Character Influence: Michael Myers

The thing I personally love about the character of Michael Myers is that he is a psychopath that actually scares me. The thing I have a high regard for the most has to be how people can just look at him and instantly get a thrill. I think that the main reason for this is that it is never actually explained why he is, they way he is and also why he prefers to conceal his face away from the world by wearing a mask. This makes him mysterious and ominous because the audience is confused by him and finds him unpredictable.

I have read various details about the Halloween movies on IMDb and found that the writers looked well into detail with the character of Michael. It may seem obvious that they would seeing that he’s basically the main character, however the research the creators underwent to discover what actually is scary and thrilling is admirable. By looking at their research I’ve found that the main aspect of Michael besides his backing story that makes him so chilling is the simplicity of his character. He doesn’t shout or run; he walks slowly and never speaks. He appears content at all times and this makes it always seem as if he is in control.

It is assumed that a teenage male would admire such a character but I as well as my group feel as if it would be a great idea if we had our own interpretation of Michael Myers in our thriller film. We are not going to completely rip off everything about him but we will try to interpret Michael’s key characteristics into our own masked characters. This means that we are not going have our masked characters talking and running and acting really aggressive, instead they will remain contempt a lot like the villains in the film “the strangers”. We will conduct a focus group and research what kind of masks frightens people the most.

-By Harvey Young