Content Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Halloween Kills.
In Halloween Kills, Michael Myers continues to wreak havoc on Haddonfield, forcing the characters to formulate plans for survival. While many of the characters are just trying to make it through the night, some, such as the Strode women, are confident enough in their intelligence to develop a strategy and fight back.
Some of the characters, like Tommy Doyle, overestimate their own intelligence and pay the ultimate price as a result while others, like Lonnie Elam, are actually smart enough to figure out what is going on and what Michael Myers is trying to do.
Michael Myers
Halloween Kills starts to shed some light on Michael Myer's motivation, revealing that he does have some sort of thought process behind his actions. Simple as it may be, Michael Myers' goal is just to return home, creating some moments that are just as terrifying as scenes in the original Halloween.
Michael Myers survives almost solely on his brute strength and endurance. Seemingly unkillable, he does not often make the smart decision and instead barrels ahead, even if he is walking into a trap. He is certainly durable and strong, but he's not exactly intelligent.
Sheriff Barker
As the head of law enforcement in Haddonfield, Sheriff Barker is ultimately responsible for the safety of its citizens. However, he is unable to develop a plan to protect the town from Michael Myers, enabling a vigilante mob to rise up, which results in many deaths.
Tommy Doyle directly calls out Sheriff Barker's failures and blames him for the deadly situation they find themselves in. Sheriff Barker made poor decisions in the previous film and they come back to haunt him in this movie.
Tommy Doyle
Fueled by anger, Tommy Doyle is smart enough to organize the citizens of Haddonfield into a mob that is roaming the city looking for Michael Myers. However, this decision proves to be a costly one as the mob pursues the wrong man, which leads to his death, and is eventually overpowered and killed by Michael Myers in one of the Halloween franchise's scariest scenes.
While Tommy's plan may have initially seemed smart, it ends up leading to the deaths of countless people. Tommy relies more on emotion and fear than intellect and logic, and it winds up costing him his life.
Cameron Elam
In the previous film, Cameron did not do much to prove his intelligence as he made poor choices, such as cheating on Allyson. But Cameron quickly steps up when he realizes the gravity of the situation. Throughout the movie, he consistently makes mature and thoughtful decisions.
However, his final decision is to rush into a confrontation with Michael Myers instead of waiting for backup. While Cameron demonstrates some smart decision-making, he also makes a rash final choice that results in his death and nearly gets Allyson killed as well.
Allyson Nelson
In a short period of time, Allyson goes through a lot of pain and loss. Despite this, she manages to keep her wits about her and think through the situations she finds herself in. She makes the ill-advised but informed decision to leave the hospital and go after Michael Myers, and demonstrates her intelligence as she learns from the past, and makes sure to have a backup knife with her during her confrontation with Michael Myers.
While Allyson is a mostly smart character, her decision to go into the Myers house with Cameron instead of getting help was a bad one that ended in his death and her serious injury. Additionally, if she had been smart enough to stay in the safety of the hospital, Karen would likely not have gotten stabbed.
Laurie Strode
Laurie has spent her whole adult life training and preparing to face Michael Myers. She knows that she cannot fight him in straightforward combat, so she relies on her intelligence and creativity to find other ways to fight back. She has survived multiple encounters with him thanks to her intelligence.
However, this preparation has caused her to become fixated on Michael Myers. As a result, she wrongly assumes he is going to come to find her and kill her. Laurie is one of the best characters in the Halloween franchise and she is a highly intelligent character, even if this film does not showcase it.
Lonnie Elam
For much of the film, Lonnie appears to be a fairly simple character who is mostly just following Tommy's lead. But towards the end of the film, Lonnie demonstrates some surprising intellect as he analyzes the map of Michael Myers' victims and realizes that the pattern suggests he is headed home.
While this brilliant discovery helps the group find Michael Myers, Lonnie wastes this opportunity by making the dumb decision to go after Michael Myers by himself instead of letting everyone else know so they could converge on the killer together. For as smart as he was in the film, Lonnie lacks common sense in a crucial moment.
Karen Nelson
Karen demonstrates her intelligence in the climax by tricking Michael Myers and luring him into an ambush. She also shows her emotional intelligence by reaching out to the man who is being mistakenly pursued by the mob of angry people.
Karen proves herself to be one of Michael Myers' strongest enemies by continuing to outsmart him and leading him into yet another trap. She is also seemingly the only one who is smart enough to see the problem with Tommy's angry mob. Her only major mistake, which may lead to her demise, comes as she makes the dumb decision to go back into the Myers house unarmed at the end of the film.
Sam Loomis
Dr. Sam Loomis is arguably the smartest character in the franchise. Even though he only makes a brief appearance in a flashback, he displays why he knows Michael Myers more than anyone else does. He gives up all hope of restoring the killer's humanity and decides instead to execute him so he can never kill again.
Even aside from Dr. Loomis' clinical accomplishments, this one moment in the movie shows his intelligence as he arrives at the conclusion that Michael Myers needs to be killed or he will his murder spree.
Frank Hawkins
Plagued by the decisions in his past, the present-day version of Frank has figured out Michael Myers better than almost anyone else ever has. When Laurie is convinced that Michael Myers is headed to the hospital to kill her, Frank knows that he is not trying to kill her and is headed home instead.
Frank has psychoanalyzed the murderer and determined his mentality, psychology, and objectives. While Frank may not be the most academically intelligent character, his ability to observe Michael Myers and come to these insightful conclusions demonstrates thoughtfulness and deep thinking.