<P>--Loomis' description of a young Michael was inspired by John Carpenter's experience with a real life mental patient . </P> <P> A common characterization is that Michael Myers is evil . John Carpenter has described the character as "almost a supernatural force - a force of nature . An evil force that's loose," a force that is "unkillable". Nicholas Rogers elaborates, "Myers is depicted as a mythic, elusive bogeyman, one of superhuman strength who cannot be killed by bullets, stab wounds, or fire ." Carpenter's inspiration for the "evil" that Michael would embody came when he was in college . While on a class trip at a mental institution in Kentucky, Carpenter visited "the most serious, mentally ill patients". Among those patients was a young boy around twelve to thirteen years - old . The boy gave this "schizophrenic stare", "a real evil stare", which Carpenter found "unsettling", "creepy", and "completely insane". Carpenter's experience would inspire the characterization that Loomis would give of Michael to Sheriff Brackett in the original film . Debra Hill has stated the scene where Michael kills the Wallaces' German Shepherd was done to illustrate how he is "really evil and deadly". </P> <P> The ending scene of Michael being shot six times, and then disappearing from the ground outside the house, was meant to terrify the imagination of the audience . Carpenter tried to keep the audience guessing as to who Michael Myers really is--he is gone, and everywhere at the same time; he is more than human; he may be supernatural, and no one knows how he got that way . To Carpenter, keeping the audience guessing was better than explaining away the character with "he's cursed by some ..." For Josh Hartnett, who portrayed John Tate in Halloween H20, "it's that abstract, it's easier for me to be afraid of it . You know, someone who just kind of appears and, you know (mimics stabbing noise from Psycho) instead of an actual human who you think you can talk to . And no remorse, it's got no feelings, that's the most frightening, definitely ." Richard Schickel, film critic for TIME, felt Michael was "irrational" and "really angry about something", having what Schickel referred to as "a kind of primitive, obsessed intelligence". Schickel considered this the "definition of a good monster", by making the character appear "less than human", but having enough intelligence "to be dangerous". </P> <P>--Steve Miner </P>

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