THE Halloween The franchise’s unstoppable bogeyman is possessed by inhuman evil, but why is Michael Myers so strong? Given how Michael always comes back from death, even if End of Halloween seemingly killed him for good, there is no definitive answer to that question, as the franchise is divided into four different timelines, each of which has offered its own take on Michael Myers. Most recently, 2018 Halloween reset the timeline, ignoring everything from Halloween II onwards and positioning itself as a direct sequel to the 1978 film Halloween.
Since the first appearance of Michael Myers on cinema screens his psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis, stated that Michael was not a man. When a distraught Laurie Strode calls Michael Myers a boogeyman, Dr. Loomis tells her she is right. No matter what timeline he’s in, Michael is an irrepressible force of evil. However, is Michael Myers immortal? Here are all the possible answers to the looming specter of Michael Myers’ origins.
Michael Myers in the original Halloween films
He was cursed by a cult
The original Halloween The timeline contains the most overtly supernatural explanation for Myers’ powers. As revealed in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myersa group of druids belonging to HalloweenThe Cult of the Thorn cursed Michael when he was a child. This curse causes him to be possessed by Thorn, a demonic force that demands its host sacrifice his family on Samhain (now known as Halloween night).
Thorn also grants his host supernatural gifts, which has been offered as an explanation for why Michael Myers survived so many injuries that should have been fatal. In this version of Halloween In the timeline, Laurie Strode is Michael’s sister and therefore he is driven to kill her on Halloween night to complete his sacrifice to the sinister entity, Thorn. Is Michael Myers immortal? In the original timeline, HalloweenThorn’s Boggart is as immortal as Thorn’s supernatural gifts allow.
Despite an ambitious scope that attempts to inject some much-needed knowledge into the Halloween franchise, The Curse of Michael Myers – the only film without Dr. Loomis and Michael sharing a scene – committed the cardinal sin of over-explaining its monster. In fact, it’s Michael Myers’ immortal nature, despite ostensibly existing in a world without magic, that makes him so frightening.
Another problem is that he cannot be reasoned with or negotiated and appears to have no real motivation for massacring people, meaning he kills indiscriminately as a manifestation of death itself. When taking Halloweeninherent mystery and replacing it with a druid curse, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers it makes Michael seem considerably less scary, but also more confusing. The film was panned by critics upon its release and never received a direct sequel.
Michael Myers in the Halloween H20 reboot
He was apparently human by most standards
Is Michael Myers immortal in the reboot timeline? Michael Myers died in Halloween H20 upon being decapitated by Laurie, but was shown alive in the aftermath, Halloween: Resurrection. However, this does not necessarily make him immortal. The end of Halloween H20 apparently gives Michael Myers his most definitive death yetwith Laurie completely decapitating him with an axe. Despite the title of the 2002 sequel, Michael Myers was not resurrected by any supernatural means.
The man Laurie beheaded was not Michael Myers
Instead, the end of Halloween H20 was rebroadcast with the revelation that the man Laurie had decapitated was not Michael Myers, but a paramedic who had his vocal chords crushed by Michael to prevent him from speaking, as well as being dressed in Michael’s jumpsuit and Halloween mask to trick Laurie. The late ’90s reboot offers a new timeline starting where Halloween II stopped and ignoring everyone else Halloween films, showing no evidence of Michael Myers being supernatural nor immortal in this specific timeline.
Michael Myers in Rob Zombie’s Halloween reboot
Michael Myers had mental health problems
Zombie Rob Halloween reboot and sequel portray the most “human” Michael Myers of all four versions, but also delve into dream sequences and hallucinations that give them an otherworldly feel. As Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Zombie’s take on the franchise attempts to answer the question of why Michael Myers kills but opts for a much more limited explanation of local druid activity.
Michael Myers is guided from victim to victim by a hallucinatory manifestation of his dead mother.
Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009) go all-in on a Freudian analysis of Michael Myers, with Dr. Loomis giving a lecture on Freudian foundations at one point. In Halloween IIMichael Myers is guided from victim to victim by a hallucinatory manifestation of his dead mother. His mind is represented by a vision of his 10-year-old self in spectral form. Although this portrayal of Michael Myers was well received Halloween: the complete collection does not include Rob Zombie Halloween theatrical cuts.
The closest Rob Zombie Halloween films reach the supernatural are vague hints of a psychic connection between Michael and Laurie Strodeonce again Michael’s long-lost sister. At one point, Michael eats the meat of a murdered dog, and miles away, Laurie (who is a vegetarian) abruptly begins vomiting. Laurie later begins to have the same visions as her mother, even though she was orphaned as a baby and has no idea what her mother is like.
She also sees the child version of Michael at the end of halloween II, with Laurie unable to escape the adult Michael because the child is holding her telepathically. Is Michael Myers human or not? In Zombie’s opinion, he appears to be a human being with severe mental illness, linking Myers’ psychopathy to hereditary traits.
Michael Myers in the new Halloween continuity
An unstoppable killing machine
Currently, the official Halloween canon consists of Halloween (1978), Halloween (2018), Halloween kills (2021), and End of Halloween (2022). One of the benefits of ignoring Halloween II and your lineage is this the current Halloween continuity is free of the family connection between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Instead, the updated canon entries return Michael to the essence of his character – an unstoppable harbinger of death who kills for no known reason.
Tony Moran is not listed in the credits as Michael Myers, but simply as “The Shape.”
In the original Halloweenactor Tony Moran is not listed in the credits as Michael Myers, but simply as “The Shape.” This is how John Carpenter referred to him in the script, and this fits with the idea that Michael is not a man, but a bogeyman incarnate. This folkloric creature is defined by its elusiveness; There are no “rules” confining the Boggart as there are with other supernatural creatures, and he has no overtly specific powers or weaknesses.
At the end of the original HalloweenAfter Michael Myers’ bullet-riddled body disappears, the film ends with a series of shots of empty rooms, with the sound of Michael breathing in all of them. The sequence conveys the idea that the bogeyman could be lurking anywhere and also confirms the ethereal qualities that Michael Myers’ current continuities exhibit.
While Halloween is left with a decidedly flesh-and-blood portrait of Michael Myers, Halloween kills confirms the notion that Michael is indeed supernatural. In reference to Michael emerging alive from the devastating fire at the Strode house, Laurie says darkly that “a man couldn’t survive that fire“, and that Michael is “the essence of evil.” These lines are consistent with Dr. Loomis’ whims in the original Halloween movie: Michael Myers is not a man, but pure evil in human form.
Halloween kills establishes a concrete marker that Michael is decidedly not human.
At the coda of Halloween killsMichael is left prone after being savagely beaten before regenerating in front of the Haddonfield crowd. Laurie’s monologue confirms Michael’s supernatural qualities in Halloween Kills, making the burly figure similar to a demigod, saying “the more he kills, the more he transcends.” In this way, Halloween kills sets a concrete marker that Michael is not human, so Laurie and the entire town put Michael through a shredder End of Halloween.
Michael Myers needs supernatural elements to work
This makes him a real bogeyman and not just a normal man
Although Michael Myers’ human nature provided some valuable results Halloween reboots, Michael’s supernatural and unexplained past defines The Shape’s identity as the bogeyman of classic horror. This is why, even in End of Halloween where it becomes clear that Michael is an elderly human, the entire town gathers to watch Michael be placed in a crusher during the End of Halloween end.
While this could be attributed to the moment being a point of resolution for the traumatized population, everyone really wanted to make sure that Michael was dead and that they saw it with their own eyes. In fact, End of Halloween Revealing that Michael is just a normal person who is slowly dying like everyone else is actually a brilliant twist – not a counterpoint – to Michael’s mysterious supernatural origin.
Based on the current Halloween continuity, the public may very well confirm that Michael Myers is indeed human — but those forever scarred by their actions will never know for sure, and that makes sense. While Michael Myers being human in a movie or two would be nice, the length of the main line Halloween The timeline means it would be ridiculous at this point if he was just a man this whole time.
Furthermore, with End of Halloween‘ Corey Cunningham mirrors Michael’s inhuman resistance, there is more evidence of Michael’s supernatural nature. In short, the real answer to whether Michael is immortal or just a man is that there is no answer, because the question itself is what makes him truly scary. Whether the supernatural element is real or not, without it, HalloweenMichael Myers is just an ordinary serial killer.
Is Michael Myers scarier as a human or supernatural being?
The man is scary, but the supernatural being is legendary
There are reasons why both versions of Michael Myers are scary. A normal man who picks up a knife and starts killing people is scary in many ways. This does Michael, someone who could appear in anyone’s neighborhood in a small town in the USA and turn the entire community upside down. The fact that it could be anyone, even a neighbor, is scary. This is what made the first film in the franchise such a frightening debut, as this monster was just a single-minded man with a vision to kill.
Film |
Year |
Timeline |
---|---|---|
Halloween |
1978 |
The Original/Laurie vs. Michael/Curse of Thorn |
Halloween II |
1981 |
The Original/Laurie vs. Michael/Curse of Thorn |
Halloween III: Season of the Witch |
1982 |
No, Michael Myers |
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers |
1988 |
The Original/Curse of Thorn |
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers |
1989 |
The Original/Curse of Thorn |
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers |
1995 |
The Original/Curse of Thorn |
Halloween H2): 20 years later |
1998 |
The Original/Laurie vs. Miguel |
Halloween Resurrection |
2002 |
The Original/Laurie vs. Miguel |
Halloween |
2007 |
Zombie Rob |
Halloween II |
2009 |
Zombie Rob |
Halloween |
2018 |
The Original |
Halloween kills |
2021 |
The Original |
End of Halloween |
2022 |
The Original |
However, After that first film, it was almost necessary to transform Michael Myers into a supernatural being. There are so many films where a normal man, no matter how strong and determined, can survive what Michael goes through before it even increases his ability to believe in the horrors. Making Michael supernatural through a cult didn’t work, and most fans rejected it. However, the new films that have made him an almost supernatural, unstoppable bogeyman make him scarier than any flesh-and-blood serial killer.
Classic horror films like Frankenstein, Draculaand The Wolf Man featured “men” who became or created supernatural monsters. They stand the test of time because they are inhumane and that means they never truly end up dead. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger continue this characteristic. In Halloweenthe idea that Michael Myers is supernatural and more than human means that no one is safe, and that makes him scarier than he is in almost every way, and keeps the monster alive.
Halloween is a horror film released in 1978 that centers on the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, as a masked serial killer terrorizes it. More than a decade after the brutal murder of Judith Myers by her brother, Michael, Michael escapes from the local sanitarium to continue his silent murder spree – with teenager Laurie Strode being his new potential victim.
- Release date
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October 27, 1978
- Distributor(s)
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Aquarius Release
- Cast
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Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes, PJ Soles, Kyle Richards, Charles Cyphers
- Execution time
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91 minutes