WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Halloween Kills, now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock.
In the pantheon of horror movie characters, the most iconic slasher villains tend to have staggering body counts. Due to the inherently murderous nature of the genre, it's not surprising that some of the bigger names in these kinds of stories -- such as Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare On Elm Street series and Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise -- have gained well over thirty kills. But there are a handful of villains who deserve special recognition for their genuinely (and horrifyingly) impressive kill counts.
The most prolific of all is Jason Voorhees, the face of the Friday the 13th series of films. Across his many appearances over the years and counting reboots featuring the character, Jason has racked up 151 kills. But there's a new horror MVP: Michael Myers of the Halloween series, which is often heralded as the true beginning point for the slasher genre. Michael gains a truly massive number of kills in Halloween Kills and overtakes Jason's record.
Picking up after the events of the previous film -- 2018's Halloween -- Michael Myers has been left to die in Laura Strode's (Jamie Lee Curtis) basement as her remote home burns to the ground. But while Laurie and her family escape the blaze, fire trucks arrive to unwittingly save Michael from the flames. Emerging from the burning house having already claimed the lives of two firefighters unlucky enough to rush into the building first, Michael quickly dispatches the assembled fire crews -- earning what is later confirmed by Sheriff Barker (Omar Dorsey) as eleven more fatalities to his name. Michael soon makes his way across the small town of Haddonfield, slaughtering his way towards his old family home.
After he's killed an older married couple, Michael finds himself set upon by Lindsay (Kyle Richards) and a handful of others, who have joined up with Tommy (Anthony Michael Hall) to hunt down and try to finally kill Michael. Lindsay is the only survivor of her party, with the other three -- and a local teenager -- being felled by Michael in short order. As he makes his way back to his childhood home, Michael murders Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (Michael McDonald), a married gay couple who'd bought and remodeled the house. Allyson (Andi Matichak) arrives alongside her boyfriend Cameron (Dylan Arnold) and Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), with the two men being brutally taken out in turn.
Even when Karen (Judy Greer) lures Michael into a new trap and leaves him to be killed by the assembled townspeople, there's little they can do to stop him long-term. After lowering their guards once they believe he's dead, Michael springs back to life and quickly kills the lot of them in a series of brutal attacks. The victims total at least five more people, including Tommy. Michael then ends Halloween Kills by returning to his childhood home and finding Karen -- hacking her to death with his knife while she tries in vain to fight back. All in all, Michael adds at least a whopping twenty-seven kills to his franchise total. In all the previous entries of the Halloween franchise combined -- including the reboot by Rob Zombie and the previous 2018 film -- Michael had killed 133 people.
This had ensured him the second-highest kill count of any major western horror slasher, right behind Jason and his nearly-twenty body lead. But with Halloween Kills, Michael has at least upped his kill count to 160. This gives him the new top spot, unseating Jason as the single most prolific killer in western slasher films. They even have comparable screen-time, with Jason killing across eleven films while Michael has now been at the center of eleven as well. Jason might be able to steal back his crown as the top slasher villain in future installments but until then, Michael has overcome his nominal rival in the genre and solidified himself as one of horror's most prolific killers.
To see Michael Myers beat Jason Voorhees' record, Halloween Kills is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock.