There’s no question, Michael Myers is the king of Halloween. He’s to Halloween what bunnies are to Easter and Santa is to Christmas. This weekend you can find all of Michael’s terror on TV just check your local listings. Michael can also be found lurking in a few haunts and was featured in our favorite 2009 maze at Hollywood’s HHN It’s actually crazy to see all the directions they took this franchise just based on that that low budget 1978 movie. Here’s a comprehensive look at the life crimes of Michael Myers.
Films
The original Halloween (1978), written and directed by John Carpenter, tells the story of Michael Myers as he stalks and kills teenage babysitters on Halloween night. The film begins with six-year-old Michael (Will Sandin) killing his seventeen-year-old sister Judith (Sandy Johnson) on Halloween 1963. He is subsequently hospitalized at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. Fifteen years later, Michael (Nick Castle and Tony Moran) escapes and returns to his hometown where he stalks Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends as they babysit. The film ends with Michael being shot six times by his psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence).
Halloween II (1981) picks up where the events of Halloween left off. Michael’s body is missing from the front lawn, where it fell when Loomis shot him. Michael follows Laurie to the local hospital, killing everyone who gets between him and Laurie. The story reveals that Laurie is actually Michael’s sister: she was given up for adoption as an infant. Michael corners Loomis and Laurie in an operating room, where Loomis causes an explosion as Laurie escapes. Michael, engulfed in flames, stumbles out of the room toward Laurie before finally falling dead.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch(1982). The story line of the third film has no connection to the previous two Halloween films. Season of the Witch follows the story of Dr. Challis (Tom Atkins) as he tries to solve the mysterious murder of a patient in his hospital. He, along with the patient’s daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), travels to the small town of Santa Mira, California. The pair discover that Silver Shamrock Novelties, a company run by Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy), is attempting to use the mystic powers of the Stonehenge rocks to resurrect the ancient aspects of the Celtic festival, Samhain, which Cochran connects to witchcraft. Cochran is using his Silver Shamrock Halloween masks to achieve his goal, which will be achieved when all the children wearing his masks watch the Silver Shamrock commercial airing Halloween night. Challis contacts the television stations and convinces all but one of the station managers to remove the commercial. The film ends with Challis screaming for the final station to turn off the commercial.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers(1988), as the title suggests, features the return of Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) to the film series. The film reveals that Michael survived the fire in Halloween II but has been in a coma since that night. While being transferred back to Smith’s Grove, Michael comes out of his coma and overhears that Laurie Strode, who died in a car accident, has a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). Michael escapes the transport and heads to Haddonfield in search of Jamie. Fellow survivor Dr. Loomis also goes to Haddonfield after learning that Michael has escaped transfer. Eventually the town residents track Michael down and shoot him several times before he falls down a mine shaft.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers(1989). Picking up directly where the previous film ends, Michael (Don Shanks), surviving the gunshots, and the fall down the mine; stumbles upon a hermit who bandages him up and nurses him for a year. One year later, and showing signs of a metaphysical connection to Jamie, Michael tracks Jamie to a local child mental health clinic. Using Jamie as bait, Loomis manages to capture Michael. The film ends with Michael being taken into police custody, only to be broken out of jail by a mysterious stranger, all dressed in black.
Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers(1995) picks up the story approximately six years after the events of The Revenge of Michael Myers. The mysterious stranger who broke Michael out of jail kidnaps Jamie Lloyd (J. C. Brandy) in an effort to obtain her illegitimate child. Jamie escapes with her newborn, with Michael (George P. Wilbur) in pursuit. Michael kills Jamie and continues searching for her baby; the infant is found by Tommy Doyle (Paul Stephen Rudd)—the young boy who was babysat by Laurie Strode in the first film—who brings it home for safety. It is revealed that Michael is driven by the Curse of Thorn, which forces a person to kill their entire family in order to save all of civilization. The mysterious stranger is revealed to be Dr. Loomis’s colleague, Dr. Wynn (Mitchell Ryan), who is part of a group of people who protect the chosen individual so that they may complete their task. With the help of Kara Strode (Marianne Hagan), Laurie’s cousin, Tommy keeps the infant from Michael, who slaughters Wynn and his followers. Michael is finally subdued by Tommy, who injects him with large quantities of tranquilizers inside the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. The film ends with Loomis walking back into the sanitarium to find Michael.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)The events between Halloween 4 and Halloween 6 are effectively ignored in this movie. This film opens twenty years after the events of the second film. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has faked her own death so that she could go into hiding from her brother Michael. Now working as the head mistress of a private school under the name Keri Tate, Laurie continues to live in fear of her brother’s return. Her own son, John (Josh Hartnett), attends school where she teaches. Laurie’s fear becomes reality when Michael shows up at the school and begins killing John’s friends and eventually he and Laurie come face-to-face. Laurie manages to get John and his girlfriend (Michelle Williams) to safety, but decides to return to the school to face Michael once and for all. Laurie succeeds in stopping Michael, but not satisfied until she knows that he is truly dead, Laurie steals his body from the paramedics and decapitates Michael.
Halloween: Resurrection(2002) picks up three years after H20, and reveals that after Lauire knocked Michael over a balcony – Michael swapped clothes with a paramedic after crushing the paramedic’s larynx so that he could not talk—and that was who Laurie killed. Unable to deal with killing an innocent man, and the fact that Michael was still out there, Laurie is committed to a mental institution. Michael (Brad Loree) shows up at the institution, but Laurie captures him. Her fear of making the same mistake twice gets the better of her, and when she attempts to remove Michael’s mask he surprises and kills her. Michael travels back to Haddonfield, but finds a group of college students filming an Internet ghost hunters type reality show in his family home. Michael proceeds to kill everyone, until he is finally electrocuted by the only surviving student, Sara Moyer (Bianca Kajlich), and the show’s creator Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes).
Rob Zombie’s Halloween(2007). A remake of the original Halloween, this film focuses on the events that lead Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) to kill his family. It also identifies Laurie as Michael’s sister early on, which was something not done in the original 1978 film. On Halloween, Michael murders a school bully, his older sister and her boyfriend, as well as his mother’s boyfriend. Committed to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, Michael closes himself off from everyone. Seventeen years later, Michael (Tyler Mane) escapes and heads to Haddonfield to find his younger sister, with his psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) in pursuit. Michael finds his sister living with the Strode family, and going by the name Laurie. After killing all of her friends and family, Michael kidnaps Laurie and attempts to explain to her that he is her brother through the use of a picture that he has kept of himself and her as an infant. Unable to understand, Laurie fights back; eventually, Laurie uses Loomis’s gun to shoot Michael in the head.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (2009). A sequel to the remake picks up right where the latter leaves off and then jumps ahead one year. Here, Michael (Mane) is presumed dead, but resurfaces after a vision of his deceased mother Deborah (Sheri Moon Zombie) informs him that he must track Laurie (Taylor-Compton) down so that they can “come home” together. In the film, Michael and Laurie have a mental link, with the two sharing visions of their mother.
Novels
When the original Halloween was released in 1978, a novelization of the movie followed just a year later. Written by Curtis Richards, the book follows the events of the film, but expands on the festival of Samhain and Michael’s time at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium.Halloween II and Halloween 4 each received novelizations as well. Jack Martin would write Halloween II, which was released alongside its film counterpart. Martin included an additional victim of Michael’s in this novel. Halloween IV, released in October 1988 and written by Nicholas Grabowsky, also followed the events of the film in which it was adapted from.
Over a four month period, Berkley Books published three young adult novels written by Kelly O’Rourke; the novels are original stories created by O’Rourke, with no direct continuity with the films. The first, released on October 1, 1997, titled The Scream Factory, follows a group of friends who set up a haunted house attraction in the basement of Haddonfield City Hall, only to be stalked and killed by Michael Myers while they are there. The Old Myers Place is the second novel, released December 1, 1997, and focuses on Mary White, who moves into the Myers house with her family. Michael returns home and begins stalking and attacking Mary and her friends.O’Rourke’s final novel, The Mad House, was released on February 1, 1998. The Mad House features a young girl, Christine Ray, who joins a documentary film crew that travels to haunted locations; they are currently headed to Smith Grove Mental Hospital, where they are confronted by Michael.
Comic books
The first Halloween comic was published by Brian Pulido’s Chaos Comics. Simply titled Halloween, it was intended to be a one-issue special, but eventually two sequels spawned: Halloween II: The Blackest Eyes and Halloween III: The Devil’s Eyes. All of the stories were written by Phil Nutman, with Daniel Farrands—writer for Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers—assisting on the first issue; David Brewer and Justiniano worked on the illustrations. Tommy Doyle is the main protagonist in each of the issues, focusing on his attempts to kill Michael Myers. The first issue includes back story on Michael’s childhood, while the third picks up after the events of the film Halloween H20.
These comics were based on Daniel Farrand’s concept for Halloween 8; he had been approached by the producers to pitch a follow-up to Halloween H20. His idea was to have Tommy Doyle incarcerated at Smith’s Grove for Michael Myers’ crimes, only to escape and reunite with Lindsay Wallace. Together, they study the journals of Dr. Loomis and find out more about Michael’s childhood. The movie would have explored Michael’s time at Smith’s Grove and relationship with Dr. Loomis, before returning to Tommy and Lindsay, who are attacked by the adult Michael Myers. Upon defeating him and removing his mask, they discover Laurie Strode, who has taken over her brother’s mantle. Farrand’s logic was that, since Jamie Lee Curtis was contracted to cameo in Halloween 8, they should make that cameo as significant and surprising as possible. Although the studio did not follow up on his pitch, Farrands was able to tell his story in comic book form.
One Good Scare was released in 2003; it was written by Stefan Hutchinson and illustrated by Peter Fielding. The main character in this comic is Lindsey Wallace, the young girl who first saw Michael Myers alongside Tommy Doyle in the original 1978 film. Hutchinson wanted to bring the character back to his roots, and away from the “lumbering Jason-clone” the film sequels had made him. One Good Scare came about because Hutchinson wanted to produce a comic book to celebrate the series’ twenty-fifth anniversary; it was to be sold as a collectible at a Halloween convention in South Pasadena. Due to the positive reception to One Good Scare, Hutchinson hoped to use the comic as a “demo” for getting a distribution deal, but was unable to due to rights issues.
Merchandise
The Halloween franchise has also seen profitability through various merchandise like toys, dolls, statues, model kits, bobbleheads, snow globes, movie posters, masks, T-shirts, hats, and more. Michael Myers has made appearances in the form of dolls and toys from McFarlane Toys, Sideshow Collectibles, and NECAEven Dr. Loomis has been immortalized in plastic alongside Michael Myers in a two-figure set produced by NECA. In 1983, Wizard Video, who had also released a video game version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released a Halloween game for Atari. In the game, the player was a babysitter who had to protect her children from Michael Myers, who had managed to get inside the house. Although the game was called Halloween, and featured the film’s theatrical poster as its cover art, the game itself never refers to any characters, including the killer, by their names in the film.
The Michael Myers mask has been reproduced over the years by Don Post, the mask company responsible for the creation of the masks from several of the Halloween films (the Silver Shamrock novelty factory seen in Halloween III was actually shot on location in one of Don Post’s factories).While Don Post reproductions of the Michael Myers mask are still commonly found in costume stores every Halloween, the license to produce Michael Myers masks has since been given to Cinema Secrets, the company commissioned with the creation of the Michael Myers mask for Halloween: Resurrection.
The Halloween series also lives on in DVD form. Many versions of the original Halloween (often including special extras like free merchandise or additional footage missing from previous DVD releases of the film) as well as several of its sequels have been published by Anchor Bay Entertainment, Universal Studios, and Dimension Films. On October 2, 2007, the original Halloween was sold on Blu-ray for the first time by Anchor Bay Home Entertainment. In December 2007 there were reports that the Producer’s Cut of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers might get a DVD release in the future. 5 Years of Terror is a DVD released on July 25, 2006 featuring a documentary on the Halloween films, narrated by P. J. Soles and featuring interviews from many of the cast members as well as filmmakers of the Halloween films and a lot of footage from the series as well. It has panel discussions with members from the casts and crews of most of the Halloween films, plus other celebrities and filmmakers such as Rob Zombie and Clive Barker as well as film critics. All of the panel discussions took place at a 25-year Anniversary convention in Pasadena, California (one of the filming locations of the original Halloween) in October 2003. It also has extended versions of interviews featured in the documentary, and much more.
The HHN Maze
The highly acclaimed “Halloween” maze called, “The Life and Crimes of Michael Myers.” Fans of the original series were delighted as they were able to literally step in Michael Myers bloody footprints as he grows from a 6-year old cuddly killer kid in a clown suit to the fully grown, and still ever so cuddly, masked killer, aka “The Shape” we all recognize today.
Visitors waiting in line will saw the sillouette of a young Michael stabbing his sister Judith to death through her bedroom window, before walking into the house and following the trail of blood from October 31st, 1962, to Myers return to Haddonfield 15 years later. The graphic kills that were fans once saw safely projected on screen took place an arms length away, and this time Michael will be coming after them. While Murdy has included references from throughout the “Halloween” series, the walk-thru is essentially “the linear story of ‘Halloween.’” If you’re familiar with the original you’ll have a little forewarning of the kills ahead of you, and, for example, that it probably isn’t your boyfriend Bob dressed as a ghost, and you probably won’t be getting that beer.
Michael Myers, in scrubs and a bandaged face, was whown escaping from Smiths Grove Sanitarium BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES! Michael was butchering people mere feet from you – and they were splattered with blood. Or, at least, it sure seemed like DNA (Murdy says the blood is really just harmless water) The entire maze was intricately scored with music and sound effects from the original “Halloween,” further immersing visitors into this “movie come to life.” As fans know, Michael’s appearance is always accompanied by an audio “stinger,” and there’s no exception here. In some portions of the maze, scare actors portraying Michael Myers tripped a switch to cue the “stinger” as well as lighting effects to completely disorient you while they move in for the kill.Michael came at visitors from trap doors, the ceiling, and anywhere else you probably won’t expect him. The set decorators paid keen attention to detail includes ensuring that each prop, piece of furniture, and other dressing is authentic to the time period where each walk thru scene is from – either 1962 or 1977 –. As mentioned, you literally followed Michael’s trail of the dead, so while you’re admiring the avocado green and mustard yellow 70’s era sets, you also could trip on dead bodies, including Judith’s scantily clad corpse.
The Horror Nights’ maze incorporated the scent of rotting flesh and urine to make the environments more realistic. For the Myers maze, in addition to the lovely smell of pine for the outdoor scenes, Murdy also made sure the Smiths Grove Sanitarium will had the authentic smell of raw sewage. “Have you ever spent much time in mental hospitals? Unfortunately, I have,” he says, quickly adding it was as a 16 year old delivering meds to medical facilities, where he noticed every sanitarium shared the same raw sewage bouquet.
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