Who Dies in ‘Halloween’?

Halloween (2018) is now in theaters, and as with any story featuring Michael Myers, there is a sizable body count left in the killer’s wake. Given how this new chapter of the franchise attempts to reconcile and settle Michael’s forty-year feud with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, there is a lot of potential for some very big deaths to occur.

Now that the movie is out, we know just how drastically (or not) Halloween (2018) is with the fates of its characters. Read below for the full breakdown of who lives and who dies in Halloween – but only if you’re ready for the full SPOILER details!

Dr. Loomis

Originally this new Halloween planned to kill off franchise icon Dr. Samuel Loomis in an early scene; however, with original Loomis actor Donald Pleasence having been dead since 1995, that would’ve been a tricky feat to pull off. Instead, it’s revealed by Michael Myers’ new shrink, Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), that Loomis passed away from disease during the forty years between Michael’s original Halloween night massacre and this new chapter. Pleasence gets a nice Easter egg nod through some recordings of his dialogue about Michael which get examined by two true crime reporters investigating the case. 

Hunter & Son

Halloween really kicks into gear when Michael Myers escapes from a prison transport bus during a routine transfer. The first people on the scene are a man and his son, who were on their way to do some late-night / early morning hunting. The man stops his truck when he sees the crashed bus, and gets out to investigate (stupid move).

When the dad doesn’t come back (obvs), the boy grabs his hunting rifle and goes looking. He only finds dead cops, mentally insane prisoners roaming free, and accidentally shoots Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) out of fright, before running back to his truck. Unfortunately for the boy Michael is hiding in the back seat, and the kid follows the same fate his father presumably met, as Michael murders him in cold blood and takes the car, bound for Haddonfield.  

Aaron Korey & Dana Haines

The fires of Michael Myers’ mania are initially stoked by true crime reporters Aaron Korey (Jefferson Hall) and Dana Haines (Rhian Rees), who come to the institution where Michael is being held, and try to coax any kind of response from the catatonic psycho, but presenting him with his iconic mask.

Well, the tactic works in a way that the two reporters never suspected: Michael gets free and spots them at the Haddonfield graveyard, following the two unaware reporters to a local gas station / auto shop. While Dana hits the bathroom and Aaron fills up the car, Michael pulls up to the station and proceeds to murder the mechanic and convenience store clerk before Aaron and Dana realize what is going on. Dana is ambushed while she’s sitting in a bathroom stall, but Aaron (after finding the bodies) tries to save her at the last second. They are both slaughtered by Michael, in a case where “true crime” got way too real. 

Haddonfield Homeowners

During the second act of the film, Michael Myers returns to the suburban streets of Haddonfield, IL, on Halloween night. Wasting no time, Michael goes to work invading several homes along the main street of Trick-or-Treat activity, slaughtering the unlucky residents still at home.

We’d have to do more in-depth comparison to confirm, but it seems the houses Michael enters aren’t random: they seem to be the same ones he visited on that fateful bloody night in the first film – only this time he runs into some very unlucky new occupants of those homes. 

Vicky & Dave

The slasher genre was born from the idea of punishing teens for their sexual exploits (see: Friday the 13th), and Halloween (2018) honors the genre by doing the same. 

Laurie Strode’s granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) is planning to meet up with her BFFs Vicky (Virginia Gardner) and Dave (Miles Robbins) at the house where Vicky is babysitting. Dave arrives first, with his stash of weed in tow, looking for some dry-hump love from his girl Vicky. Unfortunately Michael Myers is already in the house, and though the young boy Julian tries to warn her the boogeyman is there, Virginia doesn’t believe him and ends up opening a closet door to find a knife-wielding psycho waiting inside. Dave attempts to be chivalrous, grabbing a knife to save Vicky when he hears her screams of terror and sees Julian fleeing. In a later scene, we find out Michael has impaled Dave on the wall like a hunting trophy – a nice callback to his “teen sex kill” from the original film. 

Oscar

The other part of Allyson’s friendship crew is Oscar (Drew Scheid), the best friend of Allyson’s boyfriend, Cameron. After Allyson and Cameron have a major break-up at a Halloween party, Cameron offers to walk Allyson home. 

Lovable loser Cameron starts off seeming like the sympathetic friend, but quickly reveals that he is actually a friendzone suitor for Allyson, just waiting for a chance like this. His awkward attempt to kiss Allyson goes very wrong, and she leaves him alone in a neighbor’s yard to ‘figure his own sh*t out.’ Unlucky Cameron gets even more unlucky when it turns out Michael is hiding in the yard. After a game of “Hide and Seek” using some motion sensor lights, Cameron is stabbed and impaled on an iron fence. 

Officer Hawkins

Officer Hawkins (Will Patton) was one of the first responders on the scene after Michael Myers’ first Halloween night rampage, so he instantly recognizes the immense danger the town is in, once Michael escapes. Hawkins has no plans to recapture Michael – he is determined to put him down for good, and sets out on the hunt to do just that. 

Hawkins and Dr. Sartain manage to locate a frightened Allyson after her encounter with Michael, and are driving the young girl to Laurie’s safehouse. Along the way, Hawkins’ obsession gets the better of him, and he makes a sharp detour to where Michael Myers has been spotted on the streets. Hawkins runs down the killer with his SUV – but when he gets out to finish the job with a gunshot, we get one of the biggest twists in the film, as Dr. Sartain ambushes and murders Hawkins, revealing that his years spent with Michael have warped his own mind, leading him to be a copycat killer obsessed with “understanding” Michael’s mania. 

Dr. Sartain

Dr. Sartain’s reign of terror as a killer inspired by Michael’s example doesn’t last very long. 

After killing Hawkins, Sartain saves Michael and puts him in back of Hawkins’ police vehicle alongside Allyson. Sartain drives them out to the woods where Laurie lives, hoping to finally observe Michael in his ‘natural habitat’ – i.e., on the hunt and murdering the one person he’s been obsessed with for decades (Laurie). Unfortunately, Michael wakes up just as the car is arriving at Laurie’s gates, and he quickly breaks out of cop car holding pen and bashes Sartain against the steering wheel, finally finishing the not-so-good doctor off by stomping his skull into the pavement – the movie’s most gruesome kill.  

Ray

After Michael kills Dr. Sartain outside Laurie’s fortified gates, the two cops guarding her place spot Hawkins’ police vehicle up the road, and go to investigate. Michael uses Sartain’s mutilated corpse as a distraction, and ambushes the cops when they come to investigate. He carves one cop’s face completely off, and uses their corpses and car as camouflage to make his way to Laurie’s house unchecked. 

Laurie’s son-in-law Ray (Toby Huss) is supposed to be on guard at the front door – but silly Ray is easily lured to the Trojan Horse cop car, and quickly dispatched by Michael when he’s startled by the mangled corpses inside the vehicle. Ray’s death clears away the last of the male characters “protecting” the female protagonists, leaving Laurie, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson to finish the fight… 

Michael Myers (?)

Indeed, Laurie, Karen, and Allyson do end up finishing the fight – and it’s a savage battle, at that. Michael breaks his way into Laurie’s carefully-fortified safe house, and the old enemies have a tense cat-and-mouse game of hide-and-seek, which ends with Laurie injuring Michael, and Michael tossing Laurie off a second floor balcony (a callback to Michael’s big “fake death” in the original film). 

Meanwhile, Karen and Allyson are hiding in Laurie’s panic room under the kitchen island, and it seems that when Michael discovers them there, and bashes his way in, the girls are done for. However, it’s all a ruse, as Karen fools Michael into thinking she’s a helpless victim, and when he gets close, she blasts him with her hunting rifle. Laurie tag-teams by ambushing and bashing the injured Michael, shoving him down the stairs into the panic room. Karen and Allyson quickly try to flee, but Michael nearly drags Karen back down, forcing Allyson to stab him repeatedly until they are free and clear. The final twist in the film is that this was all Laurie’s plan: the panic room is more than just a safe place to keep Michael out: it’s actually his cage. Once Michael is inside, Laurie pulls a lever that makes bladed bars shoot out and close off the room, barring any escape. She’s rigged the entire house with mini flame-throwers, which she then promptly activates.

The final shot of Michael Myers is him standing at the bars of the panic room still staring up at Laurie and her family, as the girls run for safety. We see the flames curl up all around Michael before the shot cuts to the rest of the house burning to the ground. Laurie, Karen, and Allyson all get safe passage out from a passing truck, and we’re left to believe that Michael Myers is finally dead and gone. 

…Or is he?

We won’t know for sure until an (inevitable?) sequel goes into the works. For now, Michael Myers’ reign of terror seems to be over for good. 

Halloween (2018) is now playing in theaters. Be sure to Read our Full Review HERE.