The Big Picture
When it comes to horror villains, one of the most famous and note-worthy is Michael Myers, the leading villain of the Halloween franchise which spans 45 years. While there are many iconic horror villains in the genre, such as Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, there’s one specific thing that sets Michael apart: His humanity. Now it may sound kinda wild to say that Michael Myers has even an ounce of humanity so allow me to explain. Unlike some of his fellow villainous counterparts who lean more on the supernatural side of things, Michael is just an average dude with a bloodlust. He may be described as having “the devil’s eyes,” and has the fastest walk known to man, but it’s always been made clear that he is in no way supernatural. But that’s what has always made Michael so scary. There’s nothing occult contributing to his actions, it’s just him. That is, until Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, when the franchise decided to suddenly give Michael a backstory and a motive: he’s part of a cult, of course.
What Is Michael Myer’s Cult Backstory?
The Cult of Thorn is properly introduced in the sixth installment, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers but the seeds are first planted in Halloween 5 when the mysterious Man in Black arrives and breaks Michael out of jail at the end of the movie — kidnapping Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) along with him. This sets up for Halloween 6 where it’s revealed that the Man in Black is the leader of the Cult of Thorn. However, any further details of the cult differ on which cut of Halloween 6 you watch — the theatrical or the producer’s cut.
In the producer’s cut, the Cult of Thorn is comprised of Haddonfield residents who believe in a Druid demon that spreads sickness and death. In an attempt to save themselves from it, they place the curse of Thorn on a child from their tribe. The child is then possessed by Thorn which drives them to kill their family on Halloween night. However, the theatrical version is a bit more twisted. In this version, the cult is comprised of Smith’s Grove Sanitarium doctors who study the power of evil through scientific experiments. Since they kidnapped Jamie at the end of Halloween 5 they decide to impregnate her in an attempt to clone Michael’s DNA — and yes, it is heavily implied that Michael is the father of her baby. This whole thing is seriously twisted!
Both versions explain that Michael Myers himself was cursed and possessed by Thorn and that it is the reason for his killer tendencies. The murder of his sister when he was just a child was influenced by the curse, and his pursuit of Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), and subsequent murder of those who got in his way, are all due to the curse. He’s basically a puppet and the Cult of Thorn are the ones pulling his strings. He’s not quite as cold-blooded and emotionless as we thought he was all these years, he’s… well, brainwashed essentially.
Giving Michael Myers a Backstory Was Never Going To Work
Let me start by saying that the idea of the cult itself is not a bad idea; in fact, it’s rather intriguing. The lore is interesting and fun to dig into, and perhaps it could have worked as a standalone piece, with a movie that’s completely separate from Michael Myers and the Halloween franchise. This is something Halloween III: Season of the Witch did, where it exists within the Halloween universe but doesn’t have anything to do with Michael, and actually has him absent from the film. Perhaps then the Cult of Thorn could have been better appreciated because as a backstory for Michael Myers, it falls extremely flat.
The biggest problem with the Cult of Thorn backstory for Michael is that it takes all of the mystique out of his character. Audiences found him scary because he was unpredictable. He didn’t have a distinct motive for killing his sister all those years ago, he just did. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) said it best in the original 1978 film:
“I met him, 15 years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this… six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and… the blackest eyes – the Devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply… evil.”
This is the Michael that we know, the Michael that we were first introduced to. There’s no soul about him, no conscience, he’s just evil for seemingly no reason at all, and it’s terrifying. There was never a need for more information; that was enough. It was simple yet effective and it crafted one of the most brilliant and frightening horror villains of all time. The Cult of Thorn storyline not only diminishes that legacy that was so carefully crafted by John Carpenter but also manages to make Michael seem not scary at all anymore.
The Halloween Franchise Didn’t Need the Supernatural
Of course, he’s still Michael Myers, he’s still got the mask and his brutal ways, so he’s not entirely unscary, but it just wasn’t the same anymore. The fact that he could be so easily stopped at the end of the movie by some ancient protective runes — when thus far, we’d known him to be unstoppable and unkillable — was laughable. By the end of the movie, Michael Myers doesn’t even feel like Michael Myers, all intrigue and mystique that once surrounded him is diminished, leaving nothing but a messy and lame shell of a man behind. The Halloween franchise had never dabbled in the supernatural and it didn’t need to, it was simple in concept, and was a straightforward slasher. Its allure came from Michael, and for some reason, Halloween 6 decided that just wasn’t enough anymore. What resulted was a convoluted and frankly confusing story that was thankfully retconned by all future installments. It was a valiant effort from Halloween 6, but if the goal was to make Michael scarier, the film only succeeded in doing the exact opposite.
