Hello, everyone. I am new to this website and look forward to having discussions with you all. I am a lifelong, diehard fan of the Halloween franchise.
For my first post…I am wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on Michael’s pursuit of Laurie Strode in the 2018 film.
In the movie, Laurie Strode has spent her life beyond Halloween night in 1978 preparing for Michael’s return, even to the detriment of her family and social life. She has followed him closely, keeping up with his incarceration status and even knows the exact time of his transfer from Smith’s Grove to Glass Hill. After interviewing Michael, Aaron and Dana go to Laurie’s house, referring to her as “its counterpart”, and theorizing that the only way for either of them to be rehabilitated is through confrontation with one another, evidenced by Aaron’s plea for Laurie to go with them to Smith’s Grove and unleash her emotions upon Michael. In an alternate version of the film and in its novelization, Aaron asks Michael if he remembers Laurie Strode, and he is noticeably provoked. Many believe that the source of Michael’s madness in this film is the result of his pent-up rage over Laurie getting away from him in 1978.
However, once he returns to Haddonfield, Michael doesn’t seem to have any particular target in mind. He kills at random. When he and Laurie come face to face at Julian’s home, he doesn’t seem to give her a second thought (I mean, she does shoot him in the shoulder, but later in the film, despite being severely injured by Laurie, Karen, and Allyson, he doesn’t give up). At the film’s conclusion, Michael ends up at Laurie’s house only because he was taken there. He killed the cops, Ray, and then pursued Laurie, Karen, and Allyson into the house simply because they were prey. At least that’s the way I saw it.
What do you all think? Did Michael spend the entire forty years of his incarceration holding in rage over Laurie escaping in 1978? Did he have her in mind when he escaped? Did he recognize her when he saw her? I would love to hear some more opinions on this.
My theory after seeing H18 was that Michael never seemed to care about Laurie Strode. Once he escaped the prison bus, he was doing what he did in the original film, killing at random, without necessarily stalking them like he used to. Yes, once he was brought to her house by Sartain, he went after her and her family, only because they were present. I never got the idea that there was any “unfinished business” in Michael’s head when it came to a “reunion” with Laurie. Do I think he recognised her from the window of Julian’s house and then later at her house? Of course. But I don’t believe she was the source of his rage. I just believe that his more violent and brutal killing spree in 2018 was due to the fact that he was locked up for 40 years and all of that pent up killing “juice” had to be released as violently as possible.
I agree with you, Shapeless86. My favorite parts of the film are the parts from before he saw Laurie.
The gas station stuff was pretty scary, I thought. I loved it. When he pulls the mask on, it felt like he came home. Roll the credits right there.
I think the Laurie stuff was a detriment. Laurie should have taken the Loomis role and nothing more as the filmmakers rightly made most of the movie about Michael just killing at random and stalking others that caught his eye, but the Laurie and family parts reeked of H:20 which was already done 20 years prior and just jumbled the message that Michael was back to killing at random and it was not a Myers family thing like parts 2-6 (minus 3) were.
Now that you mention it, I think that it would have been cool for the filmmakers to create a storyline where Loomis tutored Laurie on what to do in the event of Michael’s return. What if he also knew Michael would come back, but he wanted to create a barrier to stop him and knew it was possible his age and health declination would prevent him from doing so, so he sought the one person who escaped from his 1978 rampage? In the H20 timeline, it is revealed that he assisted Laurie in faking her death and moving away from Haddonfield under a new identity. So, it would make sense for him to have, in essence, trained her for his return in the new timeline. That definitely would have been more of a “Halloween” storyline than the family dynamic of Laurie, Karen, and Allyson.
