Halloween / YMMV - TV Tropes

Films with their own YMMV pages:

The franchise:

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Michael is subject to quite a lot, especially given the multiple timelines of the franchise. Is he just an abnormally strong human psychopath, or something otherworldly? Why does he never speak? Does he have full agency over his heinous crimes, or is he a puppet to some unknown force, as the novelization and "Thorn trilogy" suggests?
- There's also his dynamic with Dr Loomis. At least in original films, he never goes after him directly in spite of having several golden opportunities granted, only attacking him when he gets too much in his way. Perhaps this could be Michael having some Villain Respect for Loomis? Or maybe Michael wants to have him be Forced to Watch as he butchers innocent people left and right?
Awesome Music:
- The main theme. Seriously, try listening to it without getting the chills. Just try it.
- Not as well known but equally iconic to the series is "The Shape Stalks", which has appeared throughout the films as Michael's stalking theme within the films thanks to its feeling of dread and suspense.

Complete Monster: See here.
Creepy Awesome: Michael is often cited as one of the best slasher movies villains, despite(or probably because of it) being a living and unstoppable abomination with a passion for slaughtering human beings.
Crossover Ship:
- A non-romantic example. A lot of fan art portrays Michael as close friends with Sam.
- Unsurprisingly, Michael is also commonly depicted as best friends (or even lovers) with Jason Voorhees.
Cry for the Devil: The remake's timeline depict Michael's childhood as depressingly broken. Whether you do feel sorry for the guy is up in the air.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Michael never speaks, behaves in horrifyingly violent ways sometimes without warning, and his obsession with Halloween might link to a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There is clearly something up with him mentally, but as far as the films are concerned it's beyond human understanding. Loomis is so baffled by what drives Michael that in the end he diagnoses him (possibly correctly) as pure evil.
Evil Is Cool: Like all the other horror icons, Michael Myers is definitely this on account of his ability to inspire fear and his array of memorable kills.
Fanfic Fuel: The story of the sixth film was left hanging after its poor box office and critical reception led the franchise to be partically rebooted, making the last four films non-canon with the release Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later; but, then, after the sequel to the previously mentioned installment, Halloween: Resurrection, bombed at the box office, was panned by fans and critics, ''and'', to add even more salt to the wound, Moustapha Akkad, the producer for all the films up to that point and the man responsible for carrying the franchise through its Audience-Alienating Era, was killed in a terrorist attack three years later. The story to the last two films were left hanging and the franchise overall laid dormant until the franchise was rebooted with Rob Zombie's duology. Still, despite the reboot and the fans' hatred for the last films of the Thorn and H20 timeline, there are many fanfics and fan-films that continue the stories of these separate continuities. Aside from fan material, there have also been official continuations of the Thorn and H20 stories through comic books set in those universes.
Fan Nickname: Michael Myers tends to be referred to as “Mikey” affectionately by fans.
First Installment Wins: The first film is a universally praised horror classic. The sequels...vary in quality. How well they hold up varies from fan to fan to say the least, though the 2018 film is generally considered to at least be on par with the original.
Foe Yay Shipping: Michael Myers and Laurie Strode have quite the following as a pairing, for those who don't follow the timeline where they're siblings. Even Jamie Lee Curtis describes the first time Michael Myers sees Laurie as him falling in love with her, and that Laurie in the 2018 timeline waits for him and knows he will come back for her. She calls it a love story for the ages.
Franchise Original Sin:
- A huge negative on the franchise is Michael's inner machinations being explained as they end up downplaying the horror. The explanations start to creep in at around the fifth installment, but all of this actually started with the second film. Michael's reason for attacking Laurie is revealed as them being siblings and Michael leaving behind graffiti reading "Samhain" suggest that he's connected to the occult. These were contested, but it didn't start to become a problem until the fifth and sixth films started adding more plot elements to the point they became convoluted and outlandish, straying far away from the simplicity of the horror and Michael's character in the first film. While the twist was kept for the H20 and Rob Zombie films, the latter perhaps was the breaking point for Michael's inner machinations unraveling as his backstory was showcased, which was heavily criticized for being a far cry from the force of nature he was in the first film. Perhaps because of this, Michael was reduced to being a mysterious killer in Halloween (2018) once again.
- Halloween 2 was also one for the franchise because it torpedoed the Genre Anthology concept from the start. The massive success of the first movie led to Carpenter making a Michael Myers sequel before his planned new story. Which meant audiences were baffled when what they now thought was a slasher franchise about Michael Myers produced the supernatural conspiracy story Halloween 3 instead.
- The size of Michael Myers. The early movies could get away with this, by framing Michael where his size isn't instantly discernible (against scenery that a viewer can't determine the size of or looks larger than it truly is) or filming scenes of him from an upward angle, making him look larger than he truly is. Later movies didn't realize that and compensated by overly pumping up his mass (Halloween 4 and 5, giving him the linebacker look), or casting an extremely tall person (Rob Zombie movies).
Hilarious in Hindsight: The success of comedian Mike Myers makes it a bit hard to take a villain with that name seriously. Indeed, there are a couple of videos on the internet that have Mike Myers voicing Michael Myers.
It Was His Sled: Michael is Laurie's brother. A lot of people know this by now since both timelines of the original franchise kept this twist and the remake doesn't even bother hiding the fact, although this was subverted with the 2018 installment, where the two are once again not related.
Jerkass Woobie: Of all people, The Shape himself albeit only in the Producer's Cut in the Thorn Trilogy. The fifth and sixth films establish that Michael has been cursed since childhood by the Cult of Thorn, and ever since childhood, he has been forcefully driven by an evil rage to murder his entire bloodline and anyone in between. Other than being forced to kill, he was also made to rape his own niece, Jamie and either kill her child or pass on his curse to him. And he knows what he's doing. He knows that he's killing people, but can't stop himself; he even cries near the climax of the fifth film because of this, before succumbing to his rage again.
Memetic Mutation: Michael's name and his nature as a Silent Antagonist make him easy pickings for dubbing him with Mike Myers quotes.
Older Than They Think: Incidently some of the more unfavorable aspects of some of the sequels were implemented prior to said sequels.
- The familial aspect: Some may frown upon the aspect of Michael and Laurie being siblings. Even John Carpenter himself says he regrets the twist and that it was the result of an Ass Pull. However the novelization of the original film, predating the second, shows that Michael was fixated on Laurie for reminding him of his sister.
- The sixth film isn't well liked for introducing the idea that Michael was placed under a curse due to dark outside forces beyond his control, yet the novelization of the original film showcases Michael as a victim of Demonic Possession and he kills in hopes he can get the voices to stop tormenting him.
- Later down the line, the ending of the Producer's Cut of the sixth film has Michael faking his death by forcibly swapping clothes with someone else. He does the same in the later sequel Resurrection.
Replacement Scrappy: Allyson from the 2018 trilogy is considered to be this in regard to her role as a Generation Xerox Final Girl taking over from her grandmother Laurie Strode. While in her first two installments she wasn't bad and seemed built up to be a worthy successor, in the Grand Finale, she ultimately turns out to be a Sucksessor after having Took a Level in Jerkass and Took a Level in Dumbass, undergone Badass Decay and being Demoted to Extra.
Sequelitis: Most of the sequels are considered to be unable to measure up to the original, with Resurrection being regarded as the series' nadir and the Rob Zombie-directed reboots being a divisive affair. The only films in the series that are considered to come anywhere close are the second, fourth, seventh and eleventh films, and that is a point of contention.
- The follow ups to Halloween (2018) have unfortunately begun to draw this reputation in particular. While 2018 does have its critics (especially those actually liked the twist from 2 that Laurie is Michael's sister), it was seen by many as one of the best since the original film for removing the supernatural elements to Michael and having a much more grounded personal story while still retaining the exciting kills the franchise is known for. In contrast both Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends had a much more divisive reaction (Kills for stripping away the much more grounded elements of 2018 in favor of Michael once again becoming an Invincible Villain, a messy convoluted plot, and for killing off Laurie's daughter Karen, rendering a lot of Laurie's struggles in 2018 All for Nothing and Ends (which Jamie Lee Curtis has said is her final appearance as Laurie) for spending two-thirds of its runtime with Michael sitting out while focusing on a different killer only for Michael to come back way weaker than he was in ''Kills'' and for having Laurie's granddaughter Allyson become much crueler to Laurie and not as smart as she was in her previous appearances).
Signature Scene:
- In the original, Michael Myers quizzically tilting his head while looking at his kill, who is pinned to the wall with a large knife. The shadows and heavy breathing make it an iconic, creepy moment. Michael's white mask emerging from the darkness as he's about to slash Laurie is also an unforgettable moment.
- In the second film, Michael Myers has a similar moment by lifting a nurse he stabbed in the back just by the handle of a scalpel. Same head tilt, same curious disposition. The scene is even redone in H20.
Star Trek Movie Curse: Halloween has a tendency to have a film that can serve as a definitive end to the story of Michael Myers that is pretty good, only to follow it up with lower quality sequels that ruin the trajectory of the franchise. IV was a liked entry following the divisive II and III that seemingly killed off Michael for good while setting up Jamie to be the franchise's new killer, only for V and VI to back track on both completely and introducing the bizarre and confusing Cult of Thorn storyline. H20 was beloved for the return of Laurie Strode, doing away with the nonsense plot of the previous two films, and seemingly killing off Michael for good while giving closure to Laurie's story from the first two films, only for Resurrection to undo Michael's death, killing off Laurie right at the start, and becoming a goofy Narm filled cringe fest. 2018 was parsed for stripping away the more over blown elements of the franchise to tell a much more personal story and seemingly killing Michael for good (notice a pattern?), only for Kills and Ends to then bring him back and overblow his power again and then take focus off of him for a different killer respectively. The only timeline to defy this trend was ironically Rob Zombie's reboot timeline which, while divisive for both films, very definitely kills not only its Michael and Loomis but, depending on the cut, its Laurie as well at the end of its second installment, ending that timeline for good. Assuming you like II, IV, H20, or 2018, it's probably best that you pretend the story ended there.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: IV, H20 and the 2018 film each received this reception. All three came after heavily polarizing sequels and showed the slasher trends of their time to box office success and improved critical reception.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Though the original film is deservedly a classic, the Halloween series could have spawned some far more interesting stories if the studio had gone ahead with John Carpenter's original plan of making it a Genre Anthology about stories set on All Hallows' Eve instead of just turning it into (what quickly became) a generic Slasher Movie series.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: No matter what series timeline you follow, Michael always lives to kill another day, and anyone who survives one film will just die horribly come the next sequel, including Laurie, Dr. Loomis, and Jamie. And unlike Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street, the series hardly tries to have fun with its superhuman villain and plays his rampages as more brutal, dark, and cruel with each successive installment.
Vindicated by History: At least a few of the sequels have seen new light in recent years:
- Halloween III: Season of the Witch made good money at the box office, but was ravaged by film critics and fans at the time who were expecting another Michael Myers slash-a-thon, so much that the planned anthology approach to the series was canned in favor of bringing Michael back, writing it off as a disappointment. In recent years, thanks in part to more lackluster Michael filled sequels, the movie has been given a warmer reception from fans who praise the genre change, its amazing music and special effects, wishing the series did go in that direction.
- Halloween II (2009) was panned all across the board from critics and fans alike for being a incoherent mess that had no sense of direction and tone. As time passed, more fans have come to appreciate the movie for taking a risk and being a more artsy slasher film, as well as having great, gory kills and for having more character depth to it compared to other entries, establishing its own cult following. The Director’s Cut helped as well for adding more character development and for answering Plot Holes that the Theatrical Cut didn’t answer.
The Woobie:
- Never mind that he is one of the few characters who doesn't get horribly murdered, does anything good ever happen to Dr. Loomis? The poor guy desperately tries to end any more carnage caused by Michael, but fails repeatedly, often due to Michael escaping, being too late to save anyone, or being ignored by most everybody he warnings. His fates in the continuities of the Thorn and H20 timelines have him either killed by Michael in the sixth film (or cursed by Wynn in the Producer's Cut) or dying prior to the events of H20 from heart failure, but not before Michael tortures his love interest in front of him and reveals that he knows that his sister's still alive and is going after her. Honestly, the closest he has to a happy ending is in Halloween (2018)'s timeline, where he's dead before the events of the film and has died fearful that Michael will escape again, but had at least managed to keep Michael locked up before he died, without him escaping.
- Jamie Lloyd. Her mother died in a car accident, her uncle is a monstrous killer who is dead-set on killing her, is kidnapped by the Thorn cult at the end of Revenge and she is killed off at the start of Curse (and Producer's Cut of the film reveals that her baby is the result of Michael raping her).
- Laurie, especially in Zombie's 2. Not only does she lose her friends but, going by canon, she loses her daughter to Michael (Thorn canon), loses her family (H20/HR canon), and either ends up becoming crazy or getting shot dead by the police (Zombieverse). In the 2018 film, she spent decades as a nervous wreck scarred by the events of the first film, which ruined her relationships with her family, though this timeline at least offers her a potential happy ending mostly dashed by Halloween Kills. Turns into a Bittersweet Ending as of Halloween Ends, as although Laurie loses her daughter, son-in-law, and had to relive the horrors that plagued her forty years ago while also becoming the town pariah, she finally beats her Boogeyman, still has her granddaughter, and will potentially rekindle a romance with Officer Hawkins. And this is the happiest of all her endings.
- Lindsey Wallace, as depicted in a comic series in the H20 timeline, could easily rival Jamie in terms of having a depressing, downer outcome. In this series, it shows that after the events in the first Halloween, she became an absolute wreck - getting addicted to drugs, becoming clinically depressed and paranoid of Michael Myers. Her fears come true when he does begin stalking her for real. What does she get for all the grief and pain she suffered since she was a child? Michael slicing her tendons and murdering her anyway. If you want this series to end on anything resembling a not depressing ending, you're going to want to stop watching after Halloween II or watch the 2018 film.
- Allyson, Laurie's granddaughter. During one night she loses both her parents, her friends and her boyfriend (Scrappy though he was) and comes close to death herself more than once.

The video game:

The Problem with Licensed Games: Covered by The Angry Video Game Nerd in his review.

YMMV / Halloween

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