Is Michael Myers Human Or Supernatural? Every Version Explained

The Halloween franchise's unstoppable bogeyman is possessed by an inhuman evil, but why is Michael Myers so strong? Given how Michael always comes back from death, even if Halloween Ends seemingly killed him forever, there's no definitive answer to this question since the franchise is divided across four different timelines, each of which has offered its own take on Michael Myers. Most recently, 2018's Halloween reset the timeline, ignoring everything from Halloween II onwards and positioning itself as a direct sequel to 1978's Halloween.

From Michael Myers' first appearance on theater screens, his psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis, maintained that Michael was not a man. When a distraught Laurie Strode calls Michael Myers the bogeyman, Dr. Loomis tells her that she is right. No matter what timeline he's in, Michael is a force of irrepressible evil. However, is Michael Myers immortal? Here's every possible answer to the looming specter of Michael Myers' origins.

Michael Myers In The Original Halloween Movies

He Was Cursed By A Cult

The original Halloween timeline contains the most overtly supernatural explanation for Myers' powers. As revealed in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, a group of druids belonging to Halloween's Cult of Thornplaced a curse on Michael when he was an infant. This curse causes him to be possessed by Thorn, a demonic force that requires its host to sacrifice their family on Samhain (now known as Halloween night).

Thorn also bestows supernatural gifts on its host, which was offered up as the explanation for Michael Myers surviving so many injuries that should have been fatal. In this version of the Halloween timeline, Laurie Strode is Michael's sister, and, therefore, he is driven to kill her on Halloween night in order to complete his sacrifice to the sinister entity, Thorn. Is Michael Myers immortal? In the original timeline, Halloween's boogeyman is as immortal as Thorn's supernatural gifts will allow.

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Despite an ambitious scope that attempts to inject some much-needed lore into the Halloween franchise, The Curse of Michael Myers — the only movie without Dr. Loomis and Michael sharing a scene — committed the cardinal sin of over explaining its monster. Indeed, it is Michael Myers' immortal nature, despite ostensibly existing in a world without magic, that makes him so terrifying.

Another wrinkle is that he cannot be reasoned with or bargained with and seems to have no real motivation for slaughtering people, meaning he kills indiscriminately like a manifestation of death itself. By taking away Halloween's inherent mystery and replacing it with a druid curse, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers makes Michael seem considerably less frightening but also more confusing. The movie was panned by critics upon its release and has never received a direct sequel.

Michael Myers In The Halloween H20 Reboot

He Was Seemingly Human By Most Standards

Is Michael Myers immortal in the reboot timeline? Michael Myers died in Halloween H20 by getting decapitated by Laurie, but was shown alive in the sequel, Halloween: Resurrection. However, this doesn't necessarily make him immortal. The ending of Halloween H20 seemingly gives Michael Myers his most definitive death yet, with Laurie completely decapitating him with an ax. Despite the 2002 sequel's title, Michael Myers wasn't resurrected through any supernatural means.

Instead, the ending of Halloween H20 was retconned with a reveal that the man Laurie had beheaded wasn't Michael Myers at all, but a paramedic who'd had his vocal cords crushed by Michael to prevent him from speaking, as well as being dressed in Michael's jumpsuit and Halloween mask to trick Laurie. The late '90s reboot offers up a new timeline beginning where Halloween II left off and ignoring all the other Halloween movies, showing no evidence of Michael Myers being supernatural nor immortal in this particular timeline.

Michael Myers In Rob Zombie's Halloween Reboot

Michael Myers Had Mental Health Struggles

Rob Zombie's Halloween reboot and sequel depict the most "human" Michael Myers out of all four versions, but they also delve into dream sequences and hallucinations that give them an otherworldly feel. Like Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Zombie's take on the franchise tries to answer the question of why Michael Myers kills but opts for a much more limited explanation regarding local druid activity.

Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009) go all-in on a Freudian analysis of Michael Myers, with Dr. Loomis giving a lecture on Freudian fundamentals at one point. In Halloween II, Michael Myers is guided from victim to victim by a hallucinatory manifestation of his dead mother. His mind is represented by a vision of his 10-year-old self in spectral form. Although this depiction of Michael Myers was well received, Halloween: The Complete Collection doesn't include Rob Zombie's Halloween theatrical cuts.

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The closest Rob Zombie's Halloween movies get to the supernatural are vague hints of a psychic connection between Michael and Laurie Strode, once again Michael's long-lost sister. At one point, Michael eats the flesh of a murdered dog, and miles away, Laurie (who is a vegetarian) abruptly starts vomiting. Laurie later begins to experience the same visions of their mother even though she was orphaned as a baby and has no idea what her mother looks like.

She also sees the child version of Michael towards the end of Halloween II, with Laurie unable to escape the adult Michael because the child is telepathically holding her down. Is Michael Myers human or not? In Zombie's take, he seems to be a severely mentally ill human, linking Myers' psychopathy to hereditary traits.

Michael Myers In The New Halloween Continuity

An Unstoppable Killing Machine

Currently, the official Halloween canon consists of Halloween (1978), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022). One of the benefits of ignoring Halloween II and its lineage is that the current Halloween continuity is free of the family connection between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Instead, the updated canonical entries return Michael to the essence of his character - an unstoppable harbinger of death who kills without any known reason.

In the original Halloween, actor Tony Moran isn't listed in the credits as Michael Myers but simply as "The Shape." This is how John Carpenter referred to him in the script, and it fits with the idea that Michael is not a man but a bogeyman incarnate. This folkloric creature is defined by its lack of definition; there are no "rules" confining the bogeyman like there are with other supernatural creatures, and it has no overtly specific powers or weaknesses.

At the end of the original Halloween, after Michael Myers' bullet-riddled body disappears, the film closes with a series of shots of empty rooms, with the sound of Michael's breathing throughout all of them. The sequence conveys the idea that the bogeyman could be lurking anywhere and also confirms the ethereal qualities that the current continuities Michael Myers displays.

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While Halloween sticks with a decidedly flesh-and-blood portrait of Michael Myers, Halloween Kills confirms the notion that Michael is indeed supernatural. In reference to Michael emerging alive from the devastating fire of the Strode home, Laurie says darkly that "a man couldn't survive that fire," and that Michael is "the essence of evil." These lines are consistent with Dr. Loomis' vagaries in the original Halloween movie: Michael Myers isn't a man but pure evil in human form.

In the coda of Halloween Kills, Michael lies prone after being viciously beaten before regenerating in front of the Haddonfield mob. Laurie's monologue confirms Michael's supernatural qualities in Halloween Kills, making the hulking figure akin to a demigod by saying "the more he kills, the more he transcends." In this way, Halloween Kills lays down a concrete marker that Michael is not human, so Laurie and the entire town put Michael through a shredder in Halloween Ends.

Michael Myers Needs Supernatural Elements To Work

It Makes Him A Real Boogeyman & Not Just A Regular Man

While Michael Myers's human nature made for some worthwhile Halloween reboots, Michael's supernatural and ultimately unexplained background defines The Shape's identity as the boogeyman of classic horror. This is why, even in Halloween Ends where it's clear that Michael's an aging human, the entire town gathers to watch Michael get put into a shredder during the Halloween Ends ending.

Though this can be attributed to the moment being a point of resolution for the traumatized populace, everyone just really wanted to make sure that Michael is dead, and that they saw it with their own eyes. Indeed, Halloween Ends revealing that Michael is just a normal person who's slowly dying like everyone else is actually a brilliant twist - and not a counterpoint - to Michael's mysterious supernatural origin.

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Based on the current Halloween continuity, audiences may well confirm that Michael Myers is indeed human - but those forever scarred by his actions will never really be sure, and this makes sense. Although Michael Myers being a human for a single movie or two would be fine, the sheer length of the mainline Halloween timeline means that it would be ridiculous by this point if he was just a man all along.

Moreover, with Halloween Ends' Corey Cunningham mirroring Michael's inhuman endurance, there's more evidence of Michael's supernatural nature. In short, the real answer to whether Michael is immortal or just a man is that there's no answer, because the question itself is what makes him truly frightening. Whether the supernatural element is real or not, without it, Halloween's Michael Myers is just an ordinary serial killer.

Is Michael Myers Scarier As A Human Or A Supernatural Being?

The Man Is Scary But The Supernatural Being Is Legendary

There are reasons that both versions of Michael Myers are frightening. A regular man who picks up a knife and starts killing people is scary in many ways. This makes Michael someone who could show up in anyone's neighborhood in small-town USA and turn the entire community on its head. The fact it could be anyone, even a neighbor, is frightening. That is what made the first movie in the franchise such a scary debut, as this monster was just a man, single-minded with a vision to kill.

However, after that first movie, it was almost necessary to make Michael Myers into a supernatural being. There are only so many movies where a normal man, no matter how strong and determined, can survive what Michael goes through before that stretches even the ability to believe the horrors. Making Michael supernatural via a cult didn't work, and most fans rejected it. However, the new movies that made him almost a supernatural, unstoppable boogeyman make him scarier than any flesh-and-blood serial killer.

Classic horror movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Wolf-Man presented "men" who became or created supernatural monsters. They stand the test of time because they are inhuman and this means they never truly end up dead. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger carry on this trait. In Halloween, the idea that Michael Myers is supernatural and more than human means that no one is safe, and that makes him scarier than in almost every way, and keeps the monster alive.

Halloween is a horror film released in 1978 that centers on the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, as a masked serial killer terrorizes it. Over a decade after the brutal murder of Judith Myers by her brother, Michael, Michael escapes from the local Sanitarium to continue his silent killing spree- with teenage Laurie Strode being his new potential victim.

Release Date October 27, 1978

Distributor(s) Aquarius Releasing

Cast Donald Pleasence , Jamie Lee Curtis , Tony Moran , Nancy Kyes , P.J. Soles , Kyle Richards , Charles Cyphers

Runtime 91 Minutes