SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 77 Discussion - Halloween

[Trotsky]

This was always my favorite horror film. It's cerebral rather than gorefest. It's not stated that there's anything supernatural going on but the actions and behavior of The Shape can make the audience wonder about that.

Regarding the "How did he drive a car?" question answered in the OP trivia, I remember having the discussion with my father years ago:
"How's he know how to drive if he's been locked up his whole life?"
"The doctor said that he 'knows things he has earthly way of knowing.'"
"But how?"
"I think he's a type of autistic savant like Rain Man or Batman. All of his thought process is directed towards a single purpose: killing. Any movie, TV, or instance of watching someone drive, he recalled when he needed to continue his primary drive, his programming."

Yeah, it's one of those things you can't overthink.

He's a human, but he's an entity as well and, as you said, is "worldly" to a degree. The Shape is like a virus.

Really, my biggest issue with the Rob Zombie remake was the inclusion of an abuse/neglect/bullying backstory that takes some of the mystique out of Michael Myers.

Yup.

Just a natural "10" body. A true classic.

Jamie Lee Curtis in her prime has the greatest body of any American actress to ever live imo.

 

[MusterX]

Interesting you bring that up because yesterday I found an article where Halloween was showed to 10 millenials and they were asked to offer comments and rate its scariness on a scale of 1-10.

The average rating was a 5.4, with the highest rating being a 7.5 and the lowest a mere 2.

Here's the article if you want to look through it:

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/bp/halloween-still-scary-35-years-later-172850535.html



Bruh, all I'll say is that what amazes me is how fucking incredible Jamie Lee's body once was. She's never had the best face, but at least at certain stages of her life her physique was second to none.

Some of the plot points confuse me with Halloween. Why was Michael Myers on a murderous rampage? I suppose @europe1 has a point about the old slasher films being obsessed with killing young good looking girls. I've time stamped about 5 minutes in the video below for anyone that wants to see the opening scene again.


The point of this opener is that Michael Myers doesn't like whores. He sees a girl with her boyfriend and kills her. Thing is, he's prepubescent, meaning, he doesn't even really have a horse in that race. He doesn't have any reason to hate whores, he can't even calculate something like that. I've had kids, trust me, prepubescent children have no concept of things like sex, relationships, or "hatred of whores." So the reason Michael Myers does what he does is confusing to me.

 

[Guestx]

This was always my favorite horror film. It's cerebral rather than gorefest. It's not stated that there's anything supernatural going on but the actions and behavior of The Shape can make the audience wonder about that.

You're exactly right that it's never stated--or even implied really--that something supernatural is going on. He's just portrayed as a kid who went crazy early on and stayed crazy.

So I was rolling my eyes a bit when at the end he's been stabbed, shot repeatedly, and falls out of a second story window and then apparently just got up and walked away.

Regarding the "How did he drive a car?" question answered in the OP trivia, I remember having the discussion with my father years ago:
"How's he know how to drive if he's been locked up his whole life?"
"The doctor said that he 'knows things he has earthly way of knowing.'"
"But how?"
"I think he's a type of autistic savant like Rain Man or Batman. All of his thought process is directed towards a single purpose: killing. Any movie, TV, or instance of watching someone drive, he recalled when he needed to continue his primary drive, his programming."
"Huh. That's pretty good. Good thinking."
"Thanks."
"Remember to take the recycling out last night?"
"No."
"Not that fucking smart then, I guess."

LOL. Sounds like as good of an explanation as any.

Just a natural "10" body. A true classic.

It's interesting, because Jamie Lee Curtis never did achieve that "sex symbol" status that so many other actresses did. I think it's her face that already held her back from that. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if being reduced to nothing but that in people's eyes is not something she ever wanted anyway.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Jamie Lee Curtis in her prime has the greatest body of any American actress to ever live imo.

This one springs to mind. Legs don't really get any better.

I've had kids, trust me, prepubescent children have no concept of things like sex, relationships, or "hatred of whores." So the reason Michael Myers does what he does is confusing to me.

Sound like late-bloomers. By age seven I totally wanted to bang all of Charlie's Angels.

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

Spooky

This is my favorite scene in the movie probably

 

[MusterX]

I have no idea why but a mod just edited my post #22 and removed the clip from Halloween. We've been posting clips from movies in these threads for 77 weeks. Strangely, the other clips in this very thread were not edited.

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

I have no idea why but a mod just edited my post #22 and removed the clip from Halloween. We've been posting clips from movies in these threads for 77 weeks. Strangely, the other clips in this very thread were not edited.

It has happened to me too brother

Maybe it had nudity in it but I dont remember halloween having boobs in it

 

[MusterX]

It has happened to me too brother

Maybe it had nudity in it but I dont remember halloween have boobs in it

Yea possibly that's why. I forgot the opening sequence has breasts in it I think. Now it makes sense. The mod didn't cite nudity though, but whatever, that's probably it.

 

[Guestx]

Really, my biggest issue with the Rob Zombie remake was the inclusion of an abuse/neglect/bullying backstory that takes some of the mystique out of Michael Myers.

Rob Zombie's remake was one of the worst crimes against cinema ever. At least the Psycho remake was just a shot-for-shot art film. Zombie ruined Myers by turning a ghost into a hillbilly mental deficient. Fuck Rob Zombie and every shit film he's ever made.

I never did see it, but what's strange is that I remember it getting a good reception when it first came out but I hear nothing but negative comments now.

Maybe I'm misremembering.

However, The Exorcist is the tour de force of horror cinema. Bigger budget, better acting, more resonating scares.

It's probably my favorite horror film of all time.

I have an old VHS collector's edition that includes the movie on VHS, the soundtrack on CD, a book on the making of the movie, several still photos from production, and a frame of actual film from the movie. It's awesome.

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

The only thing that Zombie did was turning Michael into a person. Spent a shit ton of time on his backstory.

In the original he is just the shape and you dont know shit about the guy

Its whatever. I think the Zombie movie is fine

 

[Guestx]

Some of the plot points confuse me with Halloween. Why was Michael Myers on a murderous rampage? I suppose @europe1 has a point about the old slasher films being obsessed with killing young good looking girls. I've time stamped about 5 minutes in the video below for anyone that wants to see the opening scene again.

The point of this opener is that Michael Myers doesn't like whores. He sees a girl with her boyfriend and kills her. Thing is, he's prepubescent, meaning, he doesn't even really have a horse in that race. He doesn't have any reason to hate whores, he can't even calculate something like that. I've had kids, trust me, prepubescent children have no concept of things like sex, relationships, or "hatred of whores." So the reason Michael Myers does what he does is confusing to me.

Just reading some of what Carpenter has said about the film--and looking at the text of the film itself--I'm not sure we're SUPPOSED to be able to intuit a reason.

It seems that Carpenter wanted MM to be unreadable and mysterious. We aren't supposed to understand his motives; he's doing what he's doing and his reasons are his own.

Whether that's satisfying or not I guess is up to each viewer to decide.

 

[MusterX]

Sound like late-bloomers. By age seven I totally wanted to bang all of Charlie's Angels.

Yea but not to the point of hating whores and going on a rampage against said whores. That's something that usually happens after the whores have done things to the antagonist over time so he hated whores eventually and killed them. In this case how old was Michael Myers? 11? It just didn't click with me that a kid so young would hate promiscuous girls enough to kill them. You would have to assume Michael Myers was laying pipe by the age of 8 and developed an intense hatred for whores by the age of 11 or whatever he was.

 

[JayPettryMMA]

It has happened to me too brother

Maybe it had nudity in it but I dont remember halloween having boobs in it

Yea possibly that's why. I forgot the opening sequence has breasts in it I think. Now it makes sense. The mod didn't cite nudity though, but whatever, that's probably it.

I can probably chime in to help clear things up.

First thing, we can't have any videos of nudity or gore to speak of. Blood is ok to an extent, but body parts and dismemberment and other nastiness (think something you couldn't show on AMC for instance) is no bueno.

Second, copyright issues of posters putting up full videos (and fights but that's for another forum) have been cropping up, or something like Part 1 of X of the entire film can't be posted on here. Clips or highlights are fine, as are trailers, but when a link of a video sends you to where you can illegally watch the video in its entirety, mods have to clean it up.

It's all passed down to us from on high, and it's nothing personal, fellas.

 

[MusterX]

Just reading some of what Carpenter has said about the film--and looking at the text of the film itself--I'm not sure we're SUPPOSED to be able to intuit a reason.

It seems that Carpenter wanted MM to be unreadable and mysterious. We aren't supposed to understand his motives; he's doing what he's doing and his reasons are his own.

Whether that's satisfying or not I guess is up to each viewer to decide.

He wants to kill girls, we know his target. I'm just saying it didn't really work for me the way some of the other things didn't work for you. I would much preferred that Carpenter didn't make it look like Michael Myers was specifically targeting a girl who was fooling around with her boyfriend. It just didn't make sense to me. If you are going to do that at least tell me his mother was a whore.

 

[Andersons Foot]

The only thing that Zombie did was turning Michael into a person. Spent a shit ton of time on his backstory.

In the original he is just the shape and you dont know shit about the guy

Its whatever. I think the Zombie movie is fine

I think that was a mistake. I don't blame RZ for trying, though. I thought the first one was decent. His version of H2 was terrible IMO.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Yea but not to the point of hating whores and going on a rampage against said whores. That's something that usually happens after the whores have done things to the antagonist over time so he hated whores eventually and killed them. In this case how old was Michael Myers? 11? It just didn't click with me that a kid so young would hate promiscuous girls enough to kill them. You would have to assume Michael Myers was laying pipe by the age of 8 and developed an intense hatred for whores by the age of 11 or whatever he was.

I hear ya'. Would have to be his mom that was the whore, but the movie indicates no such thing.

 

[Guestx]

Second, copyright issues of posters putting up full videos (and fights but that's for another forum) have been cropping up, or something like Part 1 of X of the entire film can't be posted on here. Clips or highlights are fine, as are trailers, but when a link of a video sends you to where you can illegally watch the video in its entirety, mods have to clean it up.

I thought the rule was that if it was on YouTube or Vimeo or another major video hosting site like that, it was fine.

At least, that's what you told us back when we watched Deadly Prey.

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

I think that was a mistake. I don't blame RZ for trying, though. I thought the first one was decent. His version of H2 was terrible IMO.

Yeah man the second one with that Unicorn dream shit

Beyond awful

 

[MusterX]

I can probably chime in to help clear things up.

First thing, we can't have any videos of nudity or gore to speak of. Blood is ok to an extent, but body parts and dismemberment and other nastiness (think something you couldn't show on AMC for instance) is no bueno.

Second, copyright issues of posters putting up full videos (and fights but that's for another forum) have been cropping up, or something like Part 1 of X of the entire film can't be posted on here. Clips or highlights are fine, as are trailers, but when a link of a video sends you to where you can illegally watch the video in its entirety, mods have to clean it up.

It's all passed down to us from on high, and it's nothing personal, fellas.

Yea that was my bad, I just forgot that sequence had bare breasts in it. We've been posting movie clips nonstop for the last 77 weeks.

 

[JayPettryMMA]

I thought the rule was that if it was on YouTube or Vimeo or another major video hosting site like that, it was fine.

At least, that's what you told us back when we watched Deadly Prey.

Things have gotten a little tighter since then. The way things stand now, full movies or unauthorized fight videos can't be posted on here in any way, unless they're officially posted by the studio or promotion themselves. But we don't generally mod private messages, so almost anything goes in those...

Yea that was my bad, I just forgot that sequence had bare breasts in it. We've been posting movie clips nonstop for the last 77 weeks.

And again, clips are fine, but links or videos that take you to the entire movie (if you watch part 1, then click to see part 2, and so on, where you watch the whole movie) aren't. It's a fine line, I know.