Michael has more screen time in Halloween 1978 than in Halloween Ends

Michael-Myers.net General Discussion
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I’ve seen various sources claim that Michael has more screen time in Halloween Ends than the original Halloween, but this is incorrect. I don’t think it matters either way but when I first heard this I wanted to check for myself because it didn’t seem believable to me. The only source for this claim seems to be a Twitter/X page that posted a screenshot of some text showing Michael’s screen time, but it doesn’t say where that screenshot came from or what the person’s method was for adding up the time. If they used a stopwatch it’s not going to be accurate. I edited together all the shots that show Michael in both films and created a separate video for each. Links to these videos are at end of this post.

I included shots where you see part of Michael, like his shoulder or hand, and when you can see his mask from far away like when he’s driving and following Annie and Laurie in the original film.

Here are my results:

Halloween 1978 - Adult Michael is on screen for 9:32. If you include the shot of him as a kid and the shots that show him picking things up and stabbing his sister, then the total is 10:09.

Halloween Ends - Michael is dead after 7:36. If you include the shots of his dead body on the kitchen table and his corpse that you can barely see strapped to the top of the car and then ground up in the shredder, then the total is 8:34. If you also include the flashbacks that show him in Halloween 1978, 2018, and Kills then the total is 9:05. Personally, I don’t think the flashbacks should count because they’re from previous films, but even with them his screen time in Ends is still less than in the original. What’s crazy is that before Michael shows up at Laurie’s house during the climax of Ends, he had only been on screen for 3:08 up to that point.

Also, Halloween Ends is twenty minutes longer than Halloween 1978, so proportionally Michael has even more screen time in the original.

Here are links to the videos:

Halloween 1978 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VV6u3Kdv_CdvrIvxCPdtBz26cSdjlc-k/view?usp=sharing

Halloween Ends - https://drive.google.com/file/d/13i6SEyyTHIBdTnKcd5-fdFyiaxcbI2oq/view?usp=sharing

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Very nice, good work. I always thought the original screentime argument was moronic anyway, whether it was true or not. Michael was ALL OVER the original film, even when he was not on screen. Ends was not Michael’s film.

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Thanks. Yeah, I agree that the actual screen time doesn’t really matter. Even if Michael had more screen time in Ends, that isn’t really what people mean when they say he was barely in it. It’s more about the use of his screen time and how his presence is felt throughout the film. Michael pops up pretty frequently in the original film and always seems to be lingering somewhere close by even when we can’t see him. In Ends he doesn’t appear for about 40 minutes and I don’t think his presence is felt that much. Some people think it is, but for me it didn’t seem like it since the movie focuses so heavily on Corey.