Halloween II's Lack Of Direction Made Michael Myers Not Quite Right In The Sequel
What defines a horror movie slasher killer? Not all of them speak, so we can't talk about voice. Not all of them stick to a single signature weapon, so we have to find another avenue. The easy answer is the mask, but even that changes — Jason Voorhees wore a bag over his head before he found that hockey mask in his franchise's third film. So maybe it comes down to the walk. Jason is a lumbering beast, stumbling forward and easily distracted, the bull in the china shop (where the china is, uh, easily breakable teenagers). Freddy Krueger is a demonic spider monkey, his elastic limbs flapping to the winds as he pursues his prey.
And Michael Myers, aka the Shape, of "Halloween" fame? He's the shark from "Jaws" in human form: a merciless predator who simply cannot be deterred. He moves like he has a plan, a merciless void powered by an alien intelligence. Jason acts on instinct. Freddy acts on pleasure. But Michael Myers? He acts on something powerful and unknown, but all-consuming.
But when wonderfully-named stunt coordinator and performer Dick Warlock put on that mask for 1981's "Halloween II," Michael Myers was not yet a true icon. He was just the villain of a very popular, very lucrative horror movie from 1978. Expectations weren't set. No one knew what defined a Michael Myers performance just yet. And that led to a performance that many fans don't consider on par — and one that Warlock refuses to take the blame for.
Getting the walk down
Warlock has told the story of how he was cast in "Halloween II" many times over the years (you can see it for yourself in this making-of documentary), and it goes something like this. Warlock, a veteran stunt performer took a meeting for the stunt coordinator position on "Halloween II." Upon arriving, he saw the Shape's terrifying white mask before he saw director Rick Rosenthal or producer Debra Hill, so he put it on ... and proceeded to find Rosenthal and just stare at him. As you do. Rosenthal was impressed, and Warlock found himself with a dual role on the film — he would serve as stunt coordinator and play Michael Myers himself (actor and future filmmaker Nick Castle had largely played the part in director John Carpenter's original film).
Speaking with Vanity Fair in 2018, Warlock dodged the blame for what many fans (including Debra Hill herself) consider to be a particularly lackluster Michael Myers performance. According to Warlock, no one on the set gave him any direction:
"[Halloween II director Rick Rosenthal] never gave me any instruction on how to play [Michael] — nothing at all about the walk. Debra Hill was there every day, and Debra never said, 'Can you make the walk a little faster, Dick?' or 'Can you make your movements a little swifter?' Years later, in an interview, she said, 'Dick Warlock never got the walk down.' Well, give me a break. I'm a stunt guy; I'm not an actor. If I wasn't doing it right, you should have told me."
Hill, a pioneer of modern genre cinema and one of John Carpenter's secret weapons as a filmmaker, passed away in 2005. And to his credit, Rosenthal is actually fairly complimentary toward Warlock's physicality in the documentary linked above. But many folks, myself included, think there's something missing in Warlock's take on Myers.
What makes a Michael Myers?
None of this should be a slight on Warlock, whose filmography speaks for itself. The man worked steadily as a stunt performer and coordinator from the 1960s through his retirement in 2002. He lent his talents to superhero movies like "Spider-Man" and action flicks like "The Running Man." His TV credits include "The A-Team" and "Quantum Leap." He was Kurt Russell's stunt double for 25 years, and can be seen doubling the brilliant actor in "Escape From New York," "The Thing," and other classics. The man is a legend. Full-stop. You can't touch that legacy.
But as Warlock himself wryly noted in that Vanity Fair article, he wasn't an actor. And maybe that's what's missing in the Michael Myers of "Halloween II." Everyone knows Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, a boogeyman with so much personality that it practically drips from his open sores. And actors like Kane Hodder and Derek Mears brought an unforgettable physicality to Jason Voorhees, taking what could've been a lumbering oaf and lending him an actual sense of character. Heck, it's telling that director David Gordon Green actually got Nick Castle to suit up as the Shape again for his "Halloween" sequel trilogy. Even a purely physical performance needs to be built upon specific choices.
In an alternate universe, maybe Rosenthal would've given Warlock that little bit of extra direction. To move with a bit more purpose and determination. Maybe Hill would've stepped in, telling the man beneath the mask that Michael Myers doesn't amble — he's a man who knows what he wants. "Halloween II" is an aggressively fine slasher movie, one that lurks in the shadows of John Carpenter's classic original and the more bonkers sequels, and this edition of the Shape is ... fine. But maybe we needed this. We don't know what a great Michael Myers looks like unless one film can't quite hit the target. In that way, everyone here did the series a great service.