Charles Cyphers gave Sheriff Leigh Brackett a final callback to the original Halloween in his last screen role. In Halloween Kills, Brackett addresses Michael Myers with a familiar line during the mob confrontation near the end of the film: “Hey, Michael! It’s Halloween. Everyone’s entitled to one good scare.”
In Halloween (1978), he says it after startling Laurie Strode: “You know, it’s Halloween. I guess everyone’s entitled to one good scare, huh?” The return of those words gives Brackett a final callback to the original.
Cyphers played Sheriff Leigh Brackett in 3 films across 43 years: the 1978 original, Halloween II (1981), and Halloween Kills (2021), his final screen role.
Cyphers was 85 when he died in Tucson, Arizona, on August 4, 2024, after a brief illness. John Carpenter’s tribute remembered him as a friend and early collaborator and praised his kindness. Their other films together included Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, and Escape from New York.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) includes another nod to the line. Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis’s real-life mother, delivers a similar version in a brief scene.
