The core of the Halloween saga is Michael Myers’ killing sprees, with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) being his ultimate target, and his motives to kill her have been changed a couple of times. In 1978, John Carpenter brought Halloween, a slasher movie that was key in the development of the slasher genre in the 1980s. Halloween introduced the audience to Michael Myers, who at the age of six, killed his older sister, Judith, on Halloween night. Michael was taken to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, where he became the patient of Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) and never spoke again. On October 30, 1978, Michael escaped and returned to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois.
Michael Myers targeted Laurie Strode for years, though in the first timeline in the Halloween saga, he went after her daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), after Laurie was killed between the events of Halloween II and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Laurie Strode was Michael Myers’ main target again in the following retcons and in Rob Zombie’s remakes, but why did Michael go after her specifically, and what theories have emerged about their deadly dynamic?
Michael Myers Became Obsessed With Laurie After He First Saw Her In Halloween
In Carpenter’s movie, a reason for Michael Myers killing his sister wasn’t given, and he was simply described as the embodiment of evil – so if he killed his sister without an apparent motive, he could kill pretty much anyone. When Michael returned to Haddonfield, he hid inside his childhood home, which was now abandoned and on sale. Laurie Strode is first seen leaving her house to go to school but making a stop at the Myers’ house to drop the keys off as her father was in charge of selling the house. Michael was lurking inside, and he saw her dropping the keys off at the door and leaving with young Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews).
After that, Michael started following Laurie, and the first time she saw The Boogeyman was during class, when she turned to look through the window and saw him on the other side of the street, looking at her. That was the beginning of Michael’s obsession with Laurie that continued for many, many years and through different timelines.
Laurie & Michael Myers’ Sibling Connection Wasn’t Revealed Until Halloween 2 (But Later Retconned)
What made Michael Myers so terrifying in 1978’s Halloween was that he didn’t have a reason to go after Laurie, and he simply saw her and chose her as his target. The sequel, Halloween II, made a huge and highly divisive reveal by explaining that Laurie was actually Michael’s youngest sister. A couple of years after Judith’s murder, Michael Myers’ parents died in a car accident, and Laurie was put into foster care, where she was immediately adopted by the Strode family. It’s unknown how Michael knew Laurie Strode was his sister, but this gave him a somewhat clearer reason to go after her. Halloween II didn’t give an exact reason why he wanted to kill his youngest sister too, but other sequels attempted to explain this.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers introduced the Cult of Thorn, a group of druids who believed the ancient demon Thorn spread sickness and death. In order to save themselves, the cult placed a curse on a child from their tribe, who was then possessed by Thorn. This drove the child to kill their family on the night of Samhain, and by then, the final link in the Myers bloodline was Jamie’s baby, Steven, who would have been Michael’s final sacrifice. The sibling connection between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers continued in the Halloween H20: 20 Years Later/Halloween: Resurrection timeline, as they serve as sequels to Halloween II.
For his remakes, Halloween and Halloween II, Rob Zombie also added the sibling connection between Laurie and Michael, but he also added their mother, Deborah Myers, as a ghostly presence in Halloween II. This controversial connection was removed from canon in the Halloween reboot trilogy, which serves as a sequel to Carpenter’s original movie, and Laurie’s granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), even mentions that Laurie and Michael being siblings was made up by the press.
Michael Myers’ Obsession To Kill Laurie Strode Grew As She Became Unkillable
Laurie Strode wasn’t an easy target as Michael probably thought when he first saw her in Halloween, and as the saga evolved, Laurie became harder to kill. Laurie survived different encounters with Michael Myers throughout the Halloween saga, and even though she was killed three times, only one was due to Michael. Halloween: Resurrection begins with Laurie now as a patient at Grace Andersen Sanitarium after the events of Halloween H20, and of course, Michael made his way there to continue haunting her. Laurie was killed by Michael in the first minutes of Halloween: Resurrection, but before that, she survived various close calls.
The harder Laurie became to defeat, the more obsessed Michael was about killing her. This changed their dynamic from victim/killer to a war between the two to see who was the smartest and strongest, and the only way this could end was with one of them dying. In the reboot timeline, Laurie was the big winner as she and Allyson finally killed Michael and made sure he was really dead this time by throwing his body into an industrial shredder.
Theory: Annie Was Michael Myers’ Target In Halloween, Not Laurie
Laurie Strode was Michael Myers’ main target throughout the Halloween saga, but that doesn’t mean she was his Plan A. A theory suggests that Michael Myers was actually going after Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis), Laurie’s friend. While Laurie was the first one he saw when he returned to Haddonfield, there’s enough evidence throughout Halloween that supports the idea of Annie being the one Michael really wanted to kill – and, unfortunately, he fulfilled his plan. The first piece of evidence is when Laurie, Annie, and Lynda (P.J. Soles) are walking back home and Michael drives past them, slowing down as he drives in front of them. Annie yells at him “hey jerk! Speed kills!”, believing him to be one of their friends, and that could have been enough for him to decide to stalk her.
Later, when Annie and Laurie are babysitting Lindsey (Kyle Richards) and Tommy, respectively, Michael follows them. Instead of going to the Doyles’ house to kill Laurie, Michael goes to the Wallaces’ place, and he even stares at Annie as she enters the house. After Annie drops Lindsey at the Doyles’ as she was expecting her boyfriend to arrive, Michael kills her in the car inside the garage, and it isn’t until Laurie goes over to check on her that Michael starts following Laurie to kill her. This theory is further supported by Michael placing Annie’s body on the bed and with Judith’s gravestone over her body. If Annie was Michael’s real target, then he fulfilled his plans quite quickly, and Laurie was his second target.
Theory: Michael Myers Went After Laurie Because She Disturbed His Home
Another theory, though this one about the Halloween reboot trilogy, suggests Laurie became Michael Myers’ target because she disturbed his home. The second installment in the reboot trilogy, Halloween Kills, explained that what Michael Myers really wanted was to go back home, to the point where he killed the new owners. As explained above, in the 1978 movie, Laurie dropped off the keys to the Myers house because her father was going to sell the house, which most likely didn’t sit well with Michael. Most of Michael’s murders in Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills happened because he was on his way to his house, so he literally got rid of anyone standing in his way.
What weakens this theory is that Halloween Ends didn’t continue the “Michael just wants to go home” storyline and instead made a time jump to introduce a copycat killer. Still, it makes sense that Michael would target Laurie for disturbing his family home, and it’s a much better explanation than the controversial sibling connection. Ultimately, what makes Michael Myers terrifying is not having an exact reason to go after Laurie (or anyone else), but there are a couple of reasons given by the Halloween movie series for viewers to choose the one they like most.
