The Halloween saga has gone through different retcons, making way for different timelines, and while they all have their flaws, the original sequel timeline made a bunch of mistakes. In 1978, John Carpenter introduced the audience to Michael Myers and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Halloween, a slasher movie that was key in the development of this subgenre in the 1980s. After Michael Myers killed all of Laurie’s friends on Halloween night in 1978, Laurie became the saga’s main Final Girl as well as Michael’s target throughout most of the sequels.
Carpenter’s Halloween was followed by five sequels (though only one of them, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, isn’t part of the Michael Myers saga) before the timeline was retconned in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. However, the original sequel timeline made various mistakes after the first movie, which negatively impacted this timeline’s legacy and the stories of the characters, particularly that of Michael Myers. Although the original sequel timeline of the Halloween saga is quite loved by fans, it can’t be denied that some creative choices were unnecessary.
11 Laurie & Michael Myers Are Siblings
What made Michael Myers so terrifying in the first Halloween movie was that his motivation to go after Laurie Strode wasn’t revealed. Michael was presented as the embodiment of evil, and not having a reason to target Laurie meant that he could have gone after anyone, but Laurie caught his attention. Unfortunately, Halloween II decided to give Michael Myers a motive and revealed that he and Laurie were siblings.
Following the death of their parents in a car accident some time after Michael murdered Judith, Laurie was put into foster care and was immediately adopted by the Strode family. For some then-unknown reason, Michael knew Laurie was his sister, so he decided to kill her, too. The siblings reveal made Michael Myers less scary and his and Laurie’s stories more confusing.
10 Laurie’s Off-Screen Death
In the original sequel timeline of the Halloween saga, Laurie was Michael Myers’ main target in just two movies: Halloween and Halloween II. In Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, it was revealed that Laurie died in a car accident at some point between the events of Halloween II and Halloween 4. Laurie’s off-screen death felt like an easy way out, and it probably wouldn’t have hurt the saga so much if she had run away, been killed by Michael, or simply disappeared. However, Laurie’s death wasn’t the end of Michael Myers’ killing sprees, as Laurie left a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris).
9 Michael Myers Targeting Jamie Lloyd
With Laurie out of the picture, Michael focused on Jamie Lloyd and she became his next victim and the franchise’s new Final Girl. What makes this decision so bad is that Jamie Lloyd was a child, as she was just eight years old when her murderous uncle started stalking her. Michael Myers is known for not killing children, but for some reason (by then unknown), he had no trouble trying to kill a child who, to make it even worse, was his niece.
8 Michael Myers’ Mask Got Progressively Worse
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Not all mistakes in the original sequel timeline of the Halloween franchise were in terms of narrative. The franchise has also made some questionable decisions when it comes to its visual style, settings, and props, and one of its biggest mistakes is changing Michael Myers’ mask. Even though the budget for the sequels increased, the quality of Michael’s mask decreased, especially in Halloween 4 and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. The mask went back to its roots in Halloween 6, but it still was quite ridiculous, so much so that some viewers think Michael Myers looked like a bobblehead toy.
7 Dr. Loomis’ Obsession With Michael Myers
Michael Myers’ psychiatrist Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) went from genuinely wanting to help catch Michael to becoming completely obsessed with his patient. Somehow, Loomis always appeared right on time to help either Laurie or Jamie Lloyd escape from Michael, but in reality, he only made everything worse. Among Loomis’ worst moments was pressuring Jamie into telling him where Michael was when she was mute out of shock and later using her as bait to lure Michael Myers into their trap (which was never going to work). Still, this version of Loomis isn’t as bad or obsessed as the one in Rob Zombie’s remakes, but it’s not a likable version, either.
6 Jamie Lloyd & Michael Myers’ Telepathic Bond
Before Michael Myers was (supposedly) killed in Halloween 4, Jamie Lloyd touched his hand and he rose. Later that night, Jamie’s foster mother was preparing a bath for her when Jamie, dressed as a clown (like Michael when he killed Judith), took a pair of scissors and attacked her. Loomis went upstairs to see what had happened and screamed “no!” repeatedly when he saw Jamie in costume, holding the bloody scissors. Loomis tried to shoot her, but he was stopped.
It was revealed in Halloween 5 that Jamie and Michael now shared a psychic bond, and the evil in him had influenced Jamie into attacking her foster mother. A telepathic bond between them was completely unnecessary and made no sense, as it introduced a supernatural element to a movie series that had stood out for not involving magic or supernatural stuff.
5 Jamie Lloyd’s Parents Did Nothing To Keep Her Safe
In Halloween 4 and Halloween 5, Jamie Lloyd didn’t really count on her foster parents to keep her safe from Michael, and instead, it was her foster sister Rachel and her friend Tina who looked after her. Knowing that Jamie Lloyd was related to Michael Myers and that she was having a hard time dealing with the death of her parents, her foster parents could have done more to help her feel safe, and instead, they were rarely seen. Even worse, they didn’t show up in Halloween 5 when a severely traumatized Jamie Lloyd was sent to Haddonfield Children’s Clinic, and only Rachel and Tina visited the young girl.
4 Jamie Lloyd Being Impregnated With Michael’s Son
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers revealed that Jamie Lloyd was kidnapped after the events of Halloween 5 and was kept captive for six years. During that time, Jamie, now 15 years old, was artificially inseminated and impregnated with Michael’s son – meaning that she was having her uncle’s son. Although all this was explained through the Cult of Thorn (more on that in a bit), no ritual, cult, or fantasy element can make the fact that Jamie Lloyd was impregnated against her will with her uncle’s child any less disturbing.
3 Michael Myers Targeting A Baby
Jamie Lloyd gave birth to a boy at the beginning of Halloween 6, and she escaped with her son in a stolen car. Unfortunately, she was caught by Michael and killed, but she managed to hide her baby so Michael wouldn’t kill him. Also through the Cult of Thorn, it’s explained that Michael’s new target was his newborn son, who was meant to be his final sacrifice. Halloween 6 went on truly disturbing paths in an attempt to make Michael Myers scary again and answer some of the biggest mysteries about his evil nature, and these decisions only hurt the movie and the entire sequel saga.
2 The Cult of Thorn
Arguably, the most controversial addition to the Halloween franchise has been the Cult of Thorn. Halloween 6 explained that Michael Myers’ evil and need to kill was the result of the curse of Thorn, an ancient, dark force. The Cult of Thorn, then, was a group of druids (most of them Haddonfield residents) who in order to save themselves from the sickness and death brought by Thorn, placed a curse on a child from their tribe. Michael was chosen to carry the curse, so he was possessed by Thorn, who drove him to kill his family on the night of Samhain. As Jamie’s son was Michael’s last relative alive, the baby became his final target and sacrifice. In the end, the baby is saved, but Michael’s fate changes depending on the version of the movie.
1 Halloween 6’s Theatrical & Producer’s Cuts
Adding to the mess that was Halloween 6 is the fact that there are different versions of the movie. Unlike other producer’s cuts and alternate versions, the producer’s cut and the theatrical version of Halloween 6 have big differences in terms of narrative. In the producer’s cut of Halloween 6, it’s clear that Jamie Lloyd’s baby will be Michael’s sacrifice and that the curse would then pass on to Danny, whose mother Kara Strode was going to be his first kill, but all this wasn’t clear in the theatrical cut. Another difference is that Jamie Lloyd doesn’t die at the beginning, and is instead killed at a hospital by Wynn.
The producer’s cut ends with Wynn passing on the Thorn symbol to Loomis, making the latter the new leader of the cult, and Loomis could only scream in despair – meanwhile, Michael escaped wearing Wynn’s “Man in Black” clothes. The theatrical cut of Halloween 6 ends with Loomis staying behind as the rest escape to check if Michael is dead, and once inside, Michael’s mask is shown on the floor while Loomis screams in the background.
