Michael Myers... the 6-year-old boy who killed his sister one Halloween night, and returned 15 years later to haunt the town of Haddonfield, on and off, for 20 years to come. His story has become legendary among locals, who live in fear every time the autumn comes along, for with it, comes the harvest.
The character is a mystery, and the attempts to prescribe an M.O. and rationale to his actions resulted in a cluttered plot of curses, cults, and coincidences. The Thorn storyline was discontinued for a good reason. It was excessive, and demeaning to the mystique of a character that relies on the lack of a motive. The attempt to explain him ultimately results in the demeaning of his effect.
To wipe the slate clean, H20 came along as a reunion and bookend to the series, coming full circle, and providing a new light on the character of Michael Myers through his relationship with his sister. Ignoring the sequels between 2 and 7 is an unfortunate casualty that remains unaccounted for, but it presents us with a theoretical approach into the mindset of Michael, humanizing him more so in one film than any sequel ever could, while keeping us entirely without blatant explanations like H6 failed to convey logically.
Contours of an Empty Shape
Studying the patterns, mannerisms, and routines of Michael, it's likely that he suffers from a mental condition, likely autism, that has him zoned into an objective mode. At the tender age of 6, he heard the "voices", or simply urges in his case, to kill his sister. Though as someone who suffers from a skewed reality, he doesn't understand what death is. To him, one can be trick-or-treated to death, but as Loomis would retort, "you don't know what death is".
To Michael, it's Halloween, and he's only wearing a costume. He's set out to trick-or-treat, and he doesn't want to reveal himself in order to prolong his Halloween prank, and get as much out of it as possible. Only in his condition, he never seems to snap out of it, enough to realize how late it is, and that he needs to hang it up and come back home, or back to reality. It's a mindset he's hypnotized into, and he can't seem to escape it.
We've witnessed his humanity before. He expressed reluctance to kill Jamie Lloyd, as if part of him was briefly able to see part of the innocence he himself once had, but in his condition, he has to finish what he started. It's hard-wired into his ill-advised routine, and it simply must happen in his eyes, like an obsessive compulsive conflict.
Halloween 5 spoke of his rage, and it's an overlooked aspect of his character in the film. He is conflicted, and furious with the way his routine must play out, and even more so with himself in how he must make it play out that way. Curses regardless, he's caught in a trance to carry out his intentions, and in his eyes, it's still Halloween night, 1963, and the night just never seems to go away.
Memoirs of a 20 Year Hangover
H20 runs its course, and in the end, Laurie fights back. As much as the film is a character study of her, it's equally an undermined character study of Michael Myers. Initially, it was upsetting to see the eyes of the shape through the mask. It lessened the impact of his blank, pale, emotionless face by giving him eyes that spoke so much, in such silence.
Also worth noting is the use of three different masks used in the film: the bright white and blank mask gives him dull, annoyed look while hiding his eyes behind a black screen; the CGI mask prompts wtf-responses from viewers; and the primary mask shows too much of his soul. The shape in the original film was depicted as an empty figure, though humanity was hinted by showing his eyes through the mask in a momentary scene, and undeniably through his unmasking.
Only the fifth film shows his face unmasked (and only vaguely), as if symbolically, his human-side was heavily suppressed, though H20 seems to hide his eyes prominently until he begins his direct quarrels with Laurie, who unexpected to him, recognizes his approach and fights back with as much tenacity as he does, which begins to shake him into the realization that his "joke" has gone too far, and the reactions aren't as predictable as they once were, to a man who had previously over-excelled at his one long effort at the ultimate Halloween prank.
In a game of tag, filled with eye games and guilted innocence, the play date culminates with a deck of cards being scattered on the floor. Laurie grabs the winning hand, turns the tables, and beats him at his own game. As he ambiguously expresses no ill-intent following his defeat, others don't see him as the practical joker he believes he is, and Laurie comandeers the van, shakes him from it, and sends him rolling down a hill, where he sees the tumbling van, symbolic of Laurie's wrath, coming down on him. He turns to run, but it's far too late.
In a prone and helpless position, Michael does something we've never seen him do before or since. He panics. No, this isn't the retcon finale where he's actually a body-swapped paramedic with a crushed larynx who can't talk, because he would've gurgled, Motel Hell style, or more imminently: TAKEN OFF THE MASK. He wasn't in shock. To go through a windshield, get hit by a car, fall down a hill, get pinned to a tree by an entire van, and STILL be conscious proves that he's too tough to be in shock, or be an innocent bystander for that matter, proving that he is, in fact, the shape of Halloween.
Trapped and without hope, he has to come face to face with his reckoning, realizing the consequences of his actions, and finally, he is afraid. Afraid to face the death he delivered for so long, because he finally understands it, as if literally having had the sense knocked into him. At this point, he wants mercy, because he's 6-years-old again, awaking from the nightmare of a Halloween night 20 years in the making, only it wasn't a dream, and he has to answer for his crimes.
β’shoots 6 bulletsβ’
TO BE CONTINUED
