Michael Myers has gone through some phases, hasn’t he? What started as a motiveless embodiment of pure evil turned into a man who just needed to kill his family members (and anyone who stands in his way), which then morphed into killing anyone who hangs out in (or around) his house… He also impregnated his niece through the essence of evil at one point (according to the producer’s cut), and what’s even weirder is it didn’t happen in either of the films thatRob Zombie directed.
As many have pointed out, Michael Myers is a great villain for a standalone film, but he doesn’t gel with the longevity of a series. This is something that John Carpenter himself knew before he was roped in to writeHalloween IIand ultimately had trouble writing a continuation to a story that he felt had already reached its natural conclusion (his uncredited co-writer was Budweiser). What makes Myers scary in the original 1978 film is his lack of motivation to go after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). They didn’t have some underlying connection, and they definitely weren’t related.
She just made the mistake of walking to his front door when he was home – something like a reverse logic ofThe Strangers. The problem with the sequels is that, at a point, you have to give him some reason to want to kill people. But when that happens, it robs him of what made him scary to begin with, and it makes him boring. He’s essentially the shark fromJaws. He kills out of instinct without pleasure or malice (except when he takes the time to admire how ordinary kitchen knives have the strength to hang people from walls and pantry doors), so giving him reasoning to have targets makes him dull and just like any other slasher villain. That’s whereHalloween(2018)comes in.
Back to Basics
Say what you will about the 2018 film, with its weird side characters, tonal shifts, and that one line about peanut butter that the great Toby Huss couldn’t save and even people who love the movie never defend, but it nails Michael Myers as an intimidating monster, and it makes him a grounded character again.
He’s not thepawn of a cultor going after siblings or nieces; he’s going after the person right in front of him…except for when he doesn’t. The scene that perfectly demonstrates this concept is the fan-favorite three-minute-long continuous take (which is technically two) of Michael going around killing people.
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Besides the climatic confrontation between Michael and Laurie – where Jamie Lee Curtis teaches us that you don’t mess with the mom fromFreaky Friday– the long take is probably the moment everyone loves most about the film. So much so that its clip on YouTube has nearly seven million views, and you’d be about as hard-pressed to find any negative comments in the comment section as you would find people with positive opinions aboutHalloween Ends. What makes the sequence fun is that it visually demonstrates Michael’s inhuman need to kill people without bias or motive.
Setting the Scene
The scene opens with him bumping into a pair of kids whom he could easily overpower but chooses not to in favor of killing a woman who decided she needed to go to her shed while making a ham sandwich (a totally normal set of priorities). He walks to the shed to grab a hammer, promptly enters the house, and proceeds to beat her to death with it.
The thing this continuity brings backwith Michael Myersis there’s a lack of artistry in his kills. He’s not Jason Voorhees. He doesn’t find creative ways to kill teenagers out of sheer rage; Michael just kills people and moves on – except for when he has time for arts and crafts with the corpses. He does take the time to trade in the hammer for his signature kitchen knife. He’s like Butch inPulp Fictiongoing through weapons in the pawn shop; he’s only interested in the most effective way to get the job done.
He continues on his merry way out of the woman’s house, going past a baby in a crib and leaving it alone. Because even though this film establishes that Michael has no qualms against killing kids, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s guaranteed to do it, which adds to his unpredictability.
Even his mannerisms as he scopes a potential target are bizarrely unfeeling. Everything is done with agency and conviction. From how he turns his head (almost like he can sense his next target) to the surefooted way he walkslike the Terminator. Regardless, he leaves the house and continues down the sidewalk, approaching a couple getting in their car. Unfortunately for him, his slow pace (or lack of interest) allows them to get away.
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The sequence concludes with him turning his attention from the couple as they drive away to a woman who gives candy to some trick-or-treaters. Since this is Haddonfield and no one in town has ever heard of the wild concept of locking a back door, Michael easily slips through the back and swiftly stabs her in the throat, killing her instantly. Again, there’s nothing elaborate about how he finishes her off. He does the task and moves on. What’s even scarier is that before he kills her, she gets off the phone with someone who warns herthere’s a killeron the loose, adding to that deep-seated fear that someone like Michael could be anywhere (people literally walk past him down the street), and, to quote the tagline toUnhinged, he can happen to you.
This scene brings Michael Myers back in proper form as The Shape, between the revamped version of the classicHalloweentheme that plays throughout and the camerawork that feels reminiscent of the opening scene of the original film. The sequence makes him once again feel like more than just a faceless brute killer but rather the classic boogeyman that made him such a terrifying movie monster.
