Michael Myers: Hero or Villain?

Recently watching and talking about the Tough Guise documentary has made me relate the idea to horror movies since many of them are on television during this season. The killers that are portrayed in such movies as Halloween, Friday the 13^th and Nightmare on Elm Street are notorious in the horror community, and often idolized by fans because of the gruesome way in which they kill their victims. As a result, many people, both young and old, dress up each Halloween to pay homage to these murderers. While I agree that it is very fun to do so, it is also kind of disturbing to see young kids dressed up as Michael Myers with a fake, bloody knife in hand looking for candy from you. Is this really what our society has become today? Instead of dressing up like their favorite Power Ranger or cartoon character like I did in my childhood, they opt to portray the vicious killers of their favorite movies.

I believe so many kids idolize these madmen because they are powerful, smart and, above all else, immortal. No matter how many movies they make in a horror series and how many times the killer is destroyed in the end, they always return in a new movie to seek out new, unwilling victims. In these horror worlds, even the strongest and most muscular of men are no match for the unbelievable physicality that these psychologically deranged men bring to the killing field. And while horror movies have continually gotten more gruesome over the years, there are always new ways to push them to new horrific limits. For example, in the recent Halloween movie directed by Rob Zombie, the first victim of a young Michael Myers is a teenage classmate. After being victimized by this classmate, Michael snaps and lures him into the woods after school and proceeds to beat him to death with a tree branch. Instead of leaving most of the killing up to your imagination like the original 1978 Halloween movie would, this new movie shows every realistic and horrific detail of the teenager’s bloody end. The feeling of nausea and sickness that I felt afterwards did not set a good tone for the rest of the movie.

Being a big horror genre fan, I believe that the original horror movies of the past are by far better than some of the new releases today. Filmmakers are trying to find more gruesome ways to depict killing on the screen and it is more real than ever. I believe that this only creates desensitization to violence because it is so real. Additionally, there are some that idolize these killers for the wrong reasons because they want to be powerful and smart like they are. I really hope that horror movies continue to be successful, but I think there must be some limits on the unnecessary, graphic violence that filmmakers put into the film.