48 Fun Facts About Michael Myers

Who created the character of Michael Myers?

John Carpenter took a flat $10,000 to direct, co-write and score Halloween in 1978, plus ten per cent of the profits from what became a huge independent hit.

Under what name is the masked Michael Myers billed in the closing credits of Halloween (1978)?

The Shape is what the screenplay calls the masked figure, and the cast and crew used the same name for him on set.

Who wore the Michael Myers mask for most of the original 1978 Halloween?

Nick Castle, a USC film-school friend of the director, played the masked Michael in nearly every scene; he later directed The Last Starfighter.

In Halloween (1978), what was the main instruction to the man playing Michael Myers?

Just walk, he was told, and don't act. The man behind the mask was a film-school friend who had only dropped by to watch the shoot and was paid a token daily fee.

Michael Myers's blank white mask was made from a shop-bought mask of which actor's face?

It was a William Shatner Captain Kirk mask, bought for under two dollars, then widened at the eyes and spray-painted white to give a blank, expressionless face.

Which member of the Halloween (1978) crew bought and reworked the mask that became Michael Myers's face?

Tommy Lee Wallace, the production designer and co-editor, tried a sad-clown mask first, then trimmed a cheap Captain Kirk one and sprayed it a pale bluish white.

How old is Michael Myers when he kills his sister Judith in the opening scene of Halloween (1978)?

Michael is six when he stabs his sister Judith on Halloween night 1963, a murder shown from his point of view through a clown mask.

From which institution does Michael Myers escape in Halloween (1978), fifteen years after killing his sister?

He escapes Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where he had been held since the 1963 murder, and drives a stolen car back to his home town.

Which fictional Illinois town is Michael Myers's home town in the Halloween films?

Haddonfield, Illinois was named after Haddonfield, New Jersey, the home town of the film's co-writer; the other towns belong to Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.

What is the name of the psychiatrist who hunts Michael through the films?

Dr Sam Loomis takes his name from the boyfriend character in Hitchcock's Psycho; he pursues Michael from the first film through five entries in the series.

Which Halloween sequel left Michael Myers out in favour of a standalone story about deadly Halloween masks?

Season of the Witch (Halloween III, 1982) dropped the Michael Myers story to try turning the series into an anthology with a new tale each year, an idea abandoned after one film.

Which weapon is Michael Myers's trademark, first used in the opening scene of Halloween (1978)?

A chef's knife from the family kitchen is his trademark. In the opening shot, the small hand that reaches for it belongs to the film's producer, doubling for the child.

What did Halloween 4's Michael Myers wear under his overalls to look bigger?

Hockey pads bulked out stuntman George P. Wilbur's frame, and the film was a rush job all round, its script written in eleven days to beat the 1988 writers' strike.

Roughly how much did it cost to make Halloween (1978), the film that introduced Michael Myers?

The $300,000 came from a single backer, producer Moustapha Akkad, and the film took tens of millions at the box office, one of the best returns any independent film has made.

In which time signature is the piano theme of Halloween (1978), Michael Myers's first film, written?

The theme is in 5/4 time, a rhythm the director learned as a boy from a bongo lesson with his father; the lopsided count is much of why it feels unsettling.

How long did the director take to compose and record the whole score for the 1978 film?

He composed and recorded the whole score in three days, playing most of the synthesizer and piano parts himself in a Los Angeles studio.

Which actress made her feature-film debut in Halloween (1978) as Laurie Strode, the babysitter stalked by Michael Myers?

Jamie Lee Curtis made her feature-film debut as Laurie Strode after television work including Operation Petticoat; she has returned to the role repeatedly since.

Which Hitchcock leading lady is the real-life mother of the actress who plays Laurie Strode?

Janet Leigh, Psycho's shower-scene victim, is the actress's real-life mother and appeared with her daughter in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

Which actor drew the biggest fee on Halloween (1978), Michael Myers's first film?

Donald Pleasence earned a reported $20,000 for about five days' work as the psychiatrist, the biggest fee on a film made for a few hundred thousand dollars.

Shooting Halloween (1978) in California, what did the crew keep out of shot?

Palm trees would have given the game away, so shots were framed to avoid them, though a few still slip into the background of the 1978 film.

Halloween (1978), Michael Myers's debut, was shot in spring, so what did its crew do again and again?

They had to reuse artificial leaves: the art department painted paper leaves, scattered them for a shot, then gathered them up and spread them on the next street.

Which boy is Laurie Strode babysitting in Halloween (1978) on the night Michael Myers comes home?

Tommy Doyle is her charge while another sitter minds Lindsey across the street, and when he spots the masked figure from the window he takes him for the boogeyman.

What is Halloween (1978), Michael Myers's first outing, widely credited with starting?

The 1980s wave of slasher films borrowed its template of teenagers, a holiday and a masked killer, and Friday the 13th followed the formula just two years later.

When does Halloween II (1981) pick up Michael Myers's story, relative to the end of the first film?

Halloween II begins immediately afterwards, on the same night as the first film, with most of the action inside the local hospital where Laurie is taken.

Which plot twist about Michael Myers did Halloween II (1981) introduce?

Laurie is Michael's sister, the sequel reveals. The twist had not been thought of when the first film was made.

Which stunt performer played Michael in Halloween II?

Dick Warlock, the sequel's stunt coordinator, had not even seen the original when he was hired, so he studied it and chose to play Michael as stiffly mechanical.

Which of Laurie Strode's friends in Halloween (1978) is the daughter of the town sheriff?

Annie Brackett, the sheriff's daughter, is Laurie's closest friend; Michael kills her in her car before she can collect her boyfriend.

The abandoned house used as Michael Myers's childhood home in Halloween (1978) belonged to whom?

A church owned the abandoned house, and the crew had to partly remodel it before it could pass for a family home.

Halloween 6 blames Michael Myers's urge to kill his own family on an ancient druid curse with which name?

Thorn is the curse, watched over by a secret cult, that the film says sends him after his own bloodline each Halloween. Later films quietly dropped the idea.

Under what assumed name is Laurie living in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later?

In H20 Laurie has faked her death and lives as Keri Tate, headmistress of a private boarding school in Northern California, where Michael finally tracks her down.

Which two films complete the Michael Myers trilogy that began with Halloween (2018)?

Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, released in 2021 and 2022, complete the trilogy; Ends was billed as Laurie Strode's final confrontation with Michael.

Which earlier films does Halloween (2018) count as part of Michael Myers's story?

Only the 1978 original counts: the writers ignored every sequel and picked Michael's story up 40 years on, as if that first night had ended slightly differently.

Which comedian co-wrote Halloween (2018), Michael Myers's big-screen comeback?

Danny McBride, an HBO comedy star, wrote it with its director and Jeff Fradley, friends from film school, and said the script held 'maybe one joke' while the rest was straight horror.

Who directed Halloween (2018), which sent Michael Myers after Laurie Strode 40 years on?

David Gordon Green directed the 2018 film, having earlier made Pineapple Express and the indie drama All the Real Girls; he directed both sequels too.

Which record did the 2018 reboot break on release?

It became the highest-grossing slasher ever at that point, passing the mark Scream had held since 1996, and finished with about $259.9 million worldwide.

Who plays Allyson, Laurie Strode's granddaughter, in the Halloween trilogy that began in 2018?

Andi Matichak plays Allyson in all three films. In the last of them she breaks Michael's arm after he seizes Laurie by the throat, and her grandmother finishes him.

Who wrote and directed Halloween (2007), the remake that opens with Michael Myers's childhood?

Rob Zombie wrote, directed and produced the 2007 remake, which spends its first half on Michael's childhood as an origin story before retelling the 1978 plot.

Tyler Mane, the 2007 remake's Michael Myers, first made his name as what?

Pro wrestler came first, and the ring led to film parts such as Sabretooth in X-Men. The remake's director had already used him in The Devil's Rejects.

Who played the psychiatrist hunting Michael Myers in the 2007 remake of Halloween?

Malcolm McDowell played the psychiatrist in the 2007 remake and its 2009 sequel, taking over a role one actor had held for five earlier films.

Which holiday weekend's box-office record did the 2007 Halloween remake, Michael Myers's origin story, break on release?

Labor Day weekend was an odd slot for a Halloween film, two months early, yet its four-day take of about $30.6 million stood as that holiday's best until 2021.

From whom did the character Michael Myers take his name?

A British film distributor, Michael Myers of Miracle Films, pushed the director's previous film into the London Film Festival, and the killer's name was a tribute to the man who launched his reputation.

Which earlier film persuaded producers to hire the director of Halloween (1978), Michael Myers's first outing?

Assault on Precinct 13, a 1976 siege thriller, impressed producer Irwin Yablans, who then offered its director a film about a killer stalking babysitters.

Who co-wrote Halloween (1978), Michael Myers's first film, and also produced it?

Debra Hill wrote most of the teenage girls' dialogue while her co-writer, the director, supplied the psychiatrist's speeches, and the pair went on to write the sequel together.

Which mask company made the shop-bought mask that the crew of Halloween (1978) turned into Michael Myers's face?

Don Post Studios, the legendary mask maker, sold it as ordinary shop stock, and the producers later went back to the firm to create the masks for a sequel.

How does Michael Myers spend the ten years between Halloween II and Halloween 4?

In a coma until the eve of Halloween 1988, when he wakes in an ambulance during a hospital transfer, kills the crew and heads for his home town.

The 1979 novelisation of Halloween traces Michael Myers's evil back to a curse from which ancient festival?

Samhain, the Celtic festival behind Halloween, supplies a backstory the film never gave: the book, credited to Curtis Richards, blames Michael's evil on an ancient curse.

Which two companies co-financed Halloween (2018), Michael Myers's comeback, with Universal distributing?

Blumhouse and Miramax co-financed the 2018 film, with Universal distributing, after Dimension Films spent years failing to get another sequel made and lost the rights.

Which stuntman played Michael Myers for most of Halloween (2018)?

James Jude Courtney, a stuntman, performed most of Michael's scenes in the 2018 film, with the 1978 performer returning for a brief cameo behind the mask.