Here’s Why ‘Halloween’s’ Michael Myers Kills … In Every Timeline

Cue the Halloween theme in whatever version you love the most. Michael has entered the room, and he’s giving me the details about his reasons for killing in every timeline. Yes, I said every timeline, because if you’re not a fan of the franchise, you need to know that there are many timelines. Maybe it’s a bit extra to give you all these details, but I’m not holding back. Before I get into explaining Mikey Myers’s killer motivations, here’s a great graphic made by @adamhlavac:

Sorted? Excellent. Let’s dive into these different timelines and sort out this mystery. Hold on, folks, it’s going to be a bloody ride—literally.

Sequel timeline

Movies: Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

It would’ve been so much better if Michael’s motivations had never been fully revealed. Unfortunately, the original timeline introduced the most HORRIBLE story arc, known as the Cult of Thorn arc. In this arc, we get the explanation as to why Michael is out there slicing folks up. If you don’t remember or have never watched Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), then here we go. Basically, Michael killed his sister Judith because of a curse that was placed on him. A weirdo doctor thought it would be chill to cast this curse, even though it results in death and chaos over a long course of time. Michael simply serves as a killing machine to keep the cult of thorn thriving. And Loomis (Donald Pleasance) was always right that Michael is pure evil.

This story arc explains how Michael is able to survive getting shot, blown up and such. Regular people are obviously not meant to survive that shit. This arc is ludicrously bad because Jamie (played by J.C Brandy in this entry) is forced to give birth to Michael’s baby.

H20 timeline

Movies: Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and Halloween Resurrection (2002)

It’s a breath of fresh air to get the hell away from the cult of thorn. No shade to you if that’s your jam. But what makes the H2O timeline great is that Michael wants to kill Laurie specifically because he has completion anxiety (thanks to Nica Pierce for coining the term). Laurie gets away from him and keeps getting away from him. Everyone else (including dogs) who dies, including dogs, are simply in the way or convenient. Michael is just a regular ass serial killer in this timeline.

Reboot timeline

Movies: Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009)

Trigger warning: this section mentions suicide.

Imagine a stereotypical serial killer explaining why they are who they are. Either someone’s mom is to blame, or the killer had an abusive or dysfunctional childhood, or they were subjected to extreme bullying. Rob Zombie directs the two movies in this timeline, and his version of Michael is typical, even though the whole point of a remake is to switch things up. This timeline gives us a glimpse into Michael’s childhood. His mom worked at the local strip club (which the kids at school ridiculed him about. Gotta love slut shaming…not), his stepdad is an abusive piece of shit, and overall his family is uber dysfunctional.

Eventually this Michael snaps, and we find out he’s been killing animals (which isn’t unheard of in regard to serial killer origins). The ways in which he slaughters everyone at home (other than his baby sister and mom who was at work) on Halloween night is so gruesome. And from there Michael goes on a rampage to find his baby sister, who was adopted as a baby because their mom killed herself. He spends both movies trying to murder her and or reunite the family all due to delusions and unresolved trauma.

H40 timeline

Movies: Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022)

Michael just wants to go home. For now, that’s the major motivation as to why he’s fucking everyone up. Haddonfield is cursed because Michael hates people getting in his way. He also just really likes to kill. Both Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills (2021) have hammered home the fact that that Laurie doesn’t matter to him. She’s an annoyance to him and that’s why he took the opportunity to attempt to kill her and her family. He even goes so far as to kill Karen (Judy Greer) in HK because she stood in Judith’s bedroom. Halloween Ends (2022) will likely give us more details and potentially add another angle to this. But for now, that’s it folks. Unless I’m missing something.

(featured image: Compass International Pictures, Sony Pictures and Aquarius Releasing)