- "Oh, I know things, kid. I know things that've been eating me up inside for years. Isn't just those in the Myers Family who're cursed..This whole town is cursed. Now, you going to keep pointing that gun at me or you're going to help?"
- ―Leigh Brackett to Tommy Doyle.[src]
Leigh Brackett is a character in the Halloween franchise. He first appeared in the original Halloween, played by Charles Cyphers.
In the movie Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, a retcon was established ignoring Halloween 4, 5, and 6. As a result, the biography of this Leigh Brackett is drastically different to the one who appears in the H20 Timeline onwards. This version of the character appears in Halloween, Halloween II and Halloween II: The Blackest Eyes.
Biography[]
Leigh Brackett was born in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. When he was a teenager, he started to date Judith Myers. While he was dating her, he learned that her father was abusive towards her. Leigh also thought that Judith had a strange relationship with her younger brother Michael. The relationship lasted for a short time, ending when Leigh left for college. When he learned of her death, Leigh decided to become a cop. Once he was on the force, he started to uncover the history of Haddonfield and its connection to the druid religion.
Working as a Sheriff[]
He eventually became the sheriff of Haddonfield. At some point he got married and had a daughter named Annie. On October 31, 1978, Sheriff Brackett responded to a call about a break-in at Nichol's Hardware Store. Accompanied by his deputies, he determined that only a few items had been stolen, including a mask, a length of rope and a knife.[1]
He soon learned the identity of the perpetrator when he encountered a psychiatrist from Warren County named Doctor Samuel Loomis. Loomis told Sheriff Brackett that "evil" had come to his little town in the form of an escaped mental patient named Michael Myers. Although Brackett took Loomis' warning with fair measure, there was little action he could take. Sam advised keeping a look-out for Michael Myers and the two agreed to conduct a stake out at the old, abandoned Myers house.[1]
By the following evening, nothing had occurred to give Sheriff Brackett any further cause for alarm, but Loomis insisted that his men and he should conduct an intensive city-wide search for Myers. He recounted how Myers had stolen the headstone of his late sister, Judith, but Sheriff Brackett dismissed his concerns, citing it as nothing more than a Halloween prank.[1]
Leigh learns that his only daughter is dead
Brackett quickly discovered that Loomis' concerns were warranted, for on that same evening, Michael Myers brutally murdered his daughter, Annie.[2]
It was his own deputy Gary Hunt, who discovered Annie Brackett's body and informed her father. Sheriff Brackett blamed Loomis for the crime, accusing him of letting Michael out in the first place. Now that he was ready to take the psychiatrist seriously, Brackett called in all of his resources to conduct a search for Michael Myers. He then went home to tell his wife of the news about their daughter.[2]
Retirement[]
Leigh retired in 1981 and his family moved to Pennsylvania, his position being taken over by Ben Meeker.[3]
Return to Haddonfield[]
In 1999, Leigh returned to Haddonfield to try and kill Michael and his first stop was the Myers house. Once he arrived, he found someone was there and shot the individual that he believed was Michael. Leigh soon discovered that it was not the killer but rather Richie Castle. Knowing that leaving the body would bring him more trouble, Leigh took Richie's body and stuffed it into his car. Leigh drove off towards the outskirts of town and, as soon as he started to dig a grave for Richie, he noticed someone was watching him. The person said it was the police, but Leigh knew better. It was actually Tommy Doyle.[4]
Tommy questioned Leigh about what he was doing in town and the body in his car. Leigh showed him Richie's corpse and told him that it was a mistake as he had thought it was Michael. Tommy pointed a gun towards Leigh and told him that he knew that Leigh knew more than he let on. Leigh revealed his knowledge of the town's history, its curse and the Myers family, and also told Tommy that knowing all that information had been eating him up for years. He then asked Tommy to put the gun down and help him.[4]
Tommy did so but demanded to know what Leigh had known for years. Brackett recounted the entire history of Haddonfield and how most citizens were descendants of the founders, who were druids. When Tommy questioned if Leigh was one of them, he promptly responded that his family had come to Haddonfield in 1901. Tommy was still curious as to how Leigh discovered all this but the only reply given was that as a cop he investigated. Leigh continued by telling of Michael's birth and how he was a normal boy until the night Judith was murdered. Tommy asked where Leigh got the information on the Myers family so Leigh told him he had learned it from reading Dr. Loomis' diaries, which he received after Loomis had died.[4]
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Michael murders Leigh
As Tommy attempted to question more, they realized that the Cult of Thorn was surrounding them. Mrs. Blankenship was leading the group and ordered to take Leigh and Tommy to Haddonfield Church. The two were tied up in the basement but were saved by the priest, who untied them. Before they could get out of the basement, Michael appeared behind the priest and killed him. Leigh watched in shock as Tommy tried to attack Michael. Michael pushed Tommy aside as Leigh got a lantern and smashed it onto Michael's mask, lighting it on fire. In response, Michael stabbed Leigh in the heart, killing him.[4] Tommy was subsequently blamed for Brackett's murder until he was proven innocent.[5]
Appearances[]
- Halloween (1978)
- Halloween (1978 novelization)
- Halloween
- Halloween II (1981)
- Halloween II (novelization)
- Halloween II
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1978) (mentioned)
- Halloween IV (mentioned)
- Halloween II: The Blackest Eyes
- Halloween III: The Devil's Eyes (mentioned)
Notes and trivia[]
- Sheriff Leigh Brackett is the last person killed by Michael Myers in the 4-6 Timeline.
- In the novelization of Halloween, Sheriff Leigh Brackett divulges some information on the Myers family history while he is driving to the Myers house with Dr. Loomis on Halloween night 1978. Sheriff Leigh Brackett says that the sheriff of Haddonfield in 1963 was Ron Barstow. On Halloween night 1963, while he was at the Myers residence, sheriff Ron Barstow overheard Edith saying "It's come back" or "It's happened again" over and over again. Shortly after Sheriff Ron Barstow went to the town hall and researched the Myers family history. He found out that in the 1890s, Michael and Judith's maternal great-grandfather shot a couple who were in attendance at a grange dance on Halloween for seemingly no explicable reason. He was arrested and had been hung. How sheriff Leigh Brackett learned of this information is not explained.