“Halloween”: who was the real Michael Myers? The true story that inspired the movie about the killer psychopath

Michael Myers it’s back. One of the most terrifying serial killers in cinema returns to star in a film, 3 years after the sequel to the original 1978 film.Halloween Kills”, This third installment written and directed by David Gordon Green begins the story in the same scene in which the 2018 film ended, with the psychopath allegedly burning in the basement of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).

But as is often the case with this deranged character, nothing seems to be able to end him and he always tends to be well off and ready to claim new victims.

Behind the mask of Michael Myers

When “Halloween”Of 1978 entered the pre-production stage, it 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 an actor’s mask William Shatner, Captain 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 into the sides.

The actor who gave life to Myers in this first film was the inexperienced in the trade and friend of the creator John Carpenter, Nick Castle, however, in the last scene, in the one of the unmasking, who put 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 instinct tells him to: murder without mercy. In this return, which coincides with the Halloween party, Myers will run into the skillful Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), a young college girl who pays for her expenses by babysitting.

About this character, John CarpenterHe recently said in an interview to the show “Out of Focus” in 2018. “He 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 it does what it does. It is a kind of evil without a cause.

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 about 12 or 13 years old, with that look …” 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 have ever seen, ”explains Carpenter in the aforementioned documentary.

On whether a real murderer finished sketching the character of Myers, it was said for a long time that this was Stanley Stiers, a serial murderer who at age 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 16, and then did the same to his wife and grandfather. In 1969 his victims were college students and then his own mother.

Another case is that of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin-born American murderer and grave robber who wore masks made from human skin.

In its edition of February 26, 2006, 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 could barely understand. And he slid into psychosis, penetrating his muddy ghosts, unleashing his chimeras. Especially those related to the female body, a complete mystery for which I felt the same curiosity as a child …

“…Since he had no access to real women, he decided to unearth them from the cemetery. One day he read a story in the local newspaper about a recently buried neighbor, and he thought it was time to take action. For this he asked an old friend for help, Gus, another lone wolf, even more buzzed than he … 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 that obsessive interest in the anatomy of the opposite sex was the desire to transform himself into a woman, his mother. From the unearthed bodies he was attracted to the organs that he did not possess. He cut them and put them on, dressing entirely in feminine skin. He also considered the possibility of undergoing a sex change operation, and dismissed it because it was too expensive.”

“Halloween“Premiered 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 in the horror genre and was the one who popularized the slasher genre in the 1980s.

After seven sequels and two reboots, in 2018 a new version is released, called the official sequel to the 1978 film and leaving the stories released during those years in oblivion. Directed by David Gordon Green, this second part brings back to Jamie Lee Curtis like a mature Laurie Strode willing to definitively liquidate Michael Myers.

On October 15, 2021 “Halloween Kills”Hit theaters as the midpoint of a trilogy that will come to an end in October 2022. This next film called“Halloween Ends“Intends to put an end to the deranged Myers for good.

“The movie takes place four years after the events of 2018, so the characters will no longer only have to process the tragedies of 1978 and 2018, but also how the world has evolved and changed over the 4 years since they watched for last time to Michael “, declared David Gordon Green to the Spanish media E-Billboard.

“A week ago I came across the notes from the end of ‘Halloween Ends’, in a way I just woke up thinking of an idea that excited me a lot. And when I tried it with Jamie Lee Curtis, he loved it. Having those “Eureka!” Inspirational moments. it is part of the evolution, so I will continue to have them until I have finished the image and sound of the next film ”, added.

Will this be the definitive end of Michael Myers?

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