The Shape: Dissecting the Allure of Michael Myers
Ever since I first saw John Carpenter’s Halloween(1978), I have been fascinated by the film. My first time seeing it, I was 10 years old, and I stayed up late one school night past my bedtime to watch it. Safe to say, it frightened me. I would compare it to being plunged into a tornado. I’d seen other slasher films before, but never one that made a character seem like they were part of the atmosphere, not in such a way as Michael Myers was shown. As years have gone by, I wondered why he has stuck in the public conscious while some other horror icons don’t leave lasting impressions. His backstory is basic, he never speaks, and yet I find there’s more to say about him than the other popular villains like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees. That was the starting point of my research. I focused on the technical aspects of how Halloween was created and the many theories on what Michael Myers symbolizes. Without spoiling too much, I feel like my research has lead me towards a way to explore the character from a very different context. I plan to present the scenarios of the original film on Christmas Eve instead of Halloween. Not only to change atmospheric imagery, but also to delve more into the subtext of the evil demonic inhuman force some think Michael is. Countering this supernatural point is a more skeptical character who is struggling to understand why Michael, a human being, is somehow different from all the other cases of human violence he has witnessed. I see it almost as an investigative police procedural of sorts. A story about the evil that lurks underneath everyday America, and how that evil can appear when you least expect it.
Annotated Bibliography:
“The Good, the Bad, and Halloween: A Sociocultural Analysis of John Carpenter's Slasher” *
This article breaks down filmmaker and audience reactions to Halloween(1978). In particular, the focus is placed on what an audience can infer about Michael Myers based on the cultural preconception that mentally ill individuals are often treated as being dangerous by the general public. On the leap of faith audiences take in deciding whether Michael is human or not, author Jody Pennington writes,
...[The narrative offers no clues as to the etiology of Michael's mental illness or of his sudden urge to kill his sister. Indeed, it goes even further, though, and suggests that psychopathology, although present, is insufficient to explain Michael's rampage. An alternative, offered by Michael's psychiatrist, is that Michael is not just bad; he is evil.“
These lines of writing struck me as important because it implies that people can reach a certain point wherein they stop believing in reason or scientific structure. Instead, those people will tend to lean towards the unknown in how they explain certain events. For my short film, I see this concept as a very interesting counterpoint to Dr. Loomis, Michael’s caretaker. The idea of a man who is firmly rooted in a field of psychological study suddenly turning his work discoveries into “supernatural hocus pocus”, so to speak, is a really interesting new angle. I would like to explore that more in my version.
“The Boogeyman, Fear, and Responsibility – A Close Analysis of ‘Halloween’ (1978)”
In this editorial, Michael Myers’ “boogeyman” persona is portrayed as more of a cautionary tale. He’s a symbol who on Halloween night kills those who do not fear his presence as well as babysitters who disregard the responsibility of watching children. Author Brad Miska drives this point home in his final paragraph of the editorial,
Michael attacks those who do not possess both a healthy level of fear and responsibility. Every time Laurie believes Michael to be dead and herself safe, he rises again and attacks her. She effectively has to kill him three times before Loomis arrives and puts every bullet he has into Michael. Even then, once Loomis breathes his sigh of relief at the nightmare finally being over, Michael’s body vanishes. The children having gone to safety, Laurie embracing her fear, and proving she will do what is necessary to protect them, Michael is gone. The Boogeyman’s work is completed.”
Again, this is a theory that supports a motive behind Michael’s work. I like to think he operates
at random, with his purpose being obscured. That being said, this is an interesting point
which can tie Michael’s motivation into the night of which he operates. With my version being
set on Christmas Eve, I am left to wonder why he would choose that night. By choosing that
night, does his motivation or purpose change?
”The Horror of Enclosed Space & Background in Halloween(1978)”
The atmosphere of Halloween(1978) can be largely attributed to the use of framing, with
long takes and the spatial framing of where Michael Myers is placed in order to catch the
audience off guard. This article makes a stance on this being integral to why audiences remain on
edge. It comes down to the length of shots themselves, with longer shots tending to focus on the
geography of the Haddonfield homes, and shorter shots heightening the horror of sudden sharp
violence. Article writer Zac Hestand regards Halloween as a sort of action horror film to a certain
degree. On that statement, he further explains,
Halloween, like all movies, shows action in the foreground. We see middle or close-up shots of characters engaged in conversation and all seems well. However, what is that going on far away? The image is small, but as viewers, our attention shifts away from the action in the foreground to what is happening in the background or in the distance.”
This decision by John Carpenter to shoot Michael’s action movements primarily in the
background gives a mounting sense of dread. As the article mentions, the big pay-off moment in
the film is when Laurie Strode believes she has killed Michael, only for him to, in the
background, rise off the floor like a deadman and slowly charge towards her. For me, this is very
important to the character’s portrayal. In my short film, this aspect will be difficult to manage. I
need to keep an emphasis on Michael’s presence not being prominent in a scene, but also keep
an audience aware that he’s nearby. If I manage to replicate the mise-en-scene of the original
film, it could go a long way in making a more compelling story.
“Halloween and the Limits of Cinematic Meaning” *
In this academic piece, the argument being fought is whether the character of Michael
Myers needs to be explored or not. Perhaps a deeper exploration of the character can take away
what makes him so frightening to begin with. On the subject of others over-analyzing film to find
meaning, György Kálmar writes,
Obviously, this compulsive strive to explain, to know, to grasp, to reintegrate into the field of language, is an act of regulative power that misses the point (the punctum) of the image, for, as Shaviro rightly remarks (in one of his unintentionally psychoanalytical moments), “what is most important is what we are unable to acknowledge”(10).
Kálmar’s thoughts on the strive to explain the unexplainable served as a warning to me. I think this exact need to over-analyze and explain Michael is what made the sequels to Halloween(1978) lose their magic. The randomness to his madness and the idea that anything could be under the white mask is part of his power. To explain that or give a definitive answer seems foolish. The best I can try to do is give the audience questions to ponder. I don’t think any film necessarily needs to answer every question it brings up, what’s important is that those questions are engaging and spark conversation. I want to explore the character more, but only through the way others see him. How other people view you can say a lot about your public persona, and Michael Myers is no different.
“The Tao of Michael Myers- Or the Hidden Shapes of John Carpenter’s Halloween(1978)”
In this piece, three leads are given to guide fans on what Michael Myers is — a child stuck in an arrested development phase, the physical embodiment of Laurie Strode’s mind, or the physical embodiment of fate. Of the three, I prefer the fate component the most. John Kenneth Muir mentions a scene early on in the film where Laurie Strode sits in class and listens to her teacher discuss the topic of fate. Muir says,
The unseen instructor then asks Laurie about her reading assignment, and Laurie answers by making a distinction between two authors, Samuels and Costaine. She notes that "Costaine wrote that fate was only somehow related to religion, where Samuels felt that fate was like a natural element; like Earth, Air, Fire and Water." The teacher further notes that Laurie is correct, that Samuels definitely "personified" fate. "It [fate[ stands" where a "man passes away."
Muir continues by stating that Michael “stands where man passes away” due to his supposed invincibility. Much like Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, there is an ability to withstand damage and remain invincible. Where I thought I could bring that into my version is with the weather. If I get lucky, I may be able to utilize snow as a way to show that Michael has engulfed this world. The color white symbolizing his mask when contrasted with what audiences normally expect of snow and Christmas could be frightening. If Michael had gone on his spree during the night of a snowstorm, it makes him into a more elemental threat. He’s no longer human, instead he’s this true force of nature.
“The Story Behind the Original Halloween”
This piece breaks down the behind the scenes process that went into making the original film and the subsequent critical reception it received. Writer Jason Bailey expounds information on what helped to make Halloween stand apart from the other crop of ‘70s horror films. Bailey states, “Most horror movies were still hung up on supernatural scares of the Exorcist and Omen variety, yet here was a film that underscored the terrifying notion that anyone could be a victim, anywhere, anytime.” What separates Halloween is that for the most part, it is a grounded tale of a human being victimizing other human beings. The horror of humanity itself is on display, rather than possessive demons or rabid animals. This piece of research highlights that Michael Myers is a villain for the modern day suburban life. He is a tangible, human antagonist rather than something otherworldly. For audiences, it reminds them of the human capacity for evil actions. I think my version needs to address why Michael Myers would be so frightening in a world where acts of violence can unfortunately be an everyday occurrence.
Work Cited
Bailey, Jason. “The Story Behind the Original Halloween.” Vulture, Vulture, 15 Oct. 2018, www.vulture.com/2018/10/the-story-behind-the-original-halloween.html.
Hestand, Zac. “The Horror Of Enclosed Space & Background In HALLOWEEN (1978).” Film Inquiry, Film Inquiry, 13 Oct. 2017, www.filminquiry.com/horror-enclosed-background-halloween/.
Kalmár, György. “Halloween and the Limits of Cinematic Meaning.” Degruyter.com, 2014, www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/ausfm.2013.6.issue-1/ausfm-2014-0009/ausfm-2014-0009.pdf.
Miska, Brad. “The Boogeyman, Fear, and Responsibility – A Close Analysis of 'Halloween' (1978).” Bloody Disgusting!, 25 Oct. 2016, bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3411849/boogeyman-fear-responsibility-close-analysis-halloween-1978/.
Muir, John Kenneth. “John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV.” Cult-Movie Review: Friday the 13th (1980), Reflections on Film and Television, 28 June 2010, reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2009/10/tao-of-michael-myers-or-hidden-shapes.html.
Pennington, Jody. “The Good, the Bad, and Halloween: A Sociocultural Analysis of John Carpenter's Slasher.” Tobias Wolff's Short Story, "Bullet in the Brain", 2009, pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_28/section_2/artc6A.html
Ever since I first saw John Carpenter’s Halloween(1978), I have been fascinated by the film. My first time seeing it, I was 10 years old, and I stayed up late one school night past my bedtime to watch it. Safe to say, it frightened me. I would compare it to being plunged into a tornado. I’d seen other slasher films before, but never one that made a character seem like they were part of the atmosphere, not in such a way as Michael Myers was shown. As years have gone by, I wondered why he has stuck in the public conscious while some other horror icons don’t leave lasting impressions. His backstory is basic, he never speaks, and yet I find there’s more to say about him than the other popular villains like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees. That was the starting point of my research. I focused on the technical aspects of how Halloween was created and the many theories on what Michael Myers symbolizes. Without spoiling too much, I feel like my research has lead me towards a way to explore the character from a very different context. I plan to present the scenarios of the original film on Christmas Eve instead of Halloween. Not only to change atmospheric imagery, but also to delve more into the subtext of the evil demonic inhuman force some think Michael is. Countering this supernatural point is a more skeptical character who is struggling to understand why Michael, a human being, is somehow different from all the other cases of human violence he has witnessed. I see it almost as an investigative police procedural of sorts. A story about the evil that lurks underneath everyday America, and how that evil can appear when you least expect it.
Annotated Bibliography:
“The Good, the Bad, and Halloween: A Sociocultural Analysis of John Carpenter's Slasher” *
This article breaks down filmmaker and audience reactions to Halloween(1978). In particular, the focus is placed on what an audience can infer about Michael Myers based on the cultural preconception that mentally ill individuals are often treated as being dangerous by the general public. On the leap of faith audiences take in deciding whether Michael is human or not, author Jody Pennington writes,
...[The narrative offers no clues as to the etiology of Michael's mental illness or of his sudden urge to kill his sister. Indeed, it goes even further, though, and suggests that psychopathology, although present, is insufficient to explain Michael's rampage. An alternative, offered by Michael's psychiatrist, is that Michael is not just bad; he is evil.“
These lines of writing struck me as important because it implies that people can reach a certain point wherein they stop believing in reason or scientific structure. Instead, those people will tend to lean towards the unknown in how they explain certain events. For my short film, I see this concept as a very interesting counterpoint to Dr. Loomis, Michael’s caretaker. The idea of a man who is firmly rooted in a field of psychological study suddenly turning his work discoveries into “supernatural hocus pocus”, so to speak, is a really interesting new angle. I would like to explore that more in my version.
“The Boogeyman, Fear, and Responsibility – A Close Analysis of ‘Halloween’ (1978)”
In this editorial, Michael Myers’ “boogeyman” persona is portrayed as more of a cautionary tale. He’s a symbol who on Halloween night kills those who do not fear his presence as well as babysitters who disregard the responsibility of watching children. Author Brad Miska drives this point home in his final paragraph of the editorial,
Michael attacks those who do not possess both a healthy level of fear and responsibility. Every time Laurie believes Michael to be dead and herself safe, he rises again and attacks her. She effectively has to kill him three times before Loomis arrives and puts every bullet he has into Michael. Even then, once Loomis breathes his sigh of relief at the nightmare finally being over, Michael’s body vanishes. The children having gone to safety, Laurie embracing her fear, and proving she will do what is necessary to protect them, Michael is gone. The Boogeyman’s work is completed.”
Again, this is a theory that supports a motive behind Michael’s work. I like to think he operates
at random, with his purpose being obscured. That being said, this is an interesting point
which can tie Michael’s motivation into the night of which he operates. With my version being
set on Christmas Eve, I am left to wonder why he would choose that night. By choosing that
night, does his motivation or purpose change?
”The Horror of Enclosed Space & Background in Halloween(1978)”
The atmosphere of Halloween(1978) can be largely attributed to the use of framing, with
long takes and the spatial framing of where Michael Myers is placed in order to catch the
audience off guard. This article makes a stance on this being integral to why audiences remain on
edge. It comes down to the length of shots themselves, with longer shots tending to focus on the
geography of the Haddonfield homes, and shorter shots heightening the horror of sudden sharp
violence. Article writer Zac Hestand regards Halloween as a sort of action horror film to a certain
degree. On that statement, he further explains,
Halloween, like all movies, shows action in the foreground. We see middle or close-up shots of characters engaged in conversation and all seems well. However, what is that going on far away? The image is small, but as viewers, our attention shifts away from the action in the foreground to what is happening in the background or in the distance.”
This decision by John Carpenter to shoot Michael’s action movements primarily in the
background gives a mounting sense of dread. As the article mentions, the big pay-off moment in
the film is when Laurie Strode believes she has killed Michael, only for him to, in the
background, rise off the floor like a deadman and slowly charge towards her. For me, this is very
important to the character’s portrayal. In my short film, this aspect will be difficult to manage. I
need to keep an emphasis on Michael’s presence not being prominent in a scene, but also keep
an audience aware that he’s nearby. If I manage to replicate the mise-en-scene of the original
film, it could go a long way in making a more compelling story.
“Halloween and the Limits of Cinematic Meaning” *
In this academic piece, the argument being fought is whether the character of Michael
Myers needs to be explored or not. Perhaps a deeper exploration of the character can take away
what makes him so frightening to begin with. On the subject of others over-analyzing film to find
meaning, György Kálmar writes,
Obviously, this compulsive strive to explain, to know, to grasp, to reintegrate into the field of language, is an act of regulative power that misses the point (the punctum) of the image, for, as Shaviro rightly remarks (in one of his unintentionally psychoanalytical moments), “what is most important is what we are unable to acknowledge”(10).
Kálmar’s thoughts on the strive to explain the unexplainable served as a warning to me. I think this exact need to over-analyze and explain Michael is what made the sequels to Halloween(1978) lose their magic. The randomness to his madness and the idea that anything could be under the white mask is part of his power. To explain that or give a definitive answer seems foolish. The best I can try to do is give the audience questions to ponder. I don’t think any film necessarily needs to answer every question it brings up, what’s important is that those questions are engaging and spark conversation. I want to explore the character more, but only through the way others see him. How other people view you can say a lot about your public persona, and Michael Myers is no different.
“The Tao of Michael Myers- Or the Hidden Shapes of John Carpenter’s Halloween(1978)”
In this piece, three leads are given to guide fans on what Michael Myers is — a child stuck in an arrested development phase, the physical embodiment of Laurie Strode’s mind, or the physical embodiment of fate. Of the three, I prefer the fate component the most. John Kenneth Muir mentions a scene early on in the film where Laurie Strode sits in class and listens to her teacher discuss the topic of fate. Muir says,
The unseen instructor then asks Laurie about her reading assignment, and Laurie answers by making a distinction between two authors, Samuels and Costaine. She notes that "Costaine wrote that fate was only somehow related to religion, where Samuels felt that fate was like a natural element; like Earth, Air, Fire and Water." The teacher further notes that Laurie is correct, that Samuels definitely "personified" fate. "It [fate[ stands" where a "man passes away."
Muir continues by stating that Michael “stands where man passes away” due to his supposed invincibility. Much like Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, there is an ability to withstand damage and remain invincible. Where I thought I could bring that into my version is with the weather. If I get lucky, I may be able to utilize snow as a way to show that Michael has engulfed this world. The color white symbolizing his mask when contrasted with what audiences normally expect of snow and Christmas could be frightening. If Michael had gone on his spree during the night of a snowstorm, it makes him into a more elemental threat. He’s no longer human, instead he’s this true force of nature.
“The Story Behind the Original Halloween”
This piece breaks down the behind the scenes process that went into making the original film and the subsequent critical reception it received. Writer Jason Bailey expounds information on what helped to make Halloween stand apart from the other crop of ‘70s horror films. Bailey states, “Most horror movies were still hung up on supernatural scares of the Exorcist and Omen variety, yet here was a film that underscored the terrifying notion that anyone could be a victim, anywhere, anytime.” What separates Halloween is that for the most part, it is a grounded tale of a human being victimizing other human beings. The horror of humanity itself is on display, rather than possessive demons or rabid animals. This piece of research highlights that Michael Myers is a villain for the modern day suburban life. He is a tangible, human antagonist rather than something otherworldly. For audiences, it reminds them of the human capacity for evil actions. I think my version needs to address why Michael Myers would be so frightening in a world where acts of violence can unfortunately be an everyday occurrence.
Work Cited
Bailey, Jason. “The Story Behind the Original Halloween.” Vulture, Vulture, 15 Oct. 2018, www.vulture.com/2018/10/the-story-behind-the-original-halloween.html.
Hestand, Zac. “The Horror Of Enclosed Space & Background In HALLOWEEN (1978).” Film Inquiry, Film Inquiry, 13 Oct. 2017, www.filminquiry.com/horror-enclosed-background-halloween/.
Kalmár, György. “Halloween and the Limits of Cinematic Meaning.” Degruyter.com, 2014, www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/ausfm.2013.6.issue-1/ausfm-2014-0009/ausfm-2014-0009.pdf.
Miska, Brad. “The Boogeyman, Fear, and Responsibility – A Close Analysis of 'Halloween' (1978).” Bloody Disgusting!, 25 Oct. 2016, bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3411849/boogeyman-fear-responsibility-close-analysis-halloween-1978/.
Muir, John Kenneth. “John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV.” Cult-Movie Review: Friday the 13th (1980), Reflections on Film and Television, 28 June 2010, reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2009/10/tao-of-michael-myers-or-hidden-shapes.html.
Pennington, Jody. “The Good, the Bad, and Halloween: A Sociocultural Analysis of John Carpenter's Slasher.” Tobias Wolff's Short Story, "Bullet in the Brain", 2009, pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_28/section_2/artc6A.html