The Michael Myers Halloween Theory That Changes Everything

There are few horror characters as iconic and fear-inducing as Michael Myers, the seemingly immortal killer from the "Halloween" movies, per IMDb. He went from a young child who killed his sister to terrorizing the town of Haddonfield after breaking out of a mental institution over a decade later. He was the murderous man in the white mask with the soulless black eye holes, who slowly stalked his prey and then dispatched them in various gruesome ways. He racked up quite the death count over the course of his appearances. To many, he is evil personified. 

This definition of the killer, who has come back from being killed numerous times, much like Jason Voorhees, his fellow masked slasher from the "Friday the 13th" franchise, has been earned. He has killed many teenagers, along with people of all ages. There is no question of his complete lack of humanity — there is not a shred of it. But there is a theory that posits that while he is a threat to everyone around him, he might be a weapon born of one of the people who sought to stop him: Dr. Samuel Loomis. 

For those familiar with the "Halloween" horror movie franchise, especially the first five films (excluding the third one, which had nothing to do with Michael Myers), they remember Donald Pleasence's portrayal of Dr. Loomis, the man who first said that Myers was a danger and insisted that he not be released. After Myers' escape and subsequent murder spree, Dr. Loomis pursued the killer. He seemed to be the light to Myers' darkness. But the question lingered: What is Michael Myers, exactly? It's a hard question, per Polygon. Perhaps that was always the intent of John Carpenter and Debra Hill, who co-wrote the screenplay. But there are always theories that abound about the story. This one is a doozy, but could explain a lot. 

The first movie starts from the viewpoint of the young Michael Myers. He enters his home, puts on a clown mask, and then proceeds to stab his older sister to death. He is found by his parents as he attempts to get away. In the next scene we see Dr. Loomis passionately stating to a board that Myers needs to stay locked up. The boy, who has grown into a teenager, is a patient of Dr. Loomis and can be seen silently staring out a window. One night, though, he escapes when a bunch of other patients are released and he winds up stealing a car and driving to his hometown. There he stalks and kills people while Dr. Loomis tracks him down. 

It still seems like the classic story of good vs. evil, right? Not necessarily. 

A theory that was posted by Christine Stockton on Thought Catalog asked the question, "What if Dr. Loomis groomed Michael Myers to be a killing machine?" The therapist might have been seeing the boy before he went to the mental institution. The movie leaves it for us to guess that Dr. Loomis met Myers in the institution. What if that wasn't the case? What if the younger Dr. Loomis was also involved with Myers' sister and got the boy to commit the murder to cover up something there? Then he tried to stop his creation — and failed. 

Does this all sound far-fetched? After all, this is all about a movie telling the story of a man who can constantly get up from being shot multiple times and be none the worse the wear. John Carpenter (who also directed) hasn't said anything, and his co-screenwriter, Debra Hill, died in 2005. Perhaps this conjecture on the part of Stockton is 100% wrong. It's all up to the people who watch it — they can make up their own stories. (Now cue the Halloween theme music on YouTube.)