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Post by moviebuffbrad on Nov 5, 2017 7:43:37 GMT
2. Michael stalking Tommy Doyle at school. Made me wonder if Michael planned to kill him too. I think the original idea, before II changed things, was that Michael was trying to recreate the night he killed Judith, and maybe Tommy reminded Michael of himself as the girls reminded him of Judith.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Nov 6, 2017 6:02:56 GMT
There's a quote by Carpenter on interpretations of Halloween. Someone asked him about the one which suggested Laurie was driven to homicidal rage by her virginity and he relied: "I have heard that theory. It comes from a critic in Canada which uh, says a lot." He didn't elaborate.
Halloween fits the trend of the 70s which the slasher film usually followed where the female character is not aided by any male protector (compare to a Hammer film where usually there is a man somewhere to help the girl).
Loomis arrives at the end to help, but the killer disappears, and it ends with Laurie crying as if she knows the danger isn't over.
This is why I said elsewhere that RITUALS and WITHOUT WARNING are anomalies since they follow some of the slasher movie framework--but in the first there are no women-just middle aged men, and in the latter the heroine teams up with an unlikely ally to defeat the killer (an alien but it plays out much like a stalker in the woods story).
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Flynn
Sophomore
@flynn
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Post by Flynn on Nov 10, 2017 4:35:58 GMT
Primemovermithrax PejorativeHave you read BLOOD MONEY by Richard Nowell? It traces the "teen slasher film cycle" from the late 1970s through the early 1980s. It's very dry and long-winded but also insight-filled. It's an academic look at slasher films. He takes theories of film genre and applies them to the slasher film, while at the same time looking at slashers from a marketing standpoint. He argues (quite convincingly) that the final girl was invented as a way of getting girls into the theater. I documented the several types of final girls at one point. I think there were five types: 1. Saved by someone 2. Kills the killer (or temporarily stops the killing spree) 3. Escapes 4. Dies 5. Is the killer The first two are the traditional forms. The last two come about when films try to vary the formula.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Nov 10, 2017 8:15:28 GMT
I think girls were always seeing horror movies. I dont know if that really changed from previous decades. Vincent Price liked to tell the anecdote of sitting behind girls in a movie theater and then after his movie ended, he would lean forward and say: wasn't that scary?
The big change I see with the slasher film beyond the elimination of the male protector character, was the absence of a theatrical bad guy. In fact, Vincent Price made a film in 1974 called Madhouse where he is stalked by a masked killer who is like a cartoon version of his own movie villain character, Dr. Death. It is a giallo in a sense, but also a prototype slasher killer.
I mentioned in another thread that Sydney's father in SCREAM is inexplicably dumped in a closet while his arms and legs are tied up-but clearly this was done because the filmmaker/producers did not want the father to be helping his daughter (helping each other would have brought more closure IMO).
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Nov 13, 2017 9:49:08 GMT
This ISN'T my favorite horror film, BUT it IS my favorite slasher film. I don't know, or don't have a favorite. My second-favorite horror film is My Bloody Valentine (guess which version?).
I recently watched the Blu-ray. Lots of interesting tidbits from the commentary track. Although, the one thing I didn't like was the fact the the three commentators (John Carpenter, Debra Hill and Jamie Lee Curtis) recorded their parts separately (perhaps not in the same place or even the same time, year). It's MUCH MORE FUN when you have two or more people making comments for them to be together and talking between or among themselves. Having a discussion (a banter).
Three bits of trivia (NOT sure IF already mentioned, or not) are:
1. Dennis Quaid was originally wanted to play Bob. He was the real-life boyfriend at the time of the actress who played Bob's girlfriend.
2. Nick Castle ("The Shape") was TERRIFIED of the German Shepherd.
3. Haddonfield, Illinois is named for Haddonfield, New Jersey were Debra Hill grew-up.
4. Original title was The Babysitter Murders.
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