Annie Brackett

Original appearances

In the original Halloween, Annie was planning on meeting with her boyfriend Paul. While Annie was babysitting Lindsey, she spilled popcorn butter all over her shirt and had to take it to the laundry room, which was separate from the rest of the house. In a memorable and suspenseful scene, Michael locks her in the laundry room without her knowing that he is there. She gets stuck in the window while trying to get out and is helped by Lindsay who went outside to tell her Paul called. When she is about to leave, she realizes she forgot her keys to the car. While she is off getting her keys, Michael breaks into the car. When she comes back, she unintentionally opens the door and gets in. Annie then realizes that the doors were locked. But it is too late. Michael sits up in the backseat and strangles her, before sliting her throat, killing her. Her corpse is later seen sprawled out on a bed with the headstone of Judith Myers, Michael's murdered sister.

She is briefly seen at the beginning of Halloween II, as her corpse is taken out of the house she was last seen in.

Remake continuity

In the remake and its sequel, she is portrayed by Danielle Harris. As with the original, in the reboot, Annie is Laurie's friend from high school and Lindsey's babysitter. On Halloween night, she goes to leave Lindsey and her babysitting duties to Laurie in order to go out with Paul, that soon arrives in his car and takes Annie back to Lindsey's house. Preparing to have sex with Paul, Annie fails to see Michael nearing them until he attacks. While Paul is instantly killed, Annie makes a run for the front door, almost escaping, but is caught. Michael pulls her back inside, however, she manages to slip away and get a kitchen knife, attempting to face the towering killer. Her resistance quickly ends with Annie captured alive, exposed to Michael's crueler attacks; she is left lying on the floor brutally tortured and bleeding when Laurie brings Lindsey home, although her father finds her still alive some time later due to Laurie having called 9-1-1.

In Halloween II, Annie, although slightly disfigured with the scars from her encounter with Michael Myers, is shown to be much more stable than Laurie, who is living with Annie and her father. On a Halloween night when she is at home alone, Michael breaks into the Brackett house, seizes the fleeing Annie then stabs her repeatedly off-screen. When she arrives home, Laurie finds Annie on the bathroom floor, naked and severely wounded by Michael. Annie then tries to persuade Laurie to leave the house, without success, until she dies.

Literature

Annie appears in the 1979 novelization of the first film. In the comic Halloween III: The Devil's Eyes from Chaos! Comics, the unstable Laurie, digs up the graves of Annie, Lynda and her boyfriend Bob, placing their skeletons and headstones in Lindsey Wallace's house. Photographs of Annie's corpse appear in the comic book Halloween: Autopsis as photojournalist Patrick Carter becomes fascinated with the pictures of what he believes to be a "perfect corpse". His obsession leads him into investigating Michael Myers, which eventually leads to his death at Michael's hands. Annie also appears in the story "Visiting Hours" of the anniversary comic Halloween: 30 Years of Terror. When Laurie reflects on how her life would have been if she had never encountered Michael Myers, she imagines Annie as having never died and becoming a mother. However, Laurie's fantasy is invaded by the memory of Michael, causing Annie's teenage corpse to appear and accuse Laurie, "If you were smart you'd have stopped him from killing me." Annie's funeral is depicted in the comic miniseries Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode, where Laurie describes her as "the best friend I ever had" and wonders what Annie would have thought of how the press covered the news of her death. While trying to recover from her ordeal, Laurie sees "ghosts" of Annie and Lynda preventing her from moving on. Annie's morgue report appears at the website HalloweenComics.com, revealing information such as her address, date of birth, and middle name, which was Marie. Her immediate cause of death is recorded as "massive blood loss" due to "severed right common carotid artery due to slit throat".

Reception

Scarlet Jupiter praised Danielle's performance saying:

"Danielle Harris brought such power to her role as Annie Brackett that we actually believed her pain after Michael viciously stabbed her multiple times. And let’s be honest; who didn’t feel that boulder in their stomach in Halloween 2 during the bathroom scene? While John Carpenter’s Annie was meant for comic relief, we all grew to love Rob Zombie’s Annie not only for her sense of humor but her adorable personality and were saddened when she met her violent but inevitable end."

Annie Riordan noted her influence on the horror genre saying, "She also set a standard for the slasher film, a genre she helped to kickstart, by wandering off alone into a dark room without her pants on. It goes without saying nowadays that girls in horror films will be dispatched the moment their undergarments become visible, but it was a trend that Annie made famous. She dies, panties on prominent display, in the backseat of a station wagon, half strangled and throat slashed. Such are the hazards of premarital sex."

Pop Culture

Annie was featured on Movie Pilot's list of "My Top 5 Horror Movie Stoners".