During the course of the Halloween series’ 12 films, Michael Myers has been shot, stabbed, run over and blown up on more than one occasion. It’s fair to say he’s pretty much unkillable, and a new fan theory that’s doing the rounds online has attempted to explain his apparent invincibility using science.
The theory suggests that the masked killer displays the symptoms of Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP), a rare disorder which renders sufferers impervious to pain. This could potentially rationalize why Myers is able to shrug off gunshot wounds and other injuries, but how well this concept holds up under scrutiny depends on which Halloween films we’re talking about.
Let’s say you consider only the first two movies canon. If that’s the case, then Myers’ ‘invulnerability’ could be the result of CIP but as the series becomes more outlandish, the theory fails to hold water. Some of the wounds the slasher icon suffers in the later sequels would almost certainly have killed him, regardless of any rare medical disorders he suffers from. The hospital explosion at the end of Halloween 2 and his fall down the mineshaft in Halloween 4 are but two examples.
As ScreenRant points out, CIP diminishes the sufferer’s ability to feel pain. It doesn’t make them invincible, so any fatal injuries inflicted on Myers should still kill him, albeit painlessly.
Flawed though it is, the theory still has some merit as there are many different ways to watch the Halloween series. Thanks to all the remakes, reboots and retconning over the years, the franchise has become the horror movie equivalent to those ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books. And if you stick to the more grounded films, the theory works, to a certain extent.
In any case, Myers having CIP makes a lot more sense than him bearing an ancient druidic curse, don’t you think?
Published: May 12, 2020 11:25 am