Halloween

Well with Halloween only 7 days away, I thought I would close this mostly Horror filled month with the movie that started the slasher genre. Halloween has had 8 movies, (one of which didn't have the titular killer but I'll get to that another time.), 2 in the Remake series, an atari game, various comics and a hell of a cult following.  I watched this movie about 4 years ago, I was told it wasn't worth the watch as there was nothing there, no blood, no gore, no reason for the killer to do what he does. I saw it for the first time, on Turner Classic Movies and met this 31 year old movie that had a dark, creepy, emotionally terrifying atmosphere and the darkest of soundtracks, the devil's soundtrack.  I spent two years trying to understand it and another two trying to keep it out of my nightmares, because I what I found behind those traits was purely and simply....scary.  I watched it once and I'll watch it again and try to find how real this could be.  I won't do the sequels and I will explain my reasons in my final thoughts. So anyone commenting, on them before reading the rest should keep their texting fingers shut and their eyes open.

Now the story goes like so.  Halloween Night 1963, in a peaceful town of Haddonfield Illinois was shattered, when 6 year old Michael Myers (No not that one, but he is equally scary.)  murdered his sister Judith in cold blood.  After being caught by his parents, he gets sent to a mental institution.  15 years later, Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael's psychologist at the time arrives at the institution to take Myers to a hearing.  The intention was to keep him locked up for life.  However as he arrives, Myers steals his car and makes his escape and return to Haddonfield.  Myers now dressed in a blue boiler suit and a white mask (a William Shatner Mask to be specific.) Stalks his old neighborhood on the anniversary of his murder.  One by one he kills the teens currently living down the street from the old Myer's house until Laurie Strode (Played by Jamie Lee Curtis.), who happens to be babysitting 2 kids at the time, is the last alive and it's a fight for survival.  At the same time, Loomis and Sheriff Brackett are in hot pursuit of Myers with the intention of putting him down for good.

Now for the fun part, Could It Exist In Real Life?

This one is a less supernatural one than my most work, but I can give it a go and since it's only thing I am defictionalizing, it's gonna be a short one.

Michael Myers can exist.  Once again I am not talking about the actor, though he is still equally scary.

For starters the person himself was based off a kid director John Carpenter encountered during a field trip. Said trip was in an institution in Kentucky.  This kid was described by Carpenter as having a "Schizophrenic Stare."  A trait that Myers possesses in the entirety of the movie franchise.  Even the shitty Rob Zombie flicks, knew if you wanted to successfully scare someone like Myers, you need the stare.

Now as for Myers himself as crazy as it seems everything that has happened to him, or what he's capable of in the first movie could happen in real life.  From his unnatural strength, to his shrugging off of near fatal or even fatal injuries.

Many Patients with psychotic disorders, specifically Schizophrenia, are capable of inhuman acts.  In fact studies have shown that during a psychotic break would cause a rush in adrenaline and endorphins.  This renders the patient to be able to use the well known Hysterical Strength and also reduces the pain receptors so even the most fatal of wounds wouldn't be able to put them down without a lot of effort.  Take those factors into account and you got the physical aspect of Michael Myers.

As for the mental aspect, that is debatable.  Loomis describes his mentality as "..no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong."  Now there are many disorders that can describe that, the most common being Antisocial Personality Disorder.  Sociopaths in layman's terms.  Now while it can be debated otherwise, it is pretty common to suffer from more than one mental disorder.  Combine what I mentioned in the physical aspect of Myers and you got yourself a hybrid between Psychopath and Sociopath.

Now for my final thoughts.  The reason I don't take the sequels into account are because they destroy Myers as a character. In the first movie, he had no motive, no reason to do what he did to his sister or to the teens and he doesn't get any satisfaction of killing that killers like Jason or Freddy would get. This in turn made him more scary, because it made him unpredictable.  When the second movie revealed his connection to Laurie as his sister, it made his stalking and killing more personal.  Ergo making him more human than what Loomis initially described.  As if that was bad enough, they gave him a half assed reason to why he never dies, some Celtic curse that requires him to kill his family to balance the universe. Seriously, that was fucking stupid.  H20 at least knew better than to sling that bullshit around.  To put it lightly, he was meant to be the Slasher movie genre's equivalent to Tara Markov and The Joker.  No stable motive, but still a great villain none the less.

As usual debate, argue and let me know what I missed.  Stay Tuned For More. Happy Halloween.