Michael Myers A Monster?

After reading Carroll's analysis of what exactly a horror monster consists of, I would argue that according to Carroll, Michael Myers is not, in fact, a true horror monster, therefore making Halloween (1978) not a true horror film. I recall in the first week of class after Carroll's theory was introduced that there were several arguments from classmates against such a restricted definition of a horror film. In these arguments, Hannibal Lecter and Silence of the Lambs was brought up for debate. The argument was that by any other standards, Hannibal Lecter would be considered a monster for what he did and the monstrous murders he committed. The rebuttal was that Hannibal Lector was a human regardless of what horrible acts he committeed. We can picture Hannibal as a child, being born of human parents and having a seemingly typical childhood. I belleve that this same sort of logic applies to Halloween, therefore rendering it in the thriller or even slasher genre - but not a horror movie by Carroll's standards.

As we can see in the beginning of the film, Michael enters into his sister's room on Halloween night and proceeds to kill her. Grant it, this was a brutal act for a small child to commit, but we see him in his true, human form and a child nonetheless. This scene here is enough to convince us that Myers is not "out of this world," from another planet, created in a lab, or something that science would consider to be "out of the ordinary." He is human and belongs to a family.

Throughout the film, Myers committs several murders, but nothing that would render him a title of being more than the typical serial killler. The only thing that would lead us away from the fact of his humanity is reflected in the many sequals to Hallloween in which Myers returns time and time again after his supposed "deaths" - much like we see in the Frankenstein series. In my opinion though, applying Carroll's theory solely to the first Halloween movie would give no indication to Myers being more than a serial killer and therefore not a horror monster.