THE FACE OF EVIL
Blank-masked serial killer Michael Myers has haunted screens for decades. Here’s a rundown of his misconduct to date
Halloween (1978) KILL-COUNT: 7 John Carpenter’s Halloween begins from the viewpoint of a figure creeping through a house on 31 October 1963, pulling on a mask, stabbing a teenage girl, then wandering out into the street. The mask comes off and the camera revolves to show a blank-faced six-year-old boy clutching a bloodied murder weapon. “Michael?” asks an appalled parent.
Fifteen years later — “the night he came home” — Michael Myers escapes from an asylum and heads for his home town (Haddonfield, Illinois), with obsessed psychiatrist Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasence) in pursuit. The shrink talks of the kid having “the devil’s eyes” and agrees with teenage Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) that Michael is “the bogeyman”. In this pared-down, ruthless fright film, the killer isn’t a deranged person like Norman Bates or even Hannibal Lecter, but the shark from Jaws or the truck from Duel in a human body. He isn’t even Michael, except when his youthful face is glimpsed; he’s the Shape (Nick Castle).
He stalks and kills — and stabbing, spearing or shooting him barely even slow him down. There are hints that he directs his hatred particularly at normal kids — and, tellingly, he’s touchy about masculine skills, murdering three teenagers because one of them makes fun of his driving. Hidden behind an eerily featureless mask and using his hands as often as a knife, he plays cruel Hallowe’en pranks (his ghost/boyfriend disguise) between kills. Besides kids, he murders two dogs — one for food, one for cruelty. Michael will never be as scary again.
Halloween II (1981)
Kill-count: 10 Picking up later that night, this sequel — made in the era of “I am your father” — hinges on the big reveal that Laurie, Michael’s intended victim, is his long-lost sister. Despite sporting the scariest mask of the series and almost doubling his previous body count, this Michael (Dick Warlock) is seen too often and has a family-related motive rather than being plain evil. In taking cues from this slasher soap, all subsequent Halloweens fall short of the original.
Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982)
Kill-count: 0 Michael is only glimpsed on a TV screen in this unusual entry about a creepy toymaker trying to bring about the end of the world. It was perceived as a disappointment, so next we have…
Halloween 4 (1988)
Kill-count: 17 Aka The Return Of Michael Myers. Now Michael (George P. Wilbur) is after Laurie’s daughter Jamie (Danielle Harris), killing his way through teens to get to her. At the end, he a) is shoved down a mine and b) perhaps possesses Jamie.
Halloween 5 (1989)
Kill-count: 12 Aka The Revenge Of Michael Myers. Jamie’s possession was all a dream, but Michael (Wilbur) is now in telepathic contact with her. A mystery man in a cowboy outfit shows up to help Michael escape from jail.
Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers (1995)
Kill-count: 17 Cowboy Boots turns out to be head of a Druid cult who wants to use Michael (Wilbur) to spawn a being of ultimate evil. It doesn’t work, and nor did the film.
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)
Kill-count: 6 Ignoring the last three sequels, this soft reboot brings back Laurie (Curtis), and has Michael (Chris Durand) resume his quest from Halloween II to kill her. At least the supporting cast (Joseph Gordon-levitt, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams) is fresh. At the end, Laurie chops off her brother’s head…
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Kill-count: 11 Only joking — that was some other maskwearer whose head rolled. Michael (Brad Loree) finally kills Laurie, then crashes a Hallowe’en party and gets beaten up by rapper Busta Rhymes. You’d think that would be the low point in any franchise fiend’s career, but worse is to come.
Halloween (2007)
Kill-count: 20 Rob Zombie remakes Halloween — and spends a third of the film on Michael’s unhappy childhood, making young Mikey (Daeg Faerch) a pathetic trailer-trash loser and the grown-up killer (Tyler Mane) a simple thug.
Halloween II (2009)
Kill-count: 17 Zombie’s hulking Michael (Mane) returns in a sequel to a remake that’s also partially a remake of a sequel. He fails again to kill his sister (Scout Taylor-thompson), but the Myers boy did manage to kill the Halloween series. That is, until 2018’s reboot, from writer Danny Mcbride and director David Gordon Green, which Mcbride promises will bring back the “creep factor” of Carpenter’s original.