I've been thinking a little bit recently about how Michael Myers is kind of the Sadako of the slasher genre. Not in a sense of being similar to her (Candyman actually has more parallels with her as a character, being people who were killed violently and unjustly who later come back for revenge, but target anyone who performs certain rituals) but in terms of their positions within their specific subgenres.Â
For Sadako, it's most noticeable in the 2019 film, since she has several moments that definitely seem to be influenced by Kayako Saeki's mode of hunting (dragging victims through the wall or under things could arguably be considered Kayako's signature move, aside from her stair crawl sequences) and some of the visual elements seem to be influenced by other works including, at times, the American remake. For Michael, it's arguably there as early as Halloween II, but it's arguably at its most refined/noticeable in Halloween 2018 and Halloween Kills. While he definitely has a preferred process in the original film, we don't really see him using "environmental" kills until after, and by 2018, he's built up a decent amount of "signature" methods to kill beyond the one he used in the original. In the Rob Zombie remake, he blatantly pulls elements from Jason Voorhees (and arguably Leatherface, considering his propensity for making masks) and Halloween Kills even has a monologue by Laurie Strode which could easily be interpreted as meta-commentary on his position to the slasher genre as a whole.
