The Halloween saga has gone through different retcons and has brought various twists and surprises, but not all of them worked, and many of these almost killed the entire franchise. John Carpenter’s Halloween was key in the development of the slasher genre in the 1980s, and its success made way for a franchise with over 10 movies, two remakes, one movie outside the main timeline, and different timelines. What keeps the franchise together is Michael Myers, but even he went through a couple of changes that almost ruined the whole franchise.
Michael Myers terrorized various characters throughout the Halloween franchise, but his main victim throughout most of it, and the main Final Girl in the saga, was Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, and Scout Taylor-Compton in Rob Zombie’s remakes). Laurie finally defeated Michael Myers in Halloween Ends, but they went through a lot since Carpenter’s original movie, including fake deaths, cults, copycats, and more, all of which almost completely killed the Halloween franchise – and here are 10 times this almost happened.
10 Michael Myers & Laurie Strode Are Siblings
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the Halloween franchises to make big, controversial mistakes after the release of the original movie. The first sequel, Halloween II, was released in 1981, and it picked up directly after the ending of the 1978 movie. Halloween II made the big reveal that Laurie was Michael Myers’ younger sister, and that’s why he was going after her. This was a controversial reveal as it took away what made Michael Myers so terrifying, which was that he seemed to kill at random, and making Laurie his sister gave him a (twisted) reason to want to kill her.
9 Laurie Strode’s Off-Screen Death
Laurie Strode survived her second confrontation with Michael Myers in Halloween II, but the saga took a drastic turn when Jamie Lee Curtis refused to return in another sequel. In the Michael Myers timeline, Halloween II is followed by Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, in which it was revealed that Laurie died in a car accident a couple of years earlier. However, in order to fill in the Final Girl void left by Curtis’ departure, Halloween 4 introduced Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), Laurie’s daughter who became her uncle’s new target even though she was a child. This part of Laurie’s story was retconned years later in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, where it was revealed that Laurie didn’t die and just faked her death.
8 Jamie Lloyd’s Psychic Connection To Michael Myers
Jamie Lloyd being haunted by Michael Myers certainly added more horror and suspense to the Halloween saga, but unfortunately, the writers quickly messed Jamie’s story up. At the end of Halloween 4, Jamie touched Michael’s hand before he was supposedly killed, and this created a psychic bond with her infamous uncle. Back home, Jamie attacked her foster mother with a pair of scissors, and in the following movie, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, her telepathic bond with Michael was confirmed. The more the Halloween saga evolved, the more fantasy elements were added to it, and the psychic link between Jamie and Michael is one of the most nonsensical ones.
7 Jamie Lloyd’s Death
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Jamie Lloyd had to deal with a lot of trauma from an early age, which made her death in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers completely unfair. At the end of Halloween 5, Jamie was abducted by the Man in Black, and six years later, a now fifteen-year-old Jamie was artificially inseminated and impregnated… with Michael Myers’ son. On the night Jamie gave birth, she ran away with her son with the help of a nurse, but was pursued by her evil uncle. Desperate for help, Jamie hid her baby and continued her escape until she crashed the truck at a barn. Michael caught her and impaled her, but because that wasn’t enough, he threw her into a corn thresher.
6 The Cult of Thorn
One of the most controversial and hated additions to the Halloween saga and Michael Myers’ story is the Cult of Thorn. By the time Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was made, Michael Myers had come back from the dead various times, and in order to explain this supposed immortality, the Cult of Thorn was introduced. This was a cult of druids who placed a curse on a child from their tribe (Michael Myers), who was then possessed by Thorn and driven to kill his entire family.
The Cult of Thorn felt very out of place in the Halloween saga and was nothing more than a lazy excuse for the many fake deaths and underwhelming “resurrections” of Michael Myers. The Cult of Thorn ended up being an inconclusive storyline in the Halloween saga as it wasn’t addressed again, but that was definitely for the better.
5 A Reality Show At The Myers’ House
Halloween: Resurrection is among the weakest movies in the Halloween saga, and among the reasons is its premise. Halloween: Resurrection follows a group of college students who take part in a reality show set in the Myers house, but unbeknownst to them, Michael was hiding in the house. In previous movies, the Myers house was off-limits and was even believed to be haunted, so it made no sense to invade the house for a reality show.
4 Michael Myers’ Backstory In Rob Zombie’s Remakes
Halloween got the remake treatment in 2007 thanks to Rob Zombie, but even though he took the premise of Carpenter’s movie, he made some unnecessary changes and additions. One of the biggest mistakes of Rob Zombie’s Halloween remakes was the expansion of Michael Myers’ backstory. Zombie’s Halloween spent its first act exploring Michael’s childhood before and after killing a bully, his sister, and his mother’s abusive boyfriend, but this backfired as it made the audience sympathize with Michael, which shouldn’t happen with the movie’s serial killer.
In addition to that, Zombie’s Halloween remakes added a connection between Michael and his mother that led him to have hallucinations of her, his younger self, and a white horse in Halloween II. All of these changes and additions made Michael Myers less scary, and especially the hallucinations were laughable.
3 Michael Myers’ Mysterious Immortality In Halloween Kills
Michael Myers was made supernatural a couple of times throughout the Halloween franchise, but its worst time was in Halloween Kills. The reboot timeline ignored all movies after Carpenter’s Halloween, so there were no supernatural elements around Michael Myers. However, in the third act of Halloween Kills, Michael was beaten, stabbed, and shot by the Haddonfield mob, yet he survived all that and got up to kill everyone around him, including legacy character Tommy Doyle. To make it worse, Halloween Ends never explained how this was possible, so the audience was left with a sudden moment of mysterious immortality in Halloween Kills.
2 Michael Myers’ Copycat
Halloween Ends made an interesting choice in introducing a Michael Myers copycat, but it could have been handled better. Corey Cunningham was a young man who was accused of intentionally killing the boy he was babysitting, even though it was an accident. Even though he was cleared of manslaughter, the people of Haddonfield still saw him as a killer. After attending a Halloween party with Allyson, Corey was thrown off a bridge by a group of bullies and was dragged into the sewers and choked by none other than Michael Myers, who had been hiding there for years. When Corey got out, he was threatened by a homeless man, and in a struggle, Corey stabbed him to death.
Corey continued killing and even teamed up with Michael Myers, using the latter’s mask at one point. By introducing Corey and having Michael Myers, in a weaker state, hiding in the sewers, Halloween Ends left Michael aside through most of the movie in favor of Corey, and viewers didn’t get to see Michael in action until the final minutes of the movie.
1 Michael Myers’ Many Returns From The Dead
As mentioned above, Michael Myers was killed and resurrected various times throughout the Halloween franchise, but all these ultimately hurt the saga. Each time Michael Myers was brought back, the Halloween saga had to explain how that was possible, as each time his death seemed to be definitive. The Halloween movies used cults, hidden exits, and even put Michael in a coma in order to explain his return, but all these, no matter how bad or unbelievable they were, hurt the Halloween franchise as they never allowed the saga to give a satisfying end to Michael Myers. Luckily, Halloween Ends left no possibility for another movie to bring Michael Myers back, but the damage of past movies remains.
