To prepare for the release of Halloween Kills this week, it’s time to take a look back on the many times Laurie and Michael have confronted one another in the franchise. Even with a convoluted history full of retcons and remakes, the two have had quite a number of encounters. Standing apart from other slasher franchises, the Halloween series has been the most consistent with a villain and hero who seem to be just as immortal as each other.
Jason Voorhees hardly had to deal with frequent survivors in a sequel. Freddy Krueger had a foe in Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) for a limited time. Sidney (Neve Campbell) is slowly catching up in the Scream films with a fifth instalment arriving next year, but way more frequently, Laurie Strode has been reintroduced to combat Michael Myers in various different timelines. Come the October month, residents of Haddonfield can sleep soundly knowing it has its own protector. But how many times did Michael prove you just can’t kill the Bogeyman? Was Laurie really any different in 2018 than she was back in 1998? Let’s see how brutal things got when these two faced off. Here's a ranked list of Laurie and Michael's fights starting with the most brutal making its way up until the playing field is more even.
7. Halloween 2 (2009)
Bigger is badder in the best sense when Rob Zombie remade John Carpenter’s classic. In taking a page out of Dwayne Johnson’s playbook, retired wrestler Tyler Mane went to find work in the movies. Unlike Johnson, Mane pulled on the Myers mask and used his build not for family-friendly entertainment but to portray one of the most imposing versions of the Bogeyman. Taking over the role of Laurie Strode after Jamie Lee Curtis’ exit in the original franchise, is Scout Taylor-Compton and even in the first twenty minutes of the film, Zombie plays it out as if she may not survive. And then the sequence set in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital is revealed to only be a nightmare. Bummer too because up to a certain point, it’s filled with incredible tension.
Similar to Zombie’s preceding remake, it is not until the last act that Laurie and Michael are put together. She’s taken captive by Myers and it’s only after he is shot by police and impaled onto farming equipment, that she gets to strike back using his knife. But with him seemingly dead once again, the PTSD and overall trauma Laurie has been suffering from, pushes her over the edge. If anyone comes out a victor in this entry, it’s without a doubt Myers.
6. Halloween (2007)
As per usual with his filmography, Zombie focused on the monster more than anyone else. That signature style is made no different with his first revamped entry in the slasher franchise. Like his Halloween 2, there really is no struggle between Laurie and Michael. In this one, at least she got to get a few defensive blows in, though it was still limited.
Michael subdues Laurie twice and it’s only during the second capture that she stabs him. The protruding weapon in his shoulder hardly slows him down, but it is just enough for an escape. In a heightened state of fear, Laurie hides within the desiccated Myers house. The cat-and-mouse game ends when Michael charges at her, taking them both off a balcony.
Right before the end credits, Laurie aims a revolver at Myers’ head but as many times as she tries to fire it, no bullet is released. This was Dr. Loomis’ firearm, the man left incapacitated back in the house, who doesn’t get to shoot Michael six times like in 1978. Instead, when Michael does stir, Laurie gets a bullet to fly, although it really is not a happy ending for her. She screams and screams, completely traumatized. Cue the Halloween theme. Taylor-Compton's Laurie Strode does not fare too well in Zombie’s universe.
5. Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Not taking this as an epilogue to H20 and focusing on its own merits of an encounter between old foes, it still reeks of bad storytelling. Jamie Lee Curtis wanted to be taken out of the franchise so she wouldn’t be obligated to keep returning. The series could only continue if it was given an injection of new blood. The end result left plenty to be desired.
Somehow, Laurie created a booby trap on the rooftop of the psychiatric hospital she is in, one that has the worst security doors. Easy access to anywhere in a psych hospital is the most extreme case of suspension of belief and Resurrection pushes it further. Laurie has a remote control gadget that successfully ensnares Michael’s foot in a rope and dangles him off the roof. Then before she releases the trap to let Michael freefall, movie logic requires her to remove his mask. Of course, it is not a wise move. He grabs her. The rope snaps. And while Michael holds onto the roof’s ledge, the only thing keeping Laurie from dropping is the knife he’s plunged into her back.
Despite the franchise’s achievement in bringing Curtis back for H20, her story ended with a dud in this instalment. Make that a thud, as Michael lets Laurie fall to the ground below, with cheesy angelic music playing over it all. However, audiences still got to see their first onscreen death of Laurie so the win goes to Michael. Little did he know, however, that you can’t kill a Final Girl so easily.
4. Halloween (1978)
Laurie’s first introduction to Michael Myers laid the groundwork for the slasher film formula. It remains one of the best and if anyone comes out a winner during this initial encounter, you might just automatically assume it’s Michael (Nick Castle). He terrorizes Laurie with his grim decor in the master bedroom of the Wallace house. He emerges from the dark to slice her arm and send her tumbling down the stairs. He narrowly corners her in the kitchen. Then she fights back.
Laurie stabs him with a sewing needle, gets an eye poke in with a hanger, and uses his butcher knife against him. He is unstoppable but Laurie persists. She does her best to protect herself and the kids she’s watching over. Well, until she lets her guard down way too much and almost gets strangled. Still, Laurie tried her damndest. But if Dr. Loomis hadn’t arrived with his revolver, things might not have ended too well for the babysitter. And when Michael Myers disappears into the night, the ending is a morbid one, his breathing heard over the different locations he has invaded, reminding the audience that evil is everywhere. Michael takes home another victory in this one but the lines have begun to blur between the foes.
3. Halloween 2 (1981)
Recovering in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, loopy on painkillers, and practically comatose for most of the film, Laurie doesn’t have much luck on her side when Michael arrives to hunt her down. And yet, she manages to do a lot of things right. She maneuvers through the dark hospital corridors quite well, a place she would not have any reason to know the layout of previously. Thankfully for her too, elevator doors back then were adamant in shutting close, with or without Michael's hand poking in. And when Dr. Loomis arrives and is involved in his own chase from Michael, Laurie has done this one too many times before. She not only pulls the good doctor along, she finds the medical room to hide in.
If there was any evidence for fans to see why Laurie remained a survivor, it’s how she handles the gun Dr. Loomis gives her. At the last second, before Michael descends upon her, Laurie unloads not one but two shots into his face. It doesn’t stop him, but it is enough to blind him. Dr. Loomis takes the extra measure to fill the room with flammable gas and once Laurie escapes, he flicks a lighter. A fiery blast consumes both of the men. While not ignoring Loomis’ sacrifice, Laurie takes the victor score for this installment with all that she had to go through.
2. Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)
Conceived as the definitive ending to the sprawling Halloween franchise until it made a lot of money at the box office, H20 succeeded in a lot of ways of showcasing the showdown between Strode and Myers. Laurie got her son and his girlfriend to safety and armed herself with an axe to step back into the hunting grounds. There was no more running. But Laurie does lose quite a bit too. Her lover is killed. Hiding under all those school tables proved to not be the best hiding spot, Michael tosses each one away like they were made out of wicker. And don’t forget, the axe she wielded is merely brushed off by Michael.
With that said, Laurie got in a pop out scare Michael would surely approve of if he wasn’t at the receiving end of being stabbed furiously by her. And before the movie can recreate the original by having him disappear, Laurie beats him to it. What’s a few stab wounds for “the Shape" anyways? Laurie knows this and steals the coroner’s van his body was placed in. And while that axe from earlier only gave Michael a minor gash, it has bigger plans in store. She sends the both of them off the road and down a hill. It is not the safest method to get the job done but at this point, twenty years of pent up fear and rage would make people do risky things. Let’s give Laurie a break. Especially because of what her next move is.
Michael is snug in place, stuck in the middle of the van and a tree, when Laurie approaches. She is only momentarily blind-sided when he reaches out to her--blame it on some head trauma from rolling down the hill. Laurie soon regains the smarts she’s shown to have all the way back as a teenager. She swings that axe and severs Michaels' head from his body. His dark eyes dim as Laurie looms over the limp body, exhaling. The iconic Halloween score that plays over this, mimics the ending to the classic film twenty years prior. If there was ever a way to end the reign of a slasher icon, perhaps this should have been it.
1. Halloween (2018)
Despite some considering this film a rehashed version of H20, the real major difference here is that Laurie Strode is actively preparing for when Michael (James Jude Courtney) starts up his old Halloween tricks and treats. She’s beyond ready, really. In this retcon of all the past sequels except the first, her whole life since 1978 has involved obsessing over the man that is purely and simply evil.
For fans who don’t consider the murders of three friends over forty years ago as a catalyst for Laurie’s present psychology, don’t forget an essential fact. Laurie saw first-hand back then how extremely difficult it was to kill Michael. So much so, their first reunion in this film has her instinctively sending a bullet into a mirror reflection of Myers for the first glimpse she gets. It would have been a head shot, for sure. When he tries to slip away, she shoots again, this time striking his shoulder. With that, Laurie Strode has just done what every other version of her character has not succeeded at before. She wounds Michael first.
By the film’s final act in her fortified home, all that progress slowly starts to fall apart as Michael earns more points in being relentless. He breaks in and nearly strangles her. Laurie earns back the upper hand (literally) when she blasts off two of his fingers with a firearm. She loses her glasses but she can always get new ones--Michael won’t be regrowing those fingers back. But he remains a threat. After Laurie methodically searches the house to find him, he stabs her with her own hunting knife and tosses her out a window. She got to sink her teeth into the empty stubs on his hand, but things don’t look particularly good for Laurie. That is, until she performs a disappearing act of her own.
Within the final minutes, Laurie helps her family trap Michael in the basement. It was designed to be a murder trap for Michael and after forty years, it finally has its prey. Gas emitters hooked up around the house are paired nicely with the flare Laurie lights up, creating an inferno to swallow up Michael. Smokey the Bear would not approve but fans of “Team Laurie” surely would. Victor marks in 2018 go to Laurie. If only a burning fire did not immediately attract the attention of firefighters. You can’t kill the Bogeyman but Laurie is not done fighting yet. If Halloween Kills has something to say, the whole town of Haddonfield won’t be so willing to let Michael Myers slip into the autumn night so easily either.
For more Halloween goodness, check out our ranked lists of all the movies in the franchise to date and of Michael Myers' most brutal kills.