Trivia: Rick Rosenthal, the director of the film, makes a cameo as a professor.
Trivia: Throughout the entire film the screams you hear from the girls in the house are exactly identical.
Trivia: The professor in the University at the beginning is named Dr. Mixter just like the doctor who gets a syringe stabbed through his eye in Halloween 2.
Trivia: In Laurie's room at the hospital, you can see a crumpled up picture of Josh Hartnet who played her son.
Trivia: Busta Rhymes appeared on an episode of WWE SmackDown to promote this film the day before its theatrical release. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson asked him if he would die in the film since horror films typically kill off black characters first. Rhymes simply responded with "Hell no."
Answer: At first impression, Laurie was catatonic not only from the shock of killing an innocent man, but also from a lifetime of being chased down by her murderous brother. She obviously knows from past experiences that nothing she does (including faking her own death) will stop Michael from finding her. It is later revealed she has been faking her mental issues (think when she has been hiding her regular meds in the raggedy Ann doll) and is committed only to stopping Michael, no matter what the cost. She may have also been trying to protect her son and the only way to do that is to allow herself to be institutionalized in order to lure Michael there.