It’s October, and chances are you’ve either DVRed the Halloween franchise on AMC Fear Fest, have been streaming them on iTunes, or are tearing
through your Blu-ray box set from Shout! Factory. Whether it’s your first or hundredth time
watching this classic horror series, you may find yourself getting a little
confused at times. If so, it’s okay. You’re not alone. The series does take
some strange twists and turns over the course of its ten-film (and counting)
run, producing no less than four potential timelines for fans to choose from!
You see, the filmmakers behind various horror franchises are
a lot like Indiana Jones: They make this stuff up as they go (Though Dr. Jones tends
to be much better at it than most). While Friday
the 13th was the horror franchise equivalent of a formulaic TV procedural
(same thing, different murders), Halloween
was more of a soap opera for its first six installments, packed with
twists, cliffhangers and revelations that didn’t always make a whole lot of sense.
As a result, when Jamie Lee Curtis agreed to return for the
seventh film in the series, 1998’s Halloween
H20: Twenty Years Later, the decision was ultimately made to discard Halloween 3-6, and make a direct sequel
to Halloween II. It is implied that
Michael Myers has not been heard from in twenty years, and that his body was
never recovered from the fiery wreckage of Haddonfield Memorial Hospital
(Inexplicably, Michael has no burns on his hands in H20). Laurie Strode is now in hiding with her 17-year-old son John,
and there is no mention of her daughter Jamie, the young protagonist of the
previous three films.
From a studio perspective, I completely understand the
decision to streamline the story. As I said before, the series had gone
in some strange directions, and every attempt to correct the course seemed to
only lead deeper into the woods. “Retconning”
(before it was a common practice in Hollywood) seemed like the best course of action so as not to
confuse a fresh audience of young horror fans who had only recently been
introduced to Halloween via Wes
Craven’s blockbuster Scream.
Halloween 1, 2 and
H20 certainly work well as a standalone
trilogy, but as someone who grew up following the Halloween storyline as it evolved, I’ve always been a bit disappointed that the
“Thorn trilogy” (Halloween 4-6) was left unresolved. I personally want them to count in the Halloween timeline, especially since Halloween 4 is my personal favorite
sequel of the series.
So in honor of the approaching All Hallows’ Eve, I would
like to share with you MY OWN PERSONAL “fan theory” that
I have woven in my head over the past eighteen years to fill in the blanks, and
tie the Halloween series together. It
may not align with your own narrative, but that’s okay. The beauty of multiple
timelines is that we are allowed to choose for ourselves what storyline we
prefer to accept (Something comic book fans are quite familiar with, I’m sure).
I struggled with how to best present my theory. I figured a
linear narrative would have been too long, tedious and confusing to follow. So I
decided to go with a simple Q&A format instead.
IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU READ!
Now before we start, I must request something of my fellow
hardcore Halloween fans. In order for
this theory to work, you must forget any
and all alternate cuts (especially the Halloween 6 Producer’s Cut), deleted scenes, early script drafts,
novelizations, comic book iterations, etc. before proceeding. I am willing to
bend on this with the extra scenes that John Carpenter shot for the TV version
of Halloween. If you wish to keep those, you may,
but otherwise here is the cardinal rule:
If it did not
appear in a THEATRICAL cut, it is NOT
canon.
So take a moment to block all that stuff out before you
proceed. Go ahead...
You good? Alright, a few more things:
 |
| We'll wait... |
I will not be addressing things like how the Myers house magically
became a mansion in Halloween 5 or
why Michael’s body type and mask change so drastically between films. I’m here
to assist the storytelling, not justify production woes or snafus. Nor will I attempt
to explain how Michael Myers learned to drive because who cares? Sure, maybe Nick
Castle should’ve pumped the brakes a time or two and swerved across the road as
he pulled away from Smith’s Grove in an effort to at least imply that it was Michael’s first
time behind the wheel. But I think The Shape’s inherent driving ability adds to
the mystique of the character.
If you absolutely need an explanation, director Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen, Digging Up the Marrow) provided a possibility a few years ago:
If you absolutely need an explanation, director Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen, Digging Up the Marrow) provided a possibility a few years ago:
 |
| But it's not canon, of course. |
Okay, here we go. And needless to say...
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!
HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988)
At the beginning of Halloween 4, the security guard says Michael Myers murdered sixteen people in 1978, but that number is too high.
Between Halloween
1 and 2, which both take place on the same night, the Shape directly kills four
people in the first film (truck driver, Annie, Bob and Lynda) and nine in the
second (Alice, Mr. Garrett, Bud, Karen, Dr. Mixter, Janet, Mrs. Alves, Jill and
the Marshal). In the film’s final scene, a deputy tells Hunt that the death
toll is “Ten… so far.” I think we can assume that Alice's parents had returned home and discovered her body, so we’ll include her in that count, but exclude Ben Tramer, who was the victim of an unfortunate accident and not a direct victim of Michael's. Therefore, the tenth fatality would
have to be Jimmy, who died of his head injury after slipping in Mrs. Alves’
blood.
That makes fourteen. So
who were the other two victims?
Well, we never did learn what happened to the people who came
to look at the Myers house that morning. You know, the people Laurie dropped
the key off for? Her father tells her, “They’re
coming by to look at the house at 10:30,” telling us that more than one person
is expected. If they’re going to consider moving into the town’s notorious
haunted house, it can be assumed that they’re not originally from Haddonfield,
and therefore no one in town would report them as missing right away. As to
what Michael did with the bodies is anyone’s guess since the cops don’t find
anything when they search the house in Halloween
II. I like to think Michael strung the bodies up in someone’s front yard,
tricking people into thinking they’re Halloween decorations.
Might it also be possible that these two potential
homeowners also brought their dog along with them? The very dog Brackett and
Loomis found partly eaten?
(If this did in fact occur, it may have been wise for
Michael to ditch the station wagon, and take the couple’s car instead. But hey,
he’s a 21-year-old kid. He doesn’t know any better.)
Who is Jamie Lloyd’s father?
Who is Jamie Lloyd’s father?
A long-held theory was that Jimmy from Halloween II is, but since he died at the hospital in this theory,
that’s not possible. If Jamie is eight-years-old in Halloween 4, then Laurie would’ve had to get pregnant in late 1979
or early 1980 as a freshman in college. She then would’ve had her son John from H20 a year
later, so their father was likely a classmate of hers. (More on these two
siblings later, though.)
HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF
MICHAEL MYERS (1989)
Most of the questions related to Halloween 5 are answered using revelations from Halloween 6. So let’s move on....
HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995)
REMINDER: My
theory excludes the Producer’s Cut of the film.
What happened between
Halloween 5 and 6?
After the Man in Black (revealed in Halloween 6 to be Dr. Terrence Wynn, who was first seen briefly in the original Halloween) slaughtered the
Haddonfield Police Department and blasted Michael’s jail cell open, The Shape
disappeared during the mayhem. Dr. Wynn abducted Jamie and kept her prisoner at
Smith’s Grove Sanitarium in the hope of luring Michael into the Thorn cult’s
grasp. During that time, Dr. Wynn tried to conceive a successor to the Myers
bloodline for whatever sinister purpose he had in mind. Six years passed before
The Shape finally resurfaced, and he happened to arrive at Smith’s Grove just as a
doctor was helping Jamie escape.
How does Michael
Myers have the Thorn tattoo when he didn’t have it in the previous films?
Dr. Terrence Wynn and his growing Druid cult did not begin
to build their beliefs around The Shape until after his 1978 murder spree. Wynn
had the Thorn symbol tattooed on Michael’s wrist while he was in the coma at
Ridgemont Sanitarium between Halloween 2 and 4.
Wouldn’t somebody
have noticed it though?
Your guess is as good as mine, but maybe they covered the
tattoo with a bandage. While the Thorn tattoo is not revealed until Halloween 5, Michael’s right wrist is
never clearly visible at any point during Halloween
4 to confirm or debunk this theory. Even when Michael is wearing short
sleeves as he kills the car mechanic, the metal rod he uses to impale the man
obscures his wrist.
How does the Thorn
cult control Michael Myers?
The answer to this is quite simple: They don’t.
At the beginning of Halloween 6, Michael has just arrived at
Smith’s Grove, but leaves immediately to pursue Jamie. In my opinion, Michael is
not even aware that Jamie has had a baby until she says, “You can’t have
the baby, Michael.” When Michael returns to Smith’s Grove in the third act of the film (presumably in pursuit of
the baby), he slaughters all of the cult members in the operating room, proving
to them (and us) that they hold no power over him whatsoever. Even Tommy Doyle
says to Dr. Loomis in their first scene together that Michael’s connection to
Thorn is “just a theory” of his.
 |
| Theory debunked. |
So no, The Shape is not controlled by the Thorn cult.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It is also my opinion that Dr. Hoffman, the
head of Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium from the opening of Halloween
4, is a member of the Thorn cult as well, which would explain why he chose
to have Michael transferred on the night of October 30th and also failed to notify
Dr. Loomis about it. His final look at the comatose Michael through the rear
window of the ambulance could imply that he has a sinister agenda. Michael’s
subsequent escape during this transfer strengthened the Thorn cult’s belief
that they controlled him, but in truth Michael had simply taken advantage of the
opportunity after learning of Jamie’s existence.
Who is the father of
Jamie’s baby?
Dr. Wynn would be the likeliest candidate. As leader of the
Thorn cult, it would make sense that he would choose himself to spawn the next
in the Myers bloodline.
What’s with the
fetuses and the green ooze coming out of Michael’s head at the end of Halloween 6?
These two elements are especially confusing and hated by Halloween fans. In fact, I’m willing to
bet that if these two things were removed from the film, people would be far
more accepting of the theatrical cut overall. But they’re there so I must
explain them. Here goes…
A) The fetuses: Jamie and various female Thorn members have had multiple miscarriages and still births during her six-year imprisonment, and the cult has kept the fetuses for some unknown reason, perhaps to use in their ceremony. Ancient Halloween ceremonies involved the sacrificing of firstborns to ensure the fertility of livestock and crops so it could all be connected to this. Jamie’s baby, Stephen, is the first to survive childbirth.
A) The fetuses: Jamie and various female Thorn members have had multiple miscarriages and still births during her six-year imprisonment, and the cult has kept the fetuses for some unknown reason, perhaps to use in their ceremony. Ancient Halloween ceremonies involved the sacrificing of firstborns to ensure the fertility of livestock and crops so it could all be connected to this. Jamie’s baby, Stephen, is the first to survive childbirth.
B) The green ooze: Tommy simply imagines it. We know he has a disturbed mind, and the fact that the green liquid is nowhere to be found on the mask in the final shot of the film confirms this.
This brings us to the point where the Thorn plotline was abandoned in favor of returning to the basics...
HALLOWEEN H20: TWENTY YEARS LATER (1998)
If the events of Halloween 4-6 occurred, then why
does no one in Halloween: H20 talk
about them?
My view has always been that H20 merely neglects to mention the events of Halloween 4-6, rather than discard them.
While a young cop from Langdon, Illinois should definitely know about Michael Myers’s various murder
sprees (especially when one just occurred three years prior), it’s possible he
just doesn’t know his history. Horror movies don’t tend to portray cops as the
brightest bulbs in the box anyway. The fact that Fitz, the seasoned cop, makes
an immediate precautionary phone call to the Haddonfield Police Department does
imply that he knows there’s a possibility of Myers being alive.
Furthermore, while Laurie’s son John talks about it having been twenty years since Michael
Myers went after Laurie, it’s possible that he too doesn’t know about the subsequent
Halloween massacres. It would make sense for Laurie to keep it from him throughout
his childhood so as not to frighten him. Also, the Internet was not as widely
used in 1998 as it is today for John to research the subject on his own. Plus,
if Laurie knew that Michael was still periodically murdering people, she would
have much more cause for concern regarding her and her son’s safety come
Halloween each year. Although it would make sense for her to tell John about
the recent murders once he starts rebelling, she could fear that doing so would
cause him to ask certain questions she’s not ready to answer…
Which brings us to the million-dollar question:
Why would Laurie have
brought her son John into hiding with her, but left her daughter Jamie behind
in Haddonfield?
Following the traumatizing events of Halloween 1 and 2, Laurie
Strode suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Much of her fear stemmed
from the knowledge that Michael Myers was still alive—though comatose—at Ridgemont
Sanitarium where Dr. Loomis kept a close watch over him. She knew it was only a
matter of time before Michael returned for her.
At some point in late November of 1987, Laurie was in a
severe auto accident. John and her husband were in the car with her, but Jamie
was not. After her husband died of his injuries, Laurie—still struggling with severe
paranoia as a result of her PTSD—seized the opportunity to fake her death and
go into hiding. Since her son was in the car with her, she decided to bring him
along, but unfortunately Jamie would have to stay behind to maintain the
illusion that she was dead. Dr. Loomis helped Laurie carry out her plan, and vowed
to protect Jamie in her absence. This would explain how Loomis already knows
about Jamie, and is so quick to jump into action in Halloween 4. It also explains why Loomis had a file containing
Laurie’s location in Summer Glen, California, which Michael steals from his
house in the opening of Halloween: H20.
The abusive chain-smoking methadone addict “Dad” that Laurie and John refer to
in H20 could very well be a
stepfather whom John took to, having been so young at the time.
While some may struggle with this concept, I think the idea
that Laurie seized an opportunity to hide from Michael Myers at the risk of her
own daughter’s life adds a great deal of depth and tragedy to her character. It
demonstrates that her fear of Michael Myers ran so deep that she actually abandoned
her motherly instinct toward one of her children. It could have been the
extreme guilt of this cowardly decision that led to her alcoholism. It would also
further explain her extreme protectiveness of her son in Halloween H20.
And most of all, it greatly strengthens her decision
in H20 to stop running, and finally
face The Shape once and for all. Does Laurie’s showdown with Michael work
solely on the grounds of a frightened woman facing up to her fears? Absolutely.
But if you’re a Halloween fan who’s
aware of all this baggage that the character carries with her, it adds much
more meaning to such a decision. She’s not just facing Michael to protect her
son, she’s pursuing revenge for the daughter and the normal life he took away from
her.
This makes her triumph over Michael at the end of the film
all the more rewarding. And that is why I personally consider Halloween H20 to be…
The End.
In my timeline, Laurie Strode did in fact chop The Shape’s head
off, thereby concluding the story of Michael Myers. Laurie, John, Tommy Doyle,
Kara and Danny Strode, and Stephen are all safe now. Whether or not you wish to
proceed from here in the series is your decision, but this is where the story
ends for me.
At least for now, that is. There just might be a clever way to bring The Shape back yet again to continue his reign of terror, but that's a story left to the creators of the next installment, whoever those lucky folks may be.
At least for now, that is. There just might be a clever way to bring The Shape back yet again to continue his reign of terror, but that's a story left to the creators of the next installment, whoever those lucky folks may be.
***
Again, this is just my own personal “fan theory” that I use to
connect the Halloween franchise from
1978-1998. It is not canon. It is not intended as an insult to any of the
subsequent films in the franchise nor some of the wonderful extra material that
has come out in print over the years. You may accept or reject any and all elements of this theory as you wish. As I stated before, the great thing about franchises with multiple timelines is that it allows us to choose for ourselves.
At the end of the day, the fact is that I LOVE these movies. Purely and simply. And at the very least, I hope this elaborate theory helps some of my fellow fans enjoy them even more.
If you have any other questions I may have missed, feel free
to comment below or hit me up on Twitter, and I’ll be happy to take a crack at them.
Happy Halloween!