Template:Infobox character
Rachel Carruthers (1971 - October 31, 1989) is the deuteragonist in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and also appears in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. She is portrayed in both of her appearances by Ellie Cornell.
Biography
Early Life
Rachel was born in 1971 to Richard Carruthers and Darlene Carruthers in the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Rachel lived a normal, happy childhood, her life likely only disturbed by Michael Myers' murder spree in Haddonfield on Halloween 1978, when she was seven. It is known that Laurie Strode babysat Rachel several times when she was a little girl and that she and her parents often spent holidays with Rachel's grandmother in Cleveland. On December 1987, Laurie and her husband died in a automobile accident and left their daughter Jamie Lloyd with the Carruthers. Rachel also had a boyfriend named Brady. She was very concerned about her appearance and was, at times, selfish.
Protecting Jamie
At 4:00 AM on Monday October 31, 1988, Rachel sees Jamie is again wide awake in the living room with their dog Sundae. This is the fourth night the young girl has had difficulty sleeping. Rachel insists that Jamie return to bed. Jamie questions if Rachel loves her. Rachel answers that she does indeed love her. But Jamie wonders if her adoptive sister loves her as a real sibling. Rachel admits that she and Jamie are not real sisters, but that she does not love her any less because of that and then takes Jamie to bed and puts Sundae up.[1]
The next morning, Jamie's babysitter has to cancel as she had broken her ankle. Darlene then tells Rachel that she has to babysit Jamie for the night. Rachel overreacts and tells her mother that her life is ruined all because she has to babysit her foster sister. Jamie happens to hear all this and tells Rachel that if she was not around then she would be able to go out. Realizing how selfish she was acting, Rachel goes to apologize to Jamie and tells her that she can see Brady any other night and that for tonight they were going trick or treating. Jamie does not want to so they plan to get ice cream after school.[1]
After school, Rachel gets a ride with her friend Lindsey Wallace to pick her Jamie from school. Jamie tells Rachel that she now wants to go trick or treating. Lindsey suggests they go to Vincent's drug store to get a costume but Rachel knows that is the same shop where Brady works at. Lindsey tells Rachel to talk to Brady but Rachel is worried that she would come on too strong. Lindsey tells her not to worry herself about it and takes them to the store.[1]
They arrive at the store but Jamie goes to find a costume while Rachel tries to talk with Brady about their cancelled plans. Brady however starts to makeout with her and Rachel tells Brady about her babysitting duties to Jamie. Brady gets upset at how quickly things were not going to work out and tells Rachel that he will call her later. Rachel then hears glass breaking and goes to check up on Jamie. She is glad to see that Jamie was not hurt but they quickly leave the store after buying Jamie's costume and go home.[1]
As night comes, Rachel's parents leave and Jamie goes up to her room to change into her costume. Rachel takes the time she has to call Brady's house and learns that he isn't home from work yet so she leaves a message for him to come over at eight. She then leaves with Jamie to go trick or treating. Things are going smoothly until they arrive at the Meeker home. Rachel sees Kelly Meeker and then sees Brady is with her. Upset that Brady just moved on to the next person, Rachel tries to quickly leave and Brady runs after her to try to explain himself. Rachel doesn't want to hear his excuses but loses Jamie in the process of stopping to talk with Brady.[1]
Rachel falls off the roof.
She searches the neighborhood for Jamie but finds Michael Myers instead and tries to run away from him. She eventually finds Jamie and tells her to never run off from her ever again. At this time Sam Loomis and Sheriff Ben Meeker arrive and tell them to get inside the car. They take the girls to the Meeker home and tell them to go to an upstairs bedroom. Rachel takes a brief look at Brady, clearly not wishing to be at the house but knows it's for their safety. Rachel tries to calm Jamie down while everyone settles downstairs. Brady later comes to checkup on them and ask what is going on. Rachel tells him what is going on and a brief history of Myers. He leaves the room while Rachel lays down with Jamie until she falls asleep. Rachel goes downstairs to find out what is going on and when they can go home. She then goes to talk with Kelly about what she was doing with Brady. Rachel gets upset when she learns Kelly doesn't really care and when Kelly tells her to wise up or Brady won't be the last man she loses to another woman, Rachel pours some coffee on her shirt. Rachel then joins Ben Meeker while he is listening to the radio. He then has to leave so he leaves Rachel in charge of making sure things are okay and once word of help comes, he wants her to tell Deputy Logan. Rachel stay there as told and when she finally does hear that help is coming, she goes to find Logan. Once she does find him, she discovers that he is dead alongside Kelly. She goes upstairs to get Jamie, only to find that she is missing.[1]
Brady finds her and tells her that they need to get out of the house but Rachel doesn't want to leave her sister. They try to go out the front door only to find out they are locked in and at that time, Jamie comes out of another room. Rachel goes to get her sister but see Michael is downstairs. Brady decides to buy them time to escape but Rachel doesn't want to leave Brady and begs him to go along with them to the attic. Rachel watches as Brady tries to shoot Michael but Jamie pulls her into the attic with her. Rachel and Jamie try to barricade the entrance. They then escape out the attic window and try to climb to the top of the roof. Jamie hops on Rachel's back and as they make their way to the top, they find that Michael is up there already. Rachel ties a wire around Jamie and tries to lower her down from the roof but Michael attempts to slice at Rachel who loses the wire and falls off the roof but manages to hold on to the edge. Michael attempts to cut her and she finally falls off the roof, and is left unconscious. Once she recovers, she sees that Jamie and Michael are gone and makes her way towards the elementary school where she hears the alarm and finds Michael is going after Jamie. She grabs a fire extinguisher and uses it on Michael and saves Jamie. They run out of the elementary school and find Earl Ford and his gang who take the girls in their truck and out of Haddonfield. The girls think they are now safe but don't know that Michael is hiding underneath the truck. Michael manages to kill everyone except Rachel and Jamie. Rachel is forced to push Earl's body out of the car and take over driving. She tells Jamie to hide under the seat while she attempts to get Michael off the truck. She finally steps on the brakes which send Michael flying into the street.
Rachel driving with Michael lies above and tries to attack her and Jamie
He gets back up and Rachel runs him over and sends him into a field. The police soon arrive and Rachel tells Jamie to stay in the truck while she talks with the police. When she turns her attention towards Michael, she sees that Jamie has touched Michael's hand and tells her to get away from him. Meeker, the remaining cops and friends of Earl then shoot Michael into an abandoned mine shaft, which collapses on him.[1]
The cops take Rachel and her sister home, knowing that even though they have survived the night, they would never forget it. Darlene takes Jamie upstairs to get her cleaned up. Moments later, Rachel hears her mother scream and runs upstairs to see Jamie covered in blood, holding a pair of bloody scissors.[1] Jamie is then sent to the Haddonfield Children's Clinic.
One Year Later
Even though Jamie had stabbed her mother, Rachel didn't stop loving Jamie and visted her daily, sometimes taking her friends Tina Williams and Samantha Thomas along with her. The day before Halloween, Jamie had a nightmare of her attack on her foster mother and Michael returning. Worried about her sister, Rachel visited her early in the morning the next day and stood by her bedside. They were soon joined by Tina and Max and even though she knew the clinic didn't allow animals, she let them come inside as Tina had brought Rachel's gift with her. While Tina talked with Jamie, Rachel was preparing to show Jamie her Halloween costume. Jamie was overjoyed to see her princess costume and the girls talked about how Jamie's friend Billy Hill was going to enjoy seeing how pretty Jamie was going to look. They were interrupted by Dr. Loomis and Rachel was about to leave, telling Jamie that she was going to be away for two days and that their parents send their love. As soon as Rachel was about to leave, someone had thrown a rock through Jamie's window with a note that said "The evil child must die!". Rachel made sure Jamie was calmed down before she left with Loomis to discuss what happened. She told Loomis that she felt guilt for leaving her sister alone for two days in which Loomis told her that she was deep down scared that what happened last year may happen again. Rachel tried to deny it but deep down knew it was true.
She and Tina soon left the clinic and went home. Tina had to get the costumes first so she continued on her way leaving Rachel and Max to go home. Rachel needed to get ready for her upcoming trip with her parents and went to take a shower. Unknown to her Michael Myers had indeed returned and was stalking her. Rachel then received a phone call from Loomis telling her to check up on Max. When she arrived in the kitchen, she discovered that Max was missing. Worried about what was happening, Loomis told her to go to the neighbors and call the cops. Deputies Nick Ross and Tom Farrah arrived, checked the house and told Rachel that nothing seemed wrong. When Rachel questioned them about Max, the dog appeared running towards her. Feeling embarrassed, Rachel apologized and let the cops go on their way. She called Jamie to tell her that everything was fine and that she loved her.
Rachel's death.
Rachel's corpse in Michael Myers' home attic
Rachel went into her room to get some clothes when she heard Max barking yet again, she checked up on him and then heard a glass breaking. She went into a room where she found glass on the floor that belonged to a picture frame that contained a picture of Jamie. It had been cracked and it looked like blood was on the photo. When Rachel turned around she saw Michael standing above her and he stabbed her in the chest with a pair of scissors. Michael then carried Rachel's body back to his home and left it on a chair in the attic, she is discovered by Jaime later at night along with the bodies of Tina's boyfriend Mike and Max.
Eventually the national guards made their way into Haddonfield and discovered Rachel's body in the attic. Her parents buried her in the nearby Mt. Sinclair Cemetery in November of 1989.
Notes & Trivia
- Originally Michael was to shove the scissors down Rachael's throat but the actress, Ellie Cornell, felt it was too gruesome an end for her character, so it was changed.
- Moustapha Akkad has said that one of his biggest regrets about Halloween 5 was killing off Rachel Carruthers. In retrospect, he would have kept her alive, but she was killed in an attempt to show that no one, not even Rachel, was safe from Michael.
Appearances
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
- Halloween IV (novelization)
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers