Eric D. Snider
(For a film-by-film breakdown, see Part 1.)
Films: 8
Total runtime without credits or flashbacks: 11 hours, 17 minutes, 9 seconds
Total Michael Myers kills: 68
Overall KPH: 5.9, or a kill every 10 minutes and 10 seconds. Eliminating the Michael-less H3, the 7 films run 9 hours, 45 minutes, with a KPH of 7.0, or a kill every 8 minutes and 30 seconds.
Earliest first kill: 5:10 in H6
Latest first kill: 14:20 in H3; for Michael movies it’s 12:20 in H2
Longest gap between kills: 51 minutes in H7
Fewest kills: 6 in H1
Most kills: 13 in H4
Total victims: 68
Men: 40
Women: 25
Dogs: 3
Medical personnel: 20
Teens and college kids: 24
Law enforcement and security guards: 9
Jump scares: 19, or 2.4 per film
Michael’s musical theme is used: 47, or 5.9 times per film. H5 uses it 11 times.
Total times Michael Myers’ full name is spoken: 70 in six films (none in H1 or H3), or 11.6 times per film.
Total times Dr. Loomis uses the word “evil” to describe Michael Myers: 5
Total times someone picks up a telephone receiver to make a call: 22
Total calls successfully placed: 9
Movies in which someone runs next door for help: 4
Total seconds that Michael’s unmasked face is visible: 45
Actors who play Michael Myers: 10
Houses that play the Myers house: 5
Slasher tropes
“I”ll be right back”: This slasher cliché is uttered four times in the series (once in H1, thrice in H7). Three of the four times, the person comes back.
Deadly sex: Killing teens after they have sex is really more of a Jason Voorhees thing. Michael Myers’ post-coital victims are limited to his sister Judith (H1), Bob and Lynda (H1), and Tim and Beth (H6). He kills Spitz and Samantha (H5) while they’re doin’ it. Budd and Karen (H2), Brady and Kelly (H4), Charlie and Sarah (H7), and Jim and Donna (H8) all make plans to have sex (and do fool around a little) but are killed before they can consummate it.
Nudity and exploitation: There’s a little skin in almost every film, but not much, and not in a sleazy way. Seven pairs of female breasts are at least partly visible for a few seconds each, as are two guys’ butts. In general, the women in this series aren’t mistreated the way they are in some slasher films (poor Jamie Lloyd notwithstanding). Their deaths aren’t any crueler or more gruesome than the men’s, and male victims outnumber females 40-25.
The black guy dies first: Another slasher stereotype that came from somewhere other than Halloween. Apart from H3’s gas station attendant (who lives), there aren’t any black characters with speaking roles until H7 and H8. Of those, the ones played by Sean Patrick Thomas and Tyra Banks die, but not first. LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes survive. In this series, the rappers live.
Incompetent police: Haddonfield’s finest actually do fairly well. They don’t ignore blatant warning signs, and they don’t put the wrong people in jail while the killer roams free. On the other hand, the first murders are reported on TV and radio before most of the police have heard about them, which suggests poor intra-department communications. They are also far too easily cowed by Dr. Loomis, whose gun they should have taken away the first time he whipped it out.
Michael Myers’ victims: a complete list
Halloween
1. His sister, whose name we aren’t told but later we learn it was Judith.
2. The driver of the Phelps Garage truck, cause of death unknown, lying in the bushes. Loomis doesn’t see the body, and it’s not included when Michael’s murders are publicized later, so it’s possible it was never attributed to him.
3. Lester the dog.
4. Annie Brackett, strangled and then stabbed while in her car. She died doing what she loved: singing a song about how she was going to pick up Paul.
5. Bob Simms, lifted with one arm and then impaled to the wall with a butcher knife.
6. Lynda Van Der Klok, strangled with the phone cord.
Halloween II
7. Random teenager Alice Martin, her throat sliced with a butcher knife Michael stole from the old people next door.
8. Hospital security guard Mr. Garrett, claw hammer to the head.
9. Horny paramedic Budd Scarlotti, strangled silently in the background with a telephone cord.
10. Formerly horny but not in the mood anymore nurse Karen Bailey, her face scalded in the boiling hydrotherapy water.
11. Dr. Mixter, the hospital’s only doctor (and a drunk one), found in his office syringed in the eye.
12. Nurse Janet Marshall has a syringed to the face as well.
13. Head nurse Mrs. Alves, tied to a table and exsanguinated.
14. Nurse Jill Franco, stabbed in the back with a scalpel and then lifted off the ground.
15. A state marshal, Terrence Gummell, who thought Michael was dead and got his throat sliced.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
16-19. Four EMTs in the ambulance, causes of death unknown except for the guy whose eyes Michael gouged out.
20. An unnamed auto mechanic, stabbed.
21. An unnamed diner waitress, cause of death unknown but probably stabbed.
22. The Carruthers family’s dog, Sundae.
23. Power plant employee Bucky, electrocuted.
24. Unnamed police officer, torn asunder in the police station.
25. Deputy Logan, who was sitting up watching for Michael but got killed by him anyway.
26. Blonde teen Kelly Meeker, impaled and stuck to a wall with a shotgun, which is not possible.
27. Duplicitous boyfriend Brady, his head squeezed until it pops.
28. One of the beery rednecks is stabbed and thrown out of the back of the pickup truck. (Two others are thrown out but not stabbed; they presumably lived.)
29. Earl Ford, driver of the pickup truck, his face ripped off while he’s driving (v. unsafe).
Halloween 5
30. The old hermit who nursed him back to health and took care of him for a year.
31. Rachel Carruthers, stabbed with scissors.
32. Tooly boyfriend Mikey, gardening implement to the head.
33. Balding teen Spitz, who likes to play pranks, gets pitchforked while doin’ it with Samantha.
34. Samantha is scythed.
35. Deputy Eddy, head bashed against the steering wheel.
36. Deputy Charlie, hanged.
37. Dr. Max Hart, cause of death unknown, seen being wheeled off on a gurney.
36. The Carruthers family’s new dog, Max.
37. Idiot cop Deputy Tom is found dead in the attic with Max the dog. Tom’s fellow idiot cop, Nick, is unaccounted for.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
37. Nurse Mary who helps Jamie escape, lifted by the throat and impaled on a spike in the wall that seems to have been put there for that purpose.
38. The guy whose truck Jamie steals, his neck snapped.
39. Jamie Lloyd, impaled on a thresher.
40. Debra Strode, axed in the face while hanging up the laundry.
41. John Strode, impaled then electrified until his head explodes, making him an ex-Strode.
42. Radio douche Barry Simms, stabbed while sitting in his car.
43. Teen doofus Tim Strode, his throat slit.
44. Tim’s girlfriend Beth, stabbed a bunch.
45. Unnamed female lunatic who tells Tommy Doyle, “He’s come back and he’s angry,” stabbed.
46-50. Five cult doctors and nurses, including Dr. Wynn, sliced up while doing something cult-y.
51. Another cult doctor, his head crushed against a steel gate.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
52. Jimmy Howell, ice skate to the face.
53. Jimmy’s pal Tony, knife to the back.
54. Marion Chambers Wittington, Dr. Loomis’ nurse from back in the day, throat slit.
55. Horny teen Charlie Deveraux, throat slit.
56. His girlfriend Sarah Wainthrope, stabbed a bunch.
57. Laurie Strode/Keri Tate’s boyfriend Will Brennan, stabbed and lifted off the ground.
58. A paramedic whom Michael switched clothes with, resulting in his (the guard’s) decapitation. Laurie swung the ax, but surely the kill belongs to Michael.
Halloween: Resurrection
59. A security guard, decapitated, his head put in the dryer as a funny prank.
60. Another security guard, his throat slit.
61. Longtime foe and occasional sister Laurie Strode, stabbed (in the back!) and dropped off a roof.
62. Cameraman Charlie Albans, stabbed with the pointy end of his tripod.
63. Reality show participant Bill Woodlake, stabbed.
64. Another contestant, Donna Chang, impaled on a spike.
65. Yet another one, Jen Danzig, decapitated right in front of her friends.
66. Still another one, Jim Morgan, his head crushed with Michaels’ bare hands.
67. A fifth fame-seeker, Rudy Grimes, stabbed to a door with knives.
68. Reality-show producer Nora Winston, cause of death unclear but definitely bloody.
