I will preface this first and foremost by saying that if you haven’t watched the new HALLOWEEN KILLS movie, do not read this unless you are okay with spoilers. This isn’t a review but a discussion of the events at the end of the film. That being said, let me also say that I am a HUGE fan of the Halloween franchise, excluding the Rob Zombie films (Michael doesn’t need a backstory, kthanksbye). I loved the Laurie/Michael sibling angle and I loved the Michael as a babysitter killer angle, but we need to talk about who and what Michael is at the end of HALLOWEEN KILLS.

In the past sequels, Michael was invincible due to being possessed by a demon thanks to the Cult of Thorn. That explains all of the times that he should have been dead but wasn’t. At the end of HALLOWEEN KILLS, ole Mikey has been beaten, stabbed, and burned, AND YET he gets up and proceeds to stab and yeet people left, right, and center, including Karen. So, if the past sequels are all for naught, what the hell is Michael, and why won’t he die? I think I may have an idea.

The big theme of HALLOWEEN KILLS is that “Evil dies tonight,” and it is chanted all through the town. Everyone knows what Michael did in 1963 and again in 1978. His story is told every year by the survivors and by Laurie who has been preparing for his demise for 40 years. His story is told and told and told again. On Halloween night in 2018, more than ever his name and deeds were on the lips of the entire town. So, why does this matter?

I present to you a mythical creature that graces our presence even today: the Tulpa. A Tulpa is a being that is breathed into life through thought and stories. A Tulpa can be created over a matter of months or weeks. A perfect example of this is Slenderman. Slenderman is a creepypasta created by Eric Knudsen. What started as a meme became a story, which then became something that people claim to now see in real life. Two young girls even nearly stabbed their best friend to death because they thought that Slenderman was going to come and take them to his Slender-Mansion.

So, with that in mind, it makes sense that 40 years’ worth of stories and myths surrounding Michael’s slayings could have made Michael into the thing which they feared all along: an unstoppable and unkillable force that will kill everything in its path. Michael escaping the basement is realistic because he hid himself away from the fire until he was released. However, surviving massive beatings and stabbings with enough strength to then kill literally everyone around him just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless we throw some Tulpa logic into the mix. Enough people in the town and the country know his name and have shared the stories of his murders enough that they could have created a super murder machine.

With Laurie’s monologue at the end of HALLOWEEN KILLS talking about how it’s Michael’s story that is destroying the town and how the evil is spreading, it makes a lot of sense. You could also toss in the theory that his anger and adrenaline are topped out, so he is just killing on chemicals alone, but all that juice runs out at some point. We won’t know for sure until the next movie and you KNOW there will be another film. Do you think Michael is a Tulpa and the town will forever bring about their own demise or do you think something else is at play here? Let us know what you think!

HALLOWEEN KILLS is now in theaters and available for streaming only on Peacock.