Michael Myers Character: Halloween's Masked Killer

Michael Myers is a fictional killer from Haddonfield, Illinois, and the one figure who runs through nearly the entire Halloween saga. In Halloween 1978, directed by John Carpenter, he is six years old when he kills his older sister in 1963. He is locked away, and fifteen years later he steals a car, escapes the sanitarium where he has been held and heads home. Dr. Sam Loomis, the psychiatrist who has watched him for years, follows him to Haddonfield.

The credits show how the series sees him. Several films bill him as The Shape, a name that treats him as a silhouette rather than a man, while the first film credits Tony Moran as Michael Myers age 23 and Rob Zombie's 2007 remake credits Daeg Faerch as Michael Myers, Age 10. That remake also names the sister he kills as Judith Myers, played by Hanna Hall. The Shape is shared in the newest films too: Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney are both credited as The Shape in Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills. He is male and he wears a mask. The 1978 film was developed under the title The Babysitter Murders, which says plenty about the kind of story it set out to tell.

He also has to be separated from the actor Mike Myers, who is unrelated to the character, even though searches for the two names overlap. The character is the one who stalks babysitters, and his main targets are Laurie Strode and the people around her. For everyone else who turns up in the films, see the Halloween characters index and the Halloween cast page.

Because the saga has been rebooted and rewritten several times, there is no single Michael. The version you meet depends on the timeline you are watching, and the Halloween timelines explained page sets out how they separate. Rob Zombie remade the story in Halloween (2007) and Halloween (2009), and Halloween (2018) is billed by Universal as a sequel to the 1978 film that departs from its sequels. Halloween III: Season of the Witch is the one film where he does not appear at all.

Michael's relationships are defined mostly by who hunts him and who he hunts. The central pairing is with Laurie Strode, a babysitter in 1978 whom he stalks across Haddonfield. Halloween II 1981 reveals that she is his younger sister, adopted after their family's deaths. Zombie's remakes keep the sibling link, with Michael sparing the baby Laurie as a child.

Dr. Loomis is his psychiatrist, and in 1978 he follows Michael to Haddonfield. In the original series Loomis dies in the gas explosion at the end of the 1981 hospital climax, which he deliberately sets off, and in Zombie's two films Michael kills him both times. In the 1978 film the first victim is his older sister, and the 2007 film also gives him a mother, Deborah Myers.

The next generation matters as much. Jamie Lloyd, Laurie's daughter, is his niece in films 4 to 6, and her bond with him drives those sequels. Tommy Doyle, the child Laurie babysits in 1978, returns as an adult obsessed with Michael in The Curse of Michael Myers. In the 2018 trilogy Laurie's daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson become his targets, and in Halloween Ends he spares Corey Cunningham in the sewers.

In my opinion, the best Michael Myers moments are the ones where he does the least. The closing shot of Halloween (1978) is the clearest example: Loomis looks over the balcony, the body is gone, and the camera moves through empty rooms and streets. That is the whole of the character's reputation in a few seconds, and it works because nothing is explained.

The second pick is Halloween 5, where Jamie calls him her uncle in the attic and he briefly removes his mask and shows emotion before turning violent again. In my opinion it is the closest the series comes to making him look like a person, and it could be argued that the later films never recover that tension. Third is Halloween Kills, where the mob chases the wrong man to his death. Michael is almost incidental in that sequence, and the film uses him to ask what fear does to a town.

So, is Michael Myers pure evil, or broken? Perhaps both, depending on the film. Zombie's 2007 version argues for broken, since it opens on a bullied child. Halloween 4 argues for evil, ending with Loomis sobbing as he realizes the evil has passed to Jamie. My own pick is the first reading, because a killer who stops speaking and keeps making masks is closer to the series' most unsettling idea than a monster who simply cannot die. If you are new to the saga, start with Halloween movies in order, then read the Halloween movies ranked page to decide which version of him suits you.