Michael Myers has had a career lasting over thirty-five years (although he did take some brief time off during Haloween III) and while he may not be known for the versatility of Jason Voorhees, he’s been pretty imaginative in his work. Spanning ten films, he’s had a wide range of kills over the years, here are some of the most imaginative and iconic.
10. NURSE DANIELS (ROB ZOMBIE’S HALLOWEEN II)
This one is memorable just for the sheer length and brutality of it. Michael attacks the poor nurse and as soon as he steps into the hospital, and the reveal is great. She doesn’t comprehend what’s happened because she’s in shock, then she starts bleeding from the mouth and screams as Michael is revealed behind her. But it’s the sheer length that makes this one special. Michael stabs her, and then stabs her again and keeps stabbing and it goes on for over a minute. He stabs her probably thirty times and it’s a death worth noting just for its insanity.
9. SARAH (HALLOWEEN H20)
Clocking in at number nine is an underrated death from an underrated movie. Sarah is killed by Michael after a fairly long chase sequence beginning with her finding her boyfriend Charlie dead in a dumbwaiter. She tries to escape by taking the dumbwaiter up and as she’s climbing out on the above floor, Michael cuts the rope so that it comes down on her leg. Her leg is nearly severed and it’s hard to look at, and she’s pretty much done at that point. She can’t crawl away forever. When Michael finds her, he starts stabbing. We can’t see what he’s doing at this point, but we know it’s not good. The answer comes later and a light turns on, revealing that Sarah has been hollowed out and essentially turned into a human Jack O’ Lantern, with the bare bulb burning inside of her.
8. PARAMEDIC (HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS)
The transfer from Michael Myers out of the state hospital and back to Smith’s Grove does not go smoothly. You’d think that would be obvious, but at this point Myers had been in a coma for ten years. Hearing he has a living niece, Michael snaps awake and kills the paramedic by jamming his thumb right into the poor guy’s forehead and slamming him up against the ambulance wall. It’s the first display of superhuman strength in a movie that would be full of them.
7. PAUL (HALLOWEEN 2007)
Paul was a character we never actually got to see in John Carpenter’s original Halloween. He’s a character that’s talked about, and talked to over the phone (his voice provided by Carpenter himself) but we never see him. In Rob Zombie’s Halloween, he’s not as lucky. Paul and Annie are making out, just starting to have sex. Then Michael comes in out of nowhere and attacks. When Laurie and Lindsay arrive later, they find Paul hanging in the entryway for everyone to see, dangling from the ceiling with a pumpkin on his head. It’s one of the movies better set pieces.
6. KELLY (HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS)
The hot blond who seduces the lead blond’s boyfriend, it seems obvious that Kelly Meeker is going to die. But we get to spend some time with her and she seems safe in her fortified house. Then Michael Myers spins around, shotgun in hand. Instead of using the gun on her in the traditional sense (which is really not his style) he impales her through the chest with it and pins her to the wall. That’s much more his thing. It’s about making his own brand of art for Michael.
5. JAMIE (HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS)
Jamie was our protagonist through two films up to this point. She was a successful lead in both of them, and only a child so it was pretty obvious that Michael would not actually kill her. In Curse of Michael Myers, we pick up with Jamie as a teenager. She’s got a baby (the less said about that the better) and is trying to escape Smith’s Grove with it. Michael is hot on her tail, and this time he catches up with her at an old farm, where he uses some inventive equipment to make sure she reaches a very uncomfortable end.
4. ANNIE (HALLOWEEN)
Annie was a character we’d spent a lot of time with at this point and had really gotten to know, enough to connect with the character a little, at least. Then, stepping back into her car, she realizes that the windows had fogged up. She’s curious and maybe starting to realize something is wrong, but doesn’t have time to react before Michael springs up from the back seat and strangles her for a few seconds before swiftly slitting her throat. Up until this point, Michael Myers had been in the background. He’d been stalking, but not acting. This was the first kill of Michael’s homecoming trip to Haddonfield, and it definitely got people’s attention.
3. NURSE JILL (HALLOWEEN II)
Nurse Jill’s death is so good that it’s the only death from a Halloween sequel to be revisited or alluded to in a further sequel. Jill finds Laurie and looks like she’s about to finally get some help for the barely-conscious girl, when Michael appears out of nowhere behind her. He stabs Jill in the back, lifts her up off the ground, and the shoes drop off her feet. It’s a well shot and very well executed scene.
2. JUDITH (HALLOWEEN)
The opening shot of Halloween is one of the most iconic scenes in horror movie history and very nearly took the top spot. We start out in the killer’s perspective, track through the house, come up behind the sister and stab her multiple times. We watch ourselves do it. Then we calmly walk out of the room, walk downstairs and outside… and are revealed to be a six year old boy. It’s a major shock sequence and one that still works for those unfamiliar with the movie.
1. BOB (HALLOWEEN)
Bob, to my mind, is the major iconic slasher movie death. Everything about it just works. He steps into the kitchen and hears something in one of the closets. Thinking (somehow) that it’s his girlfriend, Lynda, he actually says “come on out” and Michael Myers happily obliges. Michael lifts Bob into the air before he can do anything about it, raises the knife for a moment, and then pins Bob through the door. That’s not what makes the scene, though. It’s the next moment, when Michael just looks at the body. Carpenter gave Nick Castle almost no direction in the movie, except for this scene. He told Castle to tilt his head as though he were looking at butterflies in a jar. It works in the scene, is creepy as hell, and it became an iconic staple of the character.
