael had switched clothes with.  Myers tracks down Laurie at an institution and kills her.  He returns to Haddonfield and kills a group of college students but to seek revenge, their friends trap Myers in a burning garage.

• 2007 – Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween was based on the original film but focuses on the childhood of Michael Myers.  He is shown at 10 years old killing animals and suffering verbal abuse from his sister and Ronnie (his mother’s boyfriend).  After he escapes from being institutionalized for half his life he is excited to go see his real sister Laurie but she is terrified of him and shoots him.

• 2009 – Michael Myers is presumed dead once again but he has a vision of his mother who tells him to find Laurie so they can both come home to her so wakes up.  In this remake of Halloween II, Laurie and Michael actually share a mental link and have the same visions of their mother.  Laurie stabs her brother, killing him for the last time?