Halloween The Rewatchables
Halloween poster
Halloween

What’s Aged the Best?

Original Myers mask; Myers head tilts; lack of gore; the title; opening credits and music; Myers stalking Haddonfield all day; the driving exchange; the opening single take; nobody believing kids; neighbors shutting their lights; Bob's seventies van; the "blackest eyes" line; horny Myers; Kyle Richards as Lindsey; Sports Century Michael Myers column; Carpenter's filmmaking

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:24Read transcript
  • The original mask is the best they ever did; the hosts recount that it was a Captain Kirk mask bought for two bucks on Hollywood Boulevard, eyeholes widened and spray-painted bluish white by Tommy Wallace, that Hill and Carpenter wanted him faceless and non-human, and that he becomes known as the Shape.
  • The hosts recount that a smiling clown mask with frizzy red hair was also tested but felt too weird, so they went with the Shatner mask.
  • The original mask was thrown out and never recreated, a big gripe of the host's buddy Jeff about the sequels; necessity was the mother of invention, including reusing leaves.
  • The head tilts, the smart lack of gore, and calling it Halloween rather than Halloween Massacre, The Shape or Michael Myers.
  • The opening credits with the pumpkin and the music, including the variations for Myers in motion versus Laurie crossing the street and the scare cue, with a Jaws comparison.
  • Michael stalking Haddonfield all day, though the girls should notice the same station wagon tailgating them.
  • The "For God's sake, Sam, he doesn't even know how to drive a car" exchange acknowledges how ridiculous his driving is.
  • The opening single take on a new camera, the "panel glide" as heard, is inventive, if maybe not a top-three single take.
  • The horror concept of nobody believing little kids, and the neighbors turning off their lights and closing their shades when Laurie comes to the door.
  • Bob's seventies van is added as an aged-best pick.
  • The "blank, pale, emotionless face, the blackest eyes, the devil's eyes" line; seeing little Michael makes the Shape scarier.
  • A host says deleted TV scenes on YouTube include Loomis before the medical board and "You fooled them all, Michael."
  • Horny Myers, watching hookups and the girl in the laundry room, "basically going through puberty in the movie."
  • A host notes that Lindsey was played by future Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, who is in the new Halloween.
  • A personal pick: the speaker's own 2002 ESPN column written as a Sports Century episode about Michael Myers, satirizing media people and getting past Walsh's satire rule.
  • Carpenter's full filmmaking contribution: co-writing with Hill, directing and composing a score done in five days on a Casio, like Coppola also doing the Godfather music.