“Halloween”: the story behind the real Michael Myers, the murderous psychopath who inspired the movie

Michael Myers it’s back. One of the most terrifying serial killers in cinema returns to star in the popular saga that made him known in 1978. Called “Halloween Ends”, this third installment written and directed by David GordonGreen, close the modern trilogy which started in 2018 with laurie strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) declaring war on him for the last time.

Will he finally defeat him? As usually happens with this deranged character, nothing seems to be able to kill him and he always comes off well and is ready to take on new victims.

Behind the mask of Michael Myers

When “Halloween” of 1978 entered the pre-production stage and had a very low budget, it only had US$ 300,000, so characterizing the murderer of history required little investment. According to the story of the film, the design department headed by Tommy Lee Wallace bought a mask of the actor William ShatnerCaptain Kirk from the Star Trek series, and adapted it to create the face of Michael Myers. To do this, the eye holes were widened and burns were inserted on the sides.

The actor who brought Myers to life in this first film was inexperienced in the trade and friend of the creator John Carpenter, NickCastle, however, in the last scene, in the unmasking scene, the one who stood behind the mask was Tony Moran for having “a better face” for that ending.

Based on a real killer?

The story of Michael Myers in the cinema he portrayed a 6-year-old boy who, after murdering his older sister with a knife, is admitted to a psychiatric hospital for 15 years. Escaping, this now very strong and seemingly invincible young man returns to the fictional town of Haddonfield to do what his instincts tell him to do: murder without mercy. In this return, which coincides with the Halloween party, Myers will run into the clever Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), a young university student who pays her expenses by babysitting.

About this character John Carpenter, he recently said in an interview with the “Out of focus” program in 2018. “It was built not exactly human, but almost partially supernatural. You don’t know who he is or what he is. It has no personality. You don’t know what it looks like. You don’t know why he does what he does. It’s a kind of causeless evil.

On what inspired Carpenter to create the character of Michael, the director and screenwriter stated in the 2003 documentary “Halloween – A Cut Above the Rest” that as a student at Western Kentucky University he visited a mental institution as part of the psychology course. It was not just any visit, it was about seeing patients with severe cases. “And there was this kid, who must have been 12 or 13 years old, with that look in his eyes…” Carpenter said.

In the 1978 film, this look is described by actor Donald Pleasence, the psychiatrist in charge of Michael Myers. “This empty, emotionless face. The black eyes. The eyes of the devil.”

“It was a schizophrenic look, a really demonic look. It was traumatizing for me, probably the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen, “explains Carpenter in the aforementioned documentary.

On whether a real murderer finished outlining the character of Myers, it was said for a long time that this was Stanley Stiers, a serial killer who at the age of 11 would have killed his parents and sister and after being admitted to a psychiatric hospital, escaped one night Halloween to become the most prolific serial killer of the 1920s in his native Iowa.

However, this data has not been confirmed by Carpenter and there is no evidence of the existence of Stiers, so this theory would remain as a simple internet hoax.

Two other cases of real murderers of which there is evidence are those of Ed Kemper, one of the most famous serial killers in the world.

Kemper murdered his grandmother at age 16, and later did the same to his wife and grandfather. In 1969 his victims were university students and then his own mother.

Another case is that of Ed Gein, an American murderer and grave robber, born in Wisconsin who used masks made of human skin.

In its February 26, 2006 edition, El País newspaper describes Kemper’s story as follows: “Thus, at age 39, without having had physical contact with another woman other than Augusta (his mother), Ed Gein was left alone, isolated in a world he barely understood. And he was slipping into psychosis, slipping into his muddy ghosts, unleashing his chimeras. Especially those related to the female body, a complete mystery for which he was as curious as a child…

“…Since he did not have access to flesh and blood women, he decided to dig them up from the cemetery. One day he read a story in the local paper about a recently buried neighbor, and thought the time had come to take action. For this he asked for help from an old friend, Gus, another lone wolf, even more crazy than him… he used to choose older women who reminded him of his mother. But perhaps among the female corpses Ed wanted to exhume was his own. Because behind this obsessive interest in the anatomy of the opposite sex was the desire to transform himself into a woman, into his mother. From the unearthed bodies he was attracted to the organs he did not possess. He would cut them off and put them on, dressing himself entirely in female skin. He also considered the possibility of undergoing a sex change operation, and rejected it because it was too expensive.”

“Halloween” was released in October 1978 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the United States. After its success at the box office, the film became one of the most influential within the horror genre and was the one that popularized the slasher genre in the 1980s.

After seven sequels and two reboots, a new trilogy was released in 2018, called the official sequel to the 1978 film, leaving the stories released in subsequent years in oblivion.

On October 15, 2021 “Halloween Kills” came to theaters as the midpoint of a trilogy, the third installment of which hit theaters on October 14, 2022. “Halloween Ends” intends to definitively end the deranged Myers. Will they be able to with him?

“Four years after the events of “Halloween Kills” (2021) Laurie lives with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and is finishing writing her memoir while trying to get over the death of her daughter.

Michael Myers has not been seen since. Laurie, after allowing Michael’s specter to haunt her life for decades, has decided to free herself from fear and anger and embrace the hope of living. But when a young man, Corey Cunningham, is framed for killing a child he cared for, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally face evil once and for all.

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