SPEAKER_02 0:04

Okay, that's your second Star Wars reference for the night.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

We're cutting you off.

SPEAKER_05 0:12

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. You want your mask? Come and get it. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've all gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac. Hola, muchachos, the gore lover Alexis, let him burn, let him burn, the cowardly creeper Ryan. Haya, and the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Hey sweets.

SPEAKER_05 0:53

We've all just returned to our homes after watching the latest entry in a storied franchise. Yes, the spooky season is finally here in my soul. But before we get down to business, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

We have another franchise to follow up on, which is Fear Street. We have taken our time strolling down this road and have finally reviewed part two. And amongst the team, it did receive mixed reviews. However, we wanted to hear from our listeners. The poll results are in, and only 20% of you gave it a hack while the other 80% slashed it.

SPEAKER_05 1:23

Because the movie was from 1978, and if you round up, that's 80, and life is pretty good. It's like the 80-20 rule. I guess that works, right? Yeah. It's hacker mad. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

We have an Instagram comment from Luis who said, Just discovered your podcast today. Can't wait to dive into this episode. I love all your energies and commentary.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Wow, welcome. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_05 1:43

We're very happy to have you.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Yeah, I just thought that was cute, so I threw it in there.

SPEAKER_05 1:47

It's fun because I think Luis actually just signed up to be a patron. I have to do some more investigating to confirm it's the same Luis, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Ooh. That is awesome. Welcome to the Shenana Games at Hackerslash.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Speaking of our patrons, we have a comment from Daniel who said, I'll start by saying the intensity with the combat from our final girl Ziggy versus the killer is something I don't ever find in 80 slashers. This movie is a camp slasher, but ramped up to a 100. With the intense kills, gore, and characters, Ziggy went through a long battle and it was deeply entertaining to watch. Usually our final girl runs, gets tackled, defeats the killer, and then the credits roll in other slasher films. 100% slash.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

I support that this was a slasher but on 10.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

We have another comment from Joseph who said, Hello there, hacker slash fam, long time no see. This movie for me is the easiest slash out of the trilogy. Call it my infinite love for the 80s camp slasher films, but this one was a gem. The sibling relationship and the ultimate demise of one of them was hard to watch. I agree with Alexis and Chris that I'd like to think in my last moments watching my sister suffer my same fate, I would want to say one last thing to her. It was beautifully heartbreaking and tragic.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

I'm glad someone else can relate to Chris and I because I think I'm even tearing up right now, just you know, listening to that.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

We're just out here feeling our feelings, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

It is. I'm a little bit more emotional lately somehow. I feel nothing.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

I would also like to acknowledge that in Joseph's comment, he mentioned that the song Don't Fear the Reaper was featured in Halloween before it was featured in Scream, which is where I know it from. As we all know, I am famously a stupid bitch with no historical reference at all. Uh so this tracks for me.

SPEAKER_05 3:19

Yeah, I was kicking myself because there was a comment that I didn't really hear when we were actually recording the call. And as I was editing the episode, I put in our group chat, I can't believe I didn't hear this and acknowledge this. Why didn't I say anything?

SPEAKER_04 3:31

After you said that and I listened to it, I was like, wow, I can really talk with such confidence when I have no idea what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_05 3:37

You're just very confidently wrong many times. Loud and wrong.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

Finally, as part of our new blood drive, we'd like to welcome two new patrons to the family, Kylie and Taylor. Thank you so much for your support. If you stick around with us, you will be receiving our fourth anniversary poster, so stay tuned. And that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_05 3:54

Well, while the Nightwing killer was tearing up shady side campers in 1978, one masked icon, known as the Shape, was prowling the streets of Haddonfield, stalking one Lori Strode. Forty years later, audiences retreated to the shape roaming Haddonfield once more as he showed down with three generations of Strode women. When last we visited this franchise, Michael Myers was trashed in Lori's basement as flames engulfed the home. Tonight, though, we pick up right where we left off in 2018. Because this week we're talking about Halloween Kills. Now what were you all expecting going into this?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

I definitely wasn't expecting it to be a continuation from the first one. I hadn't seen any trailers, believe it or not, so I really just thought it was going to be another showdown with Lori and, you know, her daughter and granddaughter, and somehow a continuation, but maybe later on per se.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

I too refused to watch trailers, but I did see the beginning of, of course, of w of of at least one of them, and knew it would be a continuation. I was basically expecting kind of what we got with 2018, which is slasher but modern and intense.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

I don't know where I got this, but my understanding going into this was that this was going to be like a bunch of flashbacks and basically like a kill montage type of movie. And I don't know where I heard that from, but I was nodding it uh but I was not expecting it to be a continuation of 2018 in the way that it was.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

That's like Michael Myers' YouTube channel, just Halloween kills.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Yeah, that's exactly what I was expecting. Just like all different kills that they're sprinkling throughout the franchise across the ages.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Greatest hits. I guess his highlight channel.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

And also some deep cuts. It's all deep cuts. But um similar to Ryan, I was expecting this to be a solid continuation literally like the same night, very Friday the 13th of them. I gotta appreciate that. I love when a movie picks up exactly where the previous movie left off. Y'all really expected that?

SPEAKER_02 5:51

I mean, literally the trailer is the man's walking out of the house that was previously set on fire.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Didn't see a trailer, maybe that's where I went wrong. Because when when they did that, I was like, oh what?

SPEAKER_00 6:01

I was shocked. See, I think it's because Chris told me, like going into the movie. I think we've discussed this during previous recordings.

SPEAKER_05 6:08

Have we though?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Maybe somebody told me. Somebody told me that this is what was gonna happen, okay? Is that it was gonna take place like the same night as the previous movie.

SPEAKER_05 6:15

I don't know. I usually try to not influence I think it was the trailer.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Like it there was a very specific part of like five seconds of the trailer that I watched, was that it's clearly a continuation.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Well, either way, I think it was clear to me that that was what was going to happen, but I was also expecting it to be one of the bloodiest Halloween movies ever.

SPEAKER_05 6:35

For sure. This movie was lauded and really hyped up to be a complete gore fest. It's like Michael Myers on 30, is at least what I heard about it going into it. I knew this was going to be a continuation. I cannot help myself but to see the trailers for these things. Most things I'll kind of avoid. Uh like Star Wars, I'll watch a trailer, let it hype me up, and then just kind of like fuzz my eyes a little bit so I can't see too many details. And this trailer in particular stood out to me because you can see so many people who die, but I was like, man, if that's what they're comfortable showing, imagine what they're not comfortable showing. And I walked into this with this, like, I think um underlying fear that maybe it turns out it did ruin too much. But I can confidently say there was a lot to enjoy in this movie that wasn't part of the trailer. I expected to love this movie, absolutely, but I think I I gave my heart room to love it for doing its own thing because Lori's story felt so personal to me in 2018. This idea of suffering with PTSD and this paranoia and how that influences not only you but your family and all those around you, that felt really personal and deep. And I felt like that movie did such a great job of tackling that subject matter. I was okay knowing that it would take a different direction. So I was really expecting it to be okay, 2018 is what you got if you're like a really old school fan of the classic film, but now we're gonna do something a little bit different. And I walked into it with an open mind, and I will say that even with that open mind, I was blown away by how entertained I was the entire time.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

I think several of you have mentioned the idea that things have been ramped up, and that's what it felt like while watching us. Like this is Michael Myers, like we've never seen him before. This is a Halloween unlike others. Like, sure, there's there's elements of other movies brought into this one, and I gotta appreciate it for that. But this is not a Halloween movie I've ever seen. This is like somebody drank a bang and then started writing the script. That's that's what this seemed like.

SPEAKER_05 8:43

It's funny because the other really gory sequel, Halloween 2, from 1981, that was John Carpenter dreaming a six-pack of beer and writing the script. So two very different feels.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

This movie definitely was amped up, and at some points in the movie it felt like there was a churn, Chris. Like it wasn't the one from 2018, and I guess I was kind of craving that sort of interaction, and I'm excited to talk about it more in the second half, but it just left me in a very curious place. But I don't know if it was a good curious, it was kind of like I know where they're going, I know this is what they want to explore, but I just I like the old stuff. I I like I don't like it all ramped up, so it it is just a very interesting perspective because I was like, okay, either keep killing or don't.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

I mean, you are the gore lover, so I'm a I'm a bit thrown off by that comment.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

This isn't a gory guy. But it the movie's called Halloween Kills, babe. I know, and I knew I was expecting kills, but not this many. I guess we'll talk about in the gore section. I don't want to ruin anything.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Well, it's okay. You one, don't have to please Chris while you're here, okay? You can be honest about this movie. We're all here to try to just try to live up to our expectations. But for me, I had a lot of feelings of like intrigue that I didn't expect in the middle of a slasher. There's some places that the story goes that were super unexpected for me. And I I think they worked really, really well. And honestly, as it was happening, and of course we'll talk more about this, but I was just kind of sitting back, like, oh, this is this is a great move. And I wasn't expecting that, right? You're just kind of expecting Michael Myers roaming around killing folk, and uh it didn't it didn't necessarily go that way, and it was enjoyable, even though obviously he he do be killing folk in this movie, so don't don't get me wrong, there are lots of kills, but there's some other things that happen which I I think were really enjoyable here.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Yeah, Ryan, it definitely did go that way, but it also went a couple other ways simultaneously.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

He's bisexual?

SPEAKER_04 10:50

I mean, I have questions that we'll talk about in the second half. I have questions for Chris.

SPEAKER_05 10:54

He's famously a pillow princess. Michael Myers? There's theory of it.

SPEAKER_04 10:58

And I think those theories are strengthened.

SPEAKER_05 11:01

Not that I subscribe to it, but someone I met online once said that people have fantasies about him and they say that he's a pillow princess. And I'm like, that's a weird thing, I don't want to know. So there's a one-person theory about it. Oh, that one friend, that one person and all their friends.

SPEAKER_04 11:15

But Chris, earlier you mentioned that you were prepared to let this movie like do its own thing, and it did. But I feel like this movie did Halloween too in a lot of ways. And I was like, oh, they're doing Halloween 2. I get the reference, I get it, cool.

SPEAKER_05 11:30

It absolutely did Halloween 2, and it did a lot of other Halloween movies as well. It also did quite a bit of Halloween 4 in so many different ways. I think what I mean, Paris, about doing its own thing is I expected it to be less about Lori's struggle with her mental health and her survival, and more on taking a different tone, like right, like this movie deals a lot with like mob mentality and mob violence, and I was I was prepared to let that be the focus as opposed to it being so focused on the strode women.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

This tone is kind of what I was talking about earlier. I don't think I knew what was going on until after it happened. So I was like, what tone are they trying to portray? And I think that's what surprised me because I wasn't expecting that per se. I thought it was going to be like they typically are about Lori or about Michael and their connection, as opposed to something outside of that.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Talk about tone. The thing that surprised me the most was how open they were to adding in comedy. But not just comedy for a moment, but like comedic characters that they actually develop on screen for quite a period of time. And that was really shocking, honestly, because when we're watching it's like these are actually one interesting characters that I kind of want to keep watching, but two, a good amount of time spent on them. You get to know them a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 12:54

Oh, I'd agree. I think one of the things, and I don't know if these are the the folks that you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:59

We see them in Halloween 2018, and I expected them to be parents of a certain character in that movie, and turns out they're not at all, and that was a huge surprise to me. But it the the comedy in this felt different than in even the 2018 version. It felt like that one is a lot more in your face with its comedy versus this being, oh, that's kind of funny. In some ways, it's also not funny, but it felt like more subversive comedy.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yeah, there was a at least one significant comedic moment that wasn't the kind of moment that you feel like a laugh track would go behind, right? But everyone in the audience laughed with it, even though it wasn't a funny thing. It it was an interesting approach. I I would say the comedic characters are an interesting choice in this movie. They definitely do something. For me, my biggest surprise was with the direction that our story went and how Lori played into everything. I wasn't expecting that at all. And I think it's what needed to happen since we just had Lori's movie, right? Like Lori had her movie. Something else had to happen this time.

SPEAKER_05 14:07

It's very Force Awakens goes into The Last Jedi and then into the Rise of Skywalker. Like the torch passes. Okay, that's your second Star Wars reference for the night.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

We're cutting you off.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

They might keep coming. They might keep coming. We we don't know. But Lori's role in this whole thing is a really interesting one to consider, especially when you think about what comments existed about Lori's role in the original Halloween 2. Okay, this movie. I know I've talked about this in other movies. I think even the Halloween 2018 episode about how this franchise and its approach to its sequels is very like poetic in that it rhymes with its previous versions, and this one is just another example of that.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

I gotta say, I'm super surprised to hear that we think that this movie was less comedic than 2018. I feel like when they turned up that dial, the comedy went with it, and there were so many times where like the comedy was over the top, the character reactions were over the top, and that added to like the heightened experience that like paralleled the gore in a big way. And I actually really liked that part. I laughed a lot during this movie. There wasn't just like one or two moments, like there were a lot of moments where I was like, this is funny. They're they're actually kind of nailing the comedy in this.

SPEAKER_05 15:19

I think just none of it will make me laugh as much as Julian made me laugh in Halloween 2018. And I just watched for the record, right before this, I watched the 1978 Halloween, and then I watched the 2018 Halloween, and then I got in my car and went to the theater to watch Halloween Kills. So I think I was just maybe laughed out a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

I think what it is, it's a different type of comedy. I think a lot of times you get like funny little one-liners or something, and in this one it's like the entire setup of a scene w was really funny. You know, the back and forth between characters got funnier because you got to see it like pay off with a punchline almost. And I think in previous ones you just get like quips, and this was not quips, this was like well-developed comedy that pays off like an act.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Yeah, it was like long-form comedy with several many punchlines throughout.

SPEAKER_05 16:05

I think another thing that surprised me was how much time we spent in the past. And I won't dive too deeply in I won't dive too deeply into that, but I will say that it's apparent in the trailers. If you've watched the trailer, you know what I'm talking about. But that's also where one of my only disappointments comes from. And it was a really hard thing for me to grapple with. And the moment I saw it, I'm like, yeah, and the moment I heard it, I was like, and then I you keep seeing it, and then you keep hearing it, and you're like, why? Why did we do this this hard? Like, why do we go so far? We'll we'll unpack that in the second half. But my my one of my shining moments of this movie was also one of its pitfalls, which was disappointing.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yeah, I'm excited to explore that more just because I have some thoughts on that too.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

What's interesting though for me is I feel like while watching this, because it is amped up, you don't necessarily fear the boogeyman, but you do almost wince a lot when the boogeyman shows up on screen and takes somebody out. There was a lot of wincing, a lot of looking away. My wife was like covering her eyes during several sections of the movie because the kills are so gruesome. Like, you're not even worried about Michael because Michael don't care. Michael just walks, but you're mostly worried about like, I don't want to look at what he's about to do to somebody.

SPEAKER_05 17:24

I don't think I've reacted or emoted so much to kills since watching Terrifier.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Uh, you definitely did because I kept looking over. I wasn't even paying attention. I'm like, oh, this is happening. And then I look over at you and I'm like, oh, I love this reaction from Chris.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

And I'm just like, fuck. There was a moment where I was like, is Chris gonna throw up? Is everything gonna be okay over here? There was an intense one where it was like, is everyone in the theater gonna be alright after that?

SPEAKER_05 17:49

Oh yeah, yeah. Okay, got it. Mm-hmm. That was rough. Yeah, it was a rough one.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah, I think there are a lot of times where you are grimacing and you are wincing at certain things. But I think because you see Michael a lot more in this movie, his menacing sort of prerogative that he gives off is a little taken back in this movie. So I'm not as frightful as I normally would be of him.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

I mean, I think I've never really been afraid of Michael because he's such a visible shape.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Yeah, you see him and then He just doesn't he doesn't spook me. Um that balding head spooked me a little, but you know. I think they did that really well, but uh it's yeah, I think it's scary in a sense of like if someone's in your house, but this is I don't know, for whatever reason, Michael Myers has just never really stuck with me as like a scary character. But the wincing, very real.

SPEAKER_05 18:46

It's interesting because Michael Myers, I've mentioned in the past, is one of the only horror like slasher icons to have ever appeared in a dream for me, like it appeared in a nightmare situation. I wouldn't say he's necessarily terribly frightening, but I think it's the closest we come to him being as scary as he was in the original. Again, if you watch the original now for the first time, you're not gonna be scared of him, but it's how he looms in the background. We got a little bit of that in the 2018 version, absolutely. But in this one, it's almost like we talked about in a mo in a recent episode, we talked about like you know what defines horror for you, and I think I quoted a book that says terror is the promise of pain and horror is the pain and the promise fulfilled. And this movie is that fulfilled, and I think that makes him more menacing to me, having seen this. This absolutely kicks up all the gore and violence that was washed away when the rest of the canon was altered again.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

So I'm not sure what your theater was like, but the theater I was in was like very team Michael Myers because after nearly every kill, there was cheers, there was applause, there was joy and laughter, and I was like, okay, y'all a little sick in this room. Okay, I see you. But I feel like this Michael wasn't particularly scary to me, especially because there's a couple scenes with some real wide shots in group settings where I was like, uh, you're kind of losing me.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Michael very classically is like rooted for, even though he never does anything good. The only thing he does good is every once in a while not kill someone that shouldn't be killed, but for some reason we just be rooting for him all the time. It's your boy, Michael.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

I I'm always rooting for him, and at certain points in this movie I did feel actually bad.

SPEAKER_05 20:36

It's my boy Mike. I I will say though, I was one of those people cheering because we finally got one or two kills, actually three kills, towards the later parts of the movie where I was like, yes, finally, thank you. Just end it now, just take me. But I I do think the cheering for Michael is a very real thing. And I don't feel bad cheering for Michael. Uh I I I think people could not feel bad cheering for Jason, right? Misunderstood kid was picked on. But I mean, Ryan's the only person who can cheer for Freddie, and I don't judge her.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

That's right. I cheer for Freddie, you cheer for Mike, we're good to go. No one should cheer for Jason. That's lame.

SPEAKER_05 21:15

He's just so sad, he just can't swim.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

I think what it is in in this film specifically is like you have to think about Michael Myers as an animal. It's like he's he's a hunter, right? He's a he's a predatory animal. And so in some movies, he gets to play like the one that's hiding back and taking his time and eyeballing and making plans and popping up in in the middle of a shadow and just taking you out. But in this one, he's just so much more visible. It's like a wild animal is loose in a town and now everybody's aware of it. So it's like a different, a different vibe for the kills, where it's like a wild cat or something is just like not attacking necessarily out of defense, but just out of like pure panic and chaos at this point.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

I truly do think Mike got out of jail, he's roaming around. The town, and he's just like, Man, why these strode women keep following me around trying to kill me? I don't know what the deal is here. Like they're obsessed with me. That is what it feels like. They're just breathing down my neck, always nagging.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Just always sh popping up in different houses. I get what you're saying. It does seem like he's just trying to chill and hang out, and people just keep getting in his way.

SPEAKER_05 22:21

Honestly, he's me. And people keep inviting me out to places, and I'm like, bro, I just want to chill. Let me do my thing. I'm quite fine right here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

If you say no enough, no one will invite you, I've learned. It's great. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Love to know that. Just keep saying no. It might take a year, but it'll work. I think he's you if you said no, but then the people just show up to your house anyway.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

This movie, though, is a different Michael Myers than I've seen, or that I can recall from other movies. And this movie also, like we mentioned, has a different tone. And to me, it's something that I haven't seen in the Halloween movies because they've been stuck on a certain theme throughout all of them. So I think this is original for what I've seen from Halloween.

SPEAKER_05 23:04

I mean, I just gotta say something real quick. All the other Halloween movies have different themes even within themselves, even when they're part of the same trilogy, they st they still do something fucking different. It's weird. Halloween is a weird, hot mess of a franchise, and I love every bit of it. This, I will agree with you though, it does something different, and it's timely in the sense of in 2018 we're taking on something that is deeply personal, and this I think addresses something that we all complain about but never really look too closely at, and it's something that you will see pop up in other movies, like we've seen this whole thing in Halloween 4 to a smaller degree, but I think it what it does at its best is take the pieces from other Halloween movies that have worked and then morph it into its own gigantic thing that gives you something completely awful to look at and you don't always enjoy, but that's the point of it.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

While I generally agree, I have a bit of a different approach. I think this movie is a three-layer chocolate cake, and some of the other Halloween before have just been like a single layer like sheep pancake. Not to demote them at all. This is just same, same, but different, and in a good way. Like I I don't know that it's gonna get like, oh my god, this is the most original thing I've ever seen, but like it does things differently, but it's the same. It does the same thing differently.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

I feel like it's kind of like you made a sculpture out of Legos when you were four, and then in your mid-30s, you took all of those Lego pieces and redid it, and now it looks like high definition almost in comparison, where you're like, I use the same Lego bricks, but the picture is a completely different looking thing. So it's like they use the same palette, they painted Michael Myers using some of the same and you know the same colors and things, but they did it in a different way that feels more refreshed and feels more like you know the time in which it's made, obviously, because it's been a bazillion years since they originally did it. Because it's like you could sit there and pull out so many elephant. You could sit there and pull out so many elements from previous films and say, like, ooh, they tied back to three, they tied back to four, they tied back to two, they tied back to five. Uh, but it's not two, three, four, or five. It's Halloween kills. It's its own thing, and it's 40 years later, and it's it's different enough to, I think, feel original while still tying back to everything in a reasonable way that's not like playing too much to the fans.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

I'm not gonna lie, I don't have a lot of originality points to give this movie. It very much felt like Halloween 2 and Halloween 4 combined, but with a more memorable cast of characters and more memorable kills. Uh, you will say some of the kills I think were the most original elements, and there are a couple things narratively that were a little bit interesting that I wasn't expecting, but overall this movie did not feel particularly original.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

But it had one hell of an ending. I think we can say that. Now, whether that's good or bad, I don't know, that's up to you, but I think it's one hell of an ending.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

Oh, it certainly goes to a line and then crosses that line just to prove a point, and I'm not mad at it.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

This is where I'm gonna reference y'all when I don't know what you guys are talking about. When you talk about the end end and the end, I wouldn't necessarily say I liked the end, but I like the end end.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

So you like the final scene?

SPEAKER_01 26:22

I like the final scene where you leave off because it's always something I like in horror movies that they don't typically do. But rewind some characters' actions, I was confused because as history portrays itself, I'm just not sure how this all works out. Without giving too many spoilers, I think that was a great explanation.

SPEAKER_05 26:44

Yeah, I I I know exactly what you're talking about and I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

I think I'm I'm cool with the ending. I really wish I hadn't known there's planned to be another movie coming because it really changed the experience of the ending for me. If I had not known that and thought that what was happening was happening, I think I would have been like kind of blown away. But it's pretty good, I'd say. I'm not in love, but I'm not mad.

SPEAKER_04 27:11

Wait, Ryan, I didn't even realize I would have felt that as well had I not known that there would be a third movie. I feel like the scene you're talking about would have been a lot more impactful without that information.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

I blame Chris.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

Now that I'm reflecting. But there are elements of the end that I did really enjoy, but I think the big climactic scene I was underwhelmed by.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

There is a big scene, and I get it. And when it happened, I know everyone's sitting here thinking, like, alright, we know we have another movie to get to after this is wrapped up. But I legit, when we got to the scene, I sat there and thought to myself, they juked us, man. They pulled a fast one on us, and everything's a lie, and this turns everything on its head, and they're just gonna like pull a pull a fast one and just dip at the last second.

SPEAKER_05 27:54

Part of me did wonder if that was a direction that they were gonna go. And then I thought, no, no, they like they like this franchise way too much to do that. Well, I know the ending may have been sour griefs for some, but let's see if that translates into the ratings now before we get there. Obviously, with a movie like Halloween Kills, there's hopefully a high body count here.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Alexis, how many people died? We have a total of 32 bodies, and I will put a little note next to that. Um, there are some scenes where things get chaotic, and as much as I try to be that and as much as I tried not to be that person that pulled out their phone, I really was. So hopefully my kill count's pretty good this week.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

It may not be perfectly accurate, but I would say it's at least that number.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Definitely at least, if not plus or minus four. Oh, plus four.

SPEAKER_05 28:43

So do you recall a few movies ago when we were talking about it? That's the highest body count ever for a slasher. And I was like, but wait, because Halloween kills.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

I knew you said that, but I was like, it's still Michael Myers. He didn't he kills, but he walks a lot.

SPEAKER_05 29:01

That's how they get you efficiency. They don't have to burn all that other energy energy running, so they can just really thrust.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Yeah, somehow they get slower. But how about the animal report? Yeah, this week's animal report is accurate but unfortunate. So not the worst thing you could see on screen, but it's not great.

SPEAKER_05 29:19

I don't agree with that. That's a that's a fair assessment, but let's go ahead and get into the ratings and Halloween kills from 2021, now in theaters and streaming on Peacock. Was it Hacker Slash?

SPEAKER_01 29:29

So I'll make this short and sweet. It's a different Michael Myers, it's something I'm not used to. I like the original Michael, who's very ominous. You see him, you don't. In this one, you do get a lot of him, but you also get a lot of other people and the masses. And I don't know if I was necessarily a fan of that, but I do like the way that they took that approach. And although it's not my cup of tea, I still like Michael Myers, and I still love the gore in this movie, and I was very pleasantly surprised by it, and this is definitely getting a slash.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Well, the first thing I want to say is don't watch this movie on Peacock. Go see it in a theater. And if you can, go see it Dolby because you guys know how I feel. Everything's great in Dolby. With that being said, Alexis, you're right. This is uh a different Halloween movie, but for me, I don't think this is a different Michael Myers. We just see him a little bit more. I think this movie's made for people who love Halloween. Like there are things that pop up on screen, and Chris is sitting next to me, and I can hear her get excited about how accurate and detailed things are. And that's exactly what it should be at this era, right? We've had enough Halloween movies that are doing their own thing. I haven't seen most of them. I'm just talking. But from what I understand, they just do stuff, right? And we don't need any more of that. What we need more of is like the genuine, authentic, coming from the right kind of place, Halloween. And that's what this is. This is a continuation, and it's kind of a love letter to the Halloween's past. And I don't love everything about it, particularly a lot of these characters really, really don't work for me. I like what they did with all the characters in a sense of where the plot was going and how they intertwine the stories. But some of the acting here really didn't do it for me. Even in Dolby didn't do it for me. Maybe it was worse in Dolby. Maybe the laughter was under my butt, and that's what really soured it. But otherwise, honestly, there isn't a lot bad that I can say about this. This is a slasher made in 2021. It is that exactly, and honestly, I think that's pretty hard to do. Like, how often do we get slashers these days? And how more importantly, how often do we get good slashers these days?

SPEAKER_05 31:46

That's true. We are in the midst of a slasher resurgence with Halloween kills in theaters, the Chucky and uh the Chucky TV series now streaming. And we also have Scream coming out in January in just a couple months, and I know what you did last summer on Amazon, so things are really coming back.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Well, we'll see how Scream goes and Ghost's face. That will be exciting. But Halloween Kills is a slash. I don't really know what someone could hate about this unless they don't like anything that Halloween has ever done. But even then, I th still think you'd enjoy the movie. It's a little, it's a little gory. That could be a line for some people, but if it's not a line for Chris, it shouldn't be a line for you. So go see it. It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Okay, I'm here to put my hack right in the middle of all the slashes so as to hopefully fly mostly under the radar. Um, I considered taking the slash of least resistance to avoid conflict, but I was like, you know what? I can't do it. I didn't hate this movie by any means. I loved the gore and I loved like the Michael stuff, but this movie did so much stuff that wasn't Michael, and it was all these other people, and it got so chaotic. And like there were times where I was like, I felt like they lost control. I felt like the directors or the writers or the crew, I felt like they lost control of the story, and as a result, they lost me. There were a couple Michael things where I was like, no, no, no. They asked a lot of me as a viewer when it came to suspending disbelief, and it got to a point where my boyfriend and I were just like laughing our asses off at the end. It was enjoyable in Dolby. It was a mostly fun ride, and the there was like a party of people to the right of me that were, I think, meeting for the first time and had like some sort of like we're a Michael Myers fan club Halloween movie night meetup because they like one of them was saving the seats and like they kept introducing themselves as they showed up, and I was like, I don't know what their story is, but they loved the shit out of this movie, and I could tell that there were a lot of like fan service moments that I wasn't getting, and because they were reacting to it, and I was like, Oh, that must be something. And meanwhile, my boyfriend and I were just kind of like, I mean, okay, sure. Uh so I think maybe I'm not really the target demographic for this movie. It didn't do for me what 2018 Halloween did for me. Um, I'd say go see it for the kills, because there's a lot of really good ones. And also, Kyle Richards was the thing I was most excited about in this movie, and somewhat of a disappointment, I'll say. So I am giving Halloween Kills a hack.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Cool. Gives me something easy to follow up on then, because this movie is an obvious slash in my book. It's a very different film, like you mentioned, from the 2018. It's very different, it's very different from the 1978. I think you made some good points about it, pointing back to Halloween 2 and Halloween 4 and other Halloween movies, even Halloween 3 in reality. But um, I I thought those were those were great parts of it. I think the things that were different were were surprising, but I don't feel that they impacted it so negatively that I would think that it's a uh joke or a total waste of time. I I think it's I think it's good. I don't know how we're gonna follow this up. I don't know how Halloween Ends is going to wrap things up, and I can't wait to see because I want to see like somebody make a supercut where it's just like from the you know from Halloween all the way through Halloween ends with no breaks because I will sit there for six hours and do it because the story they're telling so far is it's rather enjoyable. I think in 2018 we got this like nice refamiliarization with the characters. Where have they been for 40 years? What's happened? How have they changed? And in this one, we're seeing what happens when you turn the heat up, what happens when you turn the pressure up on the pressure cooker? How are they going to react? And it's it's batshit, and I think it's it's batshit for good reasons. Yeah, some of the characters that they chose to highlight seemed like some strange choices. Um, I think they made some decisions that were just more for entertainment value than really adding to the plot necessarily, but that's just adding to entertainment value, and I found it entertaining at the same time. So nothing nothing wrong with that. So it's not a perfect movie, but it's a great movie. I think it's worth a watch. I think you should definitely spend the $22 to see it in Adolby Theater if you can, and if you can't, spend the $15 like to see it in a normal theater or spend the eight bucks to see it uh in a matinee. Whatever it takes, like go see it in the theater, and I think it's a lot of fun. I especially think it's great if you do what Chris did. Watch the 78, watch the 2018, and then go ahead and watch this one. And I think you'll have just like a really great time. Maybe carve some pumpkins afterwards. That would be like a great way to wrap everything up.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Set them on fire.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Don't set them on fire.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

I mean, you have to, or melt them.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Well, I think that's a dangerous thing to ask of people because what if they set their curtains on fire? It's just not good. But I think it's I I think it's a slash for me.

SPEAKER_05 36:15

Have you all seen the show Chopped? Yeah, yes, favorite network show. Yeah, the food network show. Yes. So Chopped poses this challenge of taking all these ingredients of things and you get an assignment and you have to make something out of all this stuff. And I think when the production team behind this reapproach to the front franchise, right? When Blumhouse reapproached doing Halloween, they had a whole mess of stuff. They had some really dried out, expired ingredients from some movies in this franchise. They had a really good cut of quality meat to work with from the original film. And they had to make some hard choices to see, okay, what are we gonna put together that's going to be new, fresh, inventive, and still delightful. And I think for some people, the final dish that they came up with might not be that great. But for me as a Halloween fan, this movie did everything that I wanted it to do, and then more, because it did enough differently to reach beyond my personal preferences for horror movies to bring in more of a modern audience, more of folks who would watch the original Halloween and hack it, right? Because it's too slow, like Paris. But I think what it comes down to ultimately is this movie really paid a lot of reverence to the original, and it got the small, tiny little details right, and it did enough to create this impression of Michael Myers being evil personified, and we see the chaos from the end of 2018, we know that in this timeline he's just a man, and we see how this man wreaks havoc on a whole town, and what are the consequences of that? Can this movie humanize Michael Myers in a sense? Because he's not an undead Jason Voorhees, and so what this did for me was make Michael Myers even more frightening because he really is more human, but not so human that he's Rob Zombies, Michael Myers putting on a hoodie, demasking, and walking around talking. That's too human. This movie is filled with a ton of gore, filled with incredible kills. I winced so much, I laughed so much, I cheered some kills so much, and even then it's not perfect. There are some flaws here. I think for me, if I had to rate on a scale of 10, Halloween 2018 would be a 10, and this movie would be less than that. I think I enjoyed Halloween a little bit more, but it was incredibly satisfying as a fan of the original, and I can tell you that I will absolutely be streaming it on Peacock several more times this month, and I'm so excited for it. Now, with that, Halloween Kills from 2021 has run four slashes and one hack. Now you can find it in theaters. That is the preferred experience. Once you've seen it there, feel free to check it out on Peacock, and then join us in the second half so we can unpack this bloodbath together. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

It's uh holy shit gory. Yeah. It is, and it's uh it's a different one, and I know we talked about this before, so I'm interested to know, do you guys like a gory or Michael? Because I don't.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

I like this gory Michael because it's still very classic in terms of like what he does. He does a lot of stabbing, he does a lot of poking, he does a lot of neck snapping and things like that, but there's like past Halloween movies like in Halloween six and Halloween and Halloween 2 that Rob Zombie did. It was gory and like sure, pound for pound they may be similar, but it just felt worse. This felt like oh fuck, but still okay, though I believe it.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

Yeah, I think there was a good rhythm between full-on scenes and then some that are just killed off-screen, especially the couple in the house that he used to live in. You see a full-on kill and then you kind of see a stab, something very off-screen though.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

I think the gore for me is okay. I wouldn't say I love it. I feel like he pushed some of the kills a little bit more than I've seen before from Michael. And then there's a lot of like staging that stood out to me. Chris said it's kind of like always been around. I don't know. For some reason, the staging really stood out in this movie for me.

SPEAKER_05 41:32

Yeah, it did seem like something he typically did. He's very much uh he has a flair for the dramatic. He posed the bodies. Don't you remember Annie's body in the original Halloween spread out on the bed with his sister's tombstone? Yeah, I guess he is dramatic. Honestly, maybe the posing just doesn't ever work for me for Mike. Maybe. He's done it like since the very beginning. And then there's even in Halloween 2, Nurse Alves, Mrs. Alves, who's like blood is dripping uh on the floor that Jimmy like slips on and gets concussed. Then there's Dr. Mixter, who's like chilling in his chair in front of a, you know, in a dark room in front of an aquarium with just a needle in his eye. He's got a flair. He's got flair. True. Good point. Also steals a child's coffin for his niece in a later movie. So the man just doesn't have boundaries.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

I think the the gore in this one is is very different, like you mentioned. It is it is like insanely high. But we get a different Michael here because we get Michael unleashed in a way. Like Michael is versus this entire town now and just like completely lets loose after 40 years. And I think what you see is just brute strength. And I think a lot of times he has to use cunning, so it's a bit more stealthy, and we get the quick stabs, and every now and then we get a stab and nail to the door. But like he doesn't care at this point. It's like 40 years of pent-up frustration are now going to finally bubble out and just explode. And I think that's I think that's what you get. I think you get this explosion of brute strength. Like I mentioned earlier, it's like a caged animal, and suddenly now this animal is unleashed upon a town, and why would it hold back if it's hunting prey? It has no need to go, you know, go softly on anyone. And you know, Michael Myers doesn't hold back here. I think we get a scene in the flashback where he just chooses not to kill somebody, but when we're in the current time, it's just anything is free game, and he's just hunting to hunt. And every kill you get is just more and more and more extreme. I actually kind of liked it. It was gross, it was a lot to look at. There was a couple kills, like, you know, we get the kill of of the uh the the inmate or whatever they are, like, you know, flying out of the window and splattering the head all over the ground, and that's like pretty extreme. But I think that you the actual deaths we get from Michael's hand or hands or other tools, I think those are they're just like I'm going to end you, and yeah, I'm just gonna do it however I however I can and however I need to. I'm I'm Going to be resourceful.

SPEAKER_05 44:01

That actually was a little bit of a surprise for me because we obviously have moments in other Halloween films like Halloween 2, Ben Tramer getting hit by the car. We have all these other moments where someone else dies, but not of as a consequence of Michael Myers, and the inmate falling, and then the nurse doctor shooting herself in the head after he just kind of like smacks her hand with the door. That was intense and unexpected. I did not see that coming. Those little moments where someone dies tangentially to Michael Myers, but not directly from Michael Myers was wild.

SPEAKER_04 44:36

I personally am a big fan of the level of gore that Michael brought this time. I think that was one of the big highlights of this movie for me. If every Halloween movie had this level of gore, I may slash more than just one of them. At this point, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_05 44:49

But you didn't slash this one. So how does that track?

SPEAKER_04 44:52

Uh it was the one thing I really liked about this movie was that. I told you the Michael stuff I liked. Most of the Michael stuff I liked. The group scene where he kills all of those firefighters was so stupid to me. It was so unrealistic. And then the final scene where he's like getting attacked by everybody in the town, for him to like get up after that and somehow come out on top. I was like, no, I don't think.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

He's not human, Paris. He's different.

SPEAKER_04 45:14

Except he literally is.

SPEAKER_01 45:16

In this series or this franchise, he's supposed to be.

SPEAKER_04 45:20

He's 65 years old. Evil is not immortal.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

Paris, there are so many things you believe that don't aren't grounded in reality. I feel like this is one that you could just let happen.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

I can't watch a senior citizen get shot five times in the back and then still fight off a group of like 10, 30-year-olds. All with weapons.

SPEAKER_00 45:41

I think they were in their 40s, but but it's it's still a fair point.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

And very drunk.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

And they're and they're drunk and and just ready for craziness. But I think it's it's important to know that, like, yeah, he is human and they humanize him. In the previous film, especially, like, he loses fingers, right? So he's not completely unstoppable. He's not completely, you know, godlike in that way, but he is not like the rest of us. The stuff that would cause us to stop and pause and tend to our wounds, he doesn't give two craps about. He just has to keep going.

SPEAKER_05 46:12

Yeah, he probably has that whole condition where it's like your body doesn't process pain. Like it's like that part of your brain that your nerve endings communicate to to be like, oh my god, this hurts, stop. He probably just can't feel that. But I will say, I was real curious about how he's gonna escape that fire. So then to see him hiding behind that little garage door where she keeps her weapons, I was like, of course this man is brilliant. If imagine if he applied even a fraction of that intelligence to literally anything else, he would really truly be unstoppable. He really would. Stay in school, kids.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

My favorite part, I think, about this movie is the nods that they do have to other movies in the series. Whether it was this one and, you know, one, two, three, twenty Halloween. Chris, I know you know more of it because you've seen them all. But a specific kill that is my favorite is when Marion and the couple from the bar, they all just, I mean, their kills were cool, but my favorite part was y'all know I love Season of the Witch. I know everyone hates on it, but I love how they all have a mask on at the end when he stages them.

SPEAKER_05 47:24

Oh my gosh. My heart wasn't ready for Marion to go yet. So, yes, cool. Masks, Season of the Witch, very great touch. I was not ready to lose Marion Chambers yet. I've already had to watch her die once in H2O. Wasn't ready for her to die here.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

With that being said, kind of ties into my favorite kill, which is mostly just because I wanted this person to get shot with a gun and they didn't, but they did eventually die, and that's Tommy. Because how miserable is it the entire time he's on screen. And I'm gonna be honest with you, there's other characters that I also really don't like, but Tommy is just insufferable here.

SPEAKER_05 48:02

Okay, so here's the thing: walking into this movie, I knew that some OG characters were gonna bite it. Absolutely knew that was gonna come. I was gonna be really sad for some reason if it was Lindsay, and I couldn't quite place why. But also watching the 1978 Halloween, I felt like walking into this, I expected to be heartbroken if Tommy died. But then Tommy grew up to be a little bit of an asshole. And I was like, I'm good if you go, bro. You've had your time. I love this whole moment you have with Lori. You protected me, now I'm gonna protect you. Cool, but also you're just an idiot. So I'm I'm okay with you moving on from this world, sir.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

Yeah, if this movie does nothing else, it teaches you not to go along with mob mentality. This is exactly what happens when people get sucked into mob mentality and exactly how poorly it can go. Please pay attention. You know, learn from Halloween kills. It's real important. Don't don't be like him. Don't lead the don't lead the mob, don't be in the mob.

SPEAKER_05 48:59

I think it's also because one of the things that was great and absent from the original Halloween was toxic masculinity. Like it was certainly there, like there's definitely masculinity. I mean, you had Sheriff Brackett who couldn't be bothered and was just skeptical the whole time. But those kind of things were largely absent, and I loved the that fact, right? But then you have Tommy Doyle just really playing into this machismo of like I'm gonna if I'm I'm gonna go down swinging, I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna be the one. And it's just hyping people up to go hunt someone down, and obviously, look, Michael Myers wreaked havoc. But also you're a child, and it wasn't your babysitter that was killed. I mean, it was a scary incident for sure, and I'm not diminishing that.

SPEAKER_00 49:47

But for him to be the ringleader of this whole operation, ah because he loves her and she was scared and weakened, and he has to protect her. I guess. I don't know. It it did it does seem kind of strange, you know, that he was the one that was so gung ho about it. But maybe he feels like he has something to prove.

SPEAKER_05 50:07

Yeah, but then to go down as effortlessly as he did, I was satisfy I was satisfied by that. I really was not mad about Tommy dying at all. But that wasn't my favorite kill. My favorite kill came with Cameron because I don't care how cute his relationship is with his dad. Don't care about that one bit. I don't care that he tried to come around and be supportive. Because at the end of the day, he still made some terrible choices to put Allison in jeopardy. I loved that we get a shot of him facing off with Michael Myers after the horror seeing his dad dead in a in a moment that reminded me of one of the officer kills from Halloween 4 where they discover his body kind of like stuffed into a darkened space and Michael Myers is sitting in the rocking chair. And then he has his Brady moment. He has this moment wielding a gun, facing off with Michael Myers in front of some like stained glass, and Cameron ultimately gets it, and he gets it in a way that is like excruciating and really drawn out and honestly really reflective, all the gaslighting he had tried to do in 2018. I was totally fine with him going.

SPEAKER_04 51:16

Well, Chris, you've taken my first two favorite kills, so you leave me no choice but to go with my third, which is Judy Greer at the very, very end. She was such a flop this time around. I feel like in the last one, she was like kind of floppy, but then I was like, oh, okay, no, she's complex, she's giving it. I I get it, I get it. This time, like she was like, I'm not innocent, none of us are innocent, but I don't think that excuses her terrible judgment in almost every single thing that she did. And I was just like, why would you go back into that house and then go to that window? You know what's gonna happen. And honestly, you should have decided something else, because that's what you get.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

I'm so glad you came around because what you got from her this time is what I got from her last time. And she's uh again, a a real trash character here. The whole time she's just like, I don't know, suburban white woman. Like, I literally Karen. Yeah, she is. She does this weird thing in this whole movie where she's like, there's a system in place. Like, how is it that you grew up in this family and you believe that? I I get the point. She's like the antithesis of Lori, but I don't know. I hate it here.

SPEAKER_05 52:30

I will say I did agree with them not chasing after Michael Myers. A, you know, he's gonna eventually make his way around anyway. But B, she had a very logical point. He look at what he did. Look at how they trapped him and look at how he escaped. You really think that you as a teenager are gonna confront him and make it out alive? I thought she was logical there, but everything else that she did was a misstep. I did appreciate that one moment of her trying to save the inmate who was on the who was on the run because I think it ties back into this reality of like, right, like she is a mental health worker, and she's probably the only person who can connect with him in that moment, and it's really a sad moment when she sees him dies and then realizes that we they all have blood on their hands. But honestly, I was okay with her dying.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

I was absolutely okay with it. I just want to say I really appreciate her effort in that moment, but locking someone in doors that someone can see through when there's a mob chasing them truly made no sense. She she may have made an effort to help, but what she did wasn't actually helpful at all. And I'd like to say his death is on her hands.

SPEAKER_04 53:42

I agree. That plan was half baked at best. The intention was vaguely good, but she basically pushed him out the window.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

It's hard to pick. I know everyone here has picked a favorite, but it's really hard for me to pick because there are so many kills in this film. I'm trying to think back to everything I've already forgotten, and we just watched the movie. But I actually am going to say something to be contrary to Paris because that's just how the world works these days. And the whole Michael breaking free and killing all the firefighters thing, I actually thought was really crazy and interesting. Like, yes, he kind of looks like a supervillain in that moment, and it's kind of Marvelesque, but I was totally okay with it. What a great way to start things up. But I think like the first one that you get where he like pulls him down, or actually he falls through the hole and then he takes him out with a thing like through the face shield and just like keeps going on it, and then pulls the next one down by the hand. Like that just whole sequence right there was again just the animal doing whatever it had to do to survive, and and I guess continued killing because that's what he likes to do with his life.

SPEAKER_04 54:42

Mac, I did also like that kill specifically. I think for me, Michael is at his best in like a 1v1 indoors, maybe a two v1, three v1 is pushing it, but I can get behind it. But when anything beyond that is just to me a little too far.

SPEAKER_02 54:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:59

But that was a really great kill as well. I love the gore and the way he used a new weapon to destroy someone's face.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Yeah, I love getting behind those three v1s. You know, I really have to disagree here. I need to just point something out. I have a worse kill, and it is the firefighters. That moment was like not the one for me. I think because I think of firefighters as people really just out here trying to save the world, you know? I think because there was a moment when they started fighting the fire where I was like, dang, these people really wake up every day and just walk into houses that are on fire, bro. That's a crazy job. How dare you be like that? That's insane. Shout out to you. And then he just starts slashing them all. And I was like, hey man, I was I was really trying to show some love to those people. And the first one was cool, and then when it was like seven to ten of them, I was like, uh, it doesn't feel good to me. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_05 55:52

Yeah, it's it's harrowing and it's heartbreaking, especially because you have that moment where they see him come out and you know what this is, and they are just kind of like with their gear, just like, oh no.

SPEAKER_02 56:03

And they just have this look in their eyes of like the startup of the it wasn't Jaws of Life, but like Jaws of Life adjacent chainsaw. Like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 56:13

Yeah, it it it's like they realize that something is going horrifically wrong, and this is not the kind of situation they had intended uh they intended to respond to.

SPEAKER_02 56:22

Yeah, if those had been like uh house robbers standing outside and all those kills happened, I'd be stoked. I know that's not really a thing, but just like the the virtue of firefighters is difficult for me to be okay with those kills.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

Right, but like obviously, you know, serial killers are gonna kill good people, and that doesn't make those like bad kills for horror movies. I mean, we don't want them to die, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

Right, but I think it was just really interesting and showing the brutality that we were about to get for the rest of the movie. Like when we start to get into it and we see this like kind of kooky older couple like hanging out together, he takes them out and like doesn't care about it whatsoever. He literally breaks a light in half and shoves it into her throat. And that is so like so insane. Because who would, first of all, who would think, all right, she's got something, I could just take another knife. No, he's like, huh, this looks fun. Let me break a light in half and shove it into her throat and see what happens.

SPEAKER_05 57:17

But do it with just enough force to actually penetrate her throat and let the blood pour into it, knowing that it's so fragile, if I just drop it, it's gonna completely disintegrate.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

And that's I think that moment is what catches me, right? Because you always see the movies where they gotta say something to the killer, and then the killer has to like struggle to stab them, and you could tell she's going to try to do something or say something, or just maybe just cry and scream, but he doesn't even give her. It's like a split second, no chance whatsoever. The tube just goes straight into her throat before she can even let anything out. He's just like, whatever, done, don't even care.

SPEAKER_05 57:47

You just brought up a point to me, and it was about like this indiscriminate killing that he has, and it doesn't even bother him. The firefighter kill, that whole sequence is supposed to give us the same feeling that the kid in 2018 gave us, right? No one is off limits. Doesn't matter how pure, doesn't matter how good. He's indiscriminate he's indiscriminately slaughtering everyone.

SPEAKER_04 58:09

Yeah, Chris, you could say that he was absolutely just slaying everyone left and right. I think the biggest slay of all is what the two Johns did with the Myers house. I love seeing the same like architecture, like the stairs, the same layout, but with like their modern touch and how they painted everything like that beautiful, like dark emerald green with like the gold accents. I was like, these gays really did a good job.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

You know, they were nothing, if not perfectly cast and and set in this movie. I have a very different favorite visual element, and it's actually because of how raw it looks, not because of how like modern and finish it looks. And it's Lori in this movie. And to be fair, it is very much carried from 2018, but there's a couple of shots where she's in the hospital bed and she just looks like she's been through a lot. She looks like she's been drinking a lot. And I I don't know if everyone has had experience with people who've been drinking their whole lives, but there's a certain way people's like bodies and skin look. And I think Jamie Lee Curtis is a beautiful woman. And so to see her in this pulling off this role, it's a really, really big difference. And it really sells the point because if she looked even a tiny bit more put together, more fit, more polished, polished, it wouldn't work. I wouldn't buy it. I wouldn't buy the trauma that she's been through, I wouldn't buy the stress, I wouldn't buy the willingness to sacrifice everything to teach her family how to get through these situations. But like Lori looks like she's been through what she's been through, and it's insane how accurate it feels.

SPEAKER_05 59:46

I love the depth in that from you. Absolutely love that. But you know what else looked weathered?

SPEAKER_01 59:52

Michael Myers. The mask.

SPEAKER_05 59:54

It was the Myers House from 1978 because the flashback scenes were absolutely breathtaking. There are two things that don't quite work for me from them, but honestly, the look of the shape, the look of Michael Myers and that perfect mask, that's the closest I've ever seen a mask get to looking amazing in comparison to the original, right? But to see even the perfect detail, I shit you not. I was freaking out about this sitting next to Ryan. I was like, even this is perfect, and I I couldn't even get the words out. I was just watching the 1978 Halloween earlier today, and there's a shot of the Myers house as Lori walks up to it, and you can see what the house next to it looks like in terms of this window placement and everything. Remember that this movie is filmed in California, the original. Remember that that house is no longer really a thing. Uh, it's it's on display, you can go look at it, you can go visit it, but it's certainly it's like on a corner lot now. It's it's totally different. But to get even those tiny details, the broken window, the dead dog inside, as much as that breaks my heart, absolutely every detail was perfect, except for Dr.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:08

Loomis. See, because I love the flashback and I like that it looked just like him, and I really felt like I was watching 1978 in this day and age.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:22

100%. It looked very similar to him, but then they kept getting closer and closer, and you realize, no, I've seen Donald Pleasance a million times. This isn't Donald Pleasance. If they had just stayed a little bit further away and then hearing it, the voice was just completely wrong for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:40

As not a fanatic, it did not stand out to me at all, which I think is a a sign of its success.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

I mean fanatic in a positive, loving way. Like you're a fanatic for this, like 100% you're a Halloween fanatic, you're a fan.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

But someone who's just an avid fan. I mean, I'm a great fan of this whole franchise, but to me, I was like, wow, that's pretty fucking spot on.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:05

It's it I think if I were to close my eyes and describe Donald Pleasant and Dr. Loomis to someone who was doing like a police sketch, that's what they would come out with. But it's not like exactly right. Okay. And it's like the closer you get, like the further away it was. I was like, oh my god, that's amazing. He's like the right height, you get the right facial hair, it all looks beautiful. But then it got closer and closer and closer to him. I'm like, please stay, stay back, stay back. I this is the first time I've had that moment, like watching Star Wars where everyone complains about the CGI or Princess Leia or Grand uh Grand Moff Tarkin. Everybody complains about that. I'm like, oh no, I thought it was totally fine. No, this for me was off. He didn't look enough like him to warrant being that close. And then the voice was completely wrong. I'm a very big like Samuel Loomis and his monologues from the original 1978 and the way he describes Michael as evil, that voice is so important to me. And this one just did not hit the spot at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

It actually detracted from the moment. For me, it worked. It didn't stand out in a negative way at all. But I do think it could have benefited from giving the same treatment that they did for Michael when his mask was off, where we didn't see enough to take away from anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

Yeah, that was my favorite visual, the entire flashback sequence. I would have been so happy had the film been set in 1978 and they used that style to do the whole movie because it looks so good. The transition we get, the the title card, you know, the the credits, all the every time they would write a date on the screen was beautiful. It looked amazing. And then when we finally you know jump back in time, I don't know what it is that they got right, but something that they did to the film just made it seem like 1978. I don't know if it's like did they like make a faux film filter on it? I don't know. I just loved it. But the the casting of the of the kids that they chose, because I feel like these days you're gonna get kids that could be on the Disney Channel in every single movie, and they're just like too polished. These kids look like they would have been in a 1978 movie, and I I love that so much. And the cars, like they had all the cars right, which was really great, the houses looked good, like everything really felt like this was an old movie, like everything was just chopped up from Halloween 1978 and spliced in with a couple things in in 2018 or 2022 or 2021.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:31

Yeah, Lonnie was the only kid that felt a little off to me, but he looked right from most angles, but just there's something about him like, oh well, this clearly isn't the kid who just ran into Michael Myers earlier that day.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:43

I did love when they were uh when Judy Greer was running through the backyard of the Myers house because it reminded me of all the nights Chris and I have run that same path. And I think like the detail in Dead by Daylight is so accurate because I was like, Oh yeah, I've hidden behind that shed before. And like, oh yeah, that's where that fence is. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:59

I didn't want to scream over, but when Michael was leaning over the bridge and the woman's like cowering down below the tree, it honestly felt like you were playing Dead by Daylight. Yeah. Just hearing him breathing.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:12

Honestly, I can't wait to get home to Miami so I can play some Dead by Daylight. Paris, we need to make this happen.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:18

I know, we've been so busy.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:20

Also, just so you guys can have a glimpse of what it's like sitting next to me in a movie theater when he was standing at the edge of that river and peering in and then goes up on the bridge. I was thinking and said to Chris, what if he just like thought nobody was around, so just like went for a little frolic in the water real quick? You know, a little dip to get dip his toes in to have some fun for a little while, you know? He's been locked up for a while.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:43

Even though I didn't laugh, I think it's because that scene was actually one of my favorites in the movie. I have a ton, so I won't take them all. But that moment of Lindsay pulling up to the kids, they talk about a creepy man playing hide and seek who's just popping out because. That does feel very Michael. It feels very, he doesn't always ruin the kids. Sometimes he'll just stumble across them and let them go. But to see him popping out and to see that no, he did kill their friend. He got the bloody mask from the skeleton from the Silver Shamrock series. And then you have him attacking the car the same way he attacked Marion Chambers in the first film. To see those wicked deaths, then to see him hunting and stalking Lindsay again, that was such an incredible moment of tension the whole way through. I did not think Lindsay was gonna make it out alive. Oh, and that breathing from both of them.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:39

Chris, I also didn't think she was gonna make it out alive. And truly, I was looking forward to seeing Kyle Richards get her big on-screen death sequence. And I was like, honest, I was a little proud that she did a solid job with her performance, but I was disappointed that she didn't die.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:54

Guess you have to wait till Halloween ends.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:56

Do you think they'll bring her back? I mean, I hope they do.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:58

I hope so.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:59

Also, she had to stop doing Botox for six months before filming because she wanted to like actually be expressive in the role. And I was like, Kyle, you better work, bitch. So she was committed to this, she was into this.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:10

Ryan, those breathing sounds were intense. And was really intense for me. And my favorite scenes, I would say, would be when the mobs are in the hospital. So you get this chaotic scene when everyone comes in. And to me, it's just building up this scene and like what could happen. Because we've all seen plenty of movies where there's chaos in groups, especially in hospitals, usually around zombie apocalypses and all those sort of things. And I think you see this and you're like, what could go wrong? And every time they're in that scene, it's just boiling up for me. And the intensity is rising, and I was just waiting for it to click, and it did. So it was just to me, it's like how many marshmallows can you fit in your mouth before it explodes? Well, not your mouth is actually gonna explode, but like before you can't fit any more in. Before you start choking and die? Yes, yes, yes. That's what it felt like. This movie almost choked and died if it continued doing that for you. It did focus on it a lot, but I do like it because I helped it helped because it helped build that intensity for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:20

For sure. That's one of those things where I had made the mental decision to just be okay with this film doing its own thing before even walking into it. Because I think if I expected it to be the same approach as the 2018 Halloween, that would have almost tanked the movie for me. Again, it's the point mob violence, mob mentality. We're all conditioned to think these things. Do you see how one person can say one thing wrong and everybody latches on to it like it's the fucking truth? It's it's all very representative of like where we are today in society, but the focus on it was just a bit too much.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

Yeah, I it's a difficult thing because I think the reason I enjoy those scenes is because we've seen Michael get out of jail or get out of whatever restraint he's in and walk around and kill people. So, how many times do I need to see that? I mean, Chris, you might say a lot more. I would say if he walked around and did the same thing again, I'd be kind of over it. So those scenes were like a great break from that. A great break from the very typical this happened, then this happened, now we have to chase Michael. And I I appreciated that dearly. I didn't love all the characters. I think one of my favorite scenes is one of the ones where I did enjoy the characters, and that is Sandra and Phil at the beginning. They felt like the actual most natural set of characters in this movie for me. And I mean, it's like what, two minutes of their own screen? It's not very long, but they gave a richness at the beginning of this movie that prepared me for, like, oh, we're gonna like get to know some people. This isn't just gonna be Michael walking in somebody's house, killing them, walking out, and we never knew who they were. I think they stand out as really good characters in this movie compared to some others.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:09

They really do. And what I like about how this movie was done and the 2018 Halloween was was they give you these kind of like short little clips of okay, hey, we're giving you this. Hey, we're dropping you into this family's house, and now you're gonna see what Michael does to them, even though it's not actually any way related to the movie per se, but it's just a way that Michael transports throughout the entire Haddonfield community.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:37

It's because, as Mac was saying, he's a wild animal. This is like a National Geographic documentary. That's what this is.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:44

It's like a nature documentary put in Haddonfield, especially with those big windows that you can see through everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:50

Speaking of the house, let's go to my favorite scene. And that's gonna be where we have Allison hanging out and they're in the car and they're deciding whether or not they're wanna go in or whatever. And then, you know, of course, we get the dad being like, no, I'm just gonna go in, you guys have to wait. Because you're like, we know you're gonna die. Just go ahead and get it over with, just die. Because if you're going in alone, it's it's game over.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:10

Also the moment where he's like, see at the finish line, like, okay, you don't even plan to come back because no one says that if they're planning to come back.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:17

Yeah, see at the finish line is like the finish line to life. Is that what you mean? Because that's what you're going in there for. But I love because I just love Cameron's reaction to realizing it was game over for him. And he thinks he's going to be able to do something, like he's gonna look around. He seems obviously a little bit scared and he's got the gun or whatever he thinks he's gonna do. But the second that Michael shows up, he knows it's game over and he just like cowers and like falls backwards and nearly pops out of his skin. It's amazing to see how futile he realizes all his actions are going to be, and then just gets absolutely wrecked, of course. But like that whole sequence of events, seeing his dad, it was it was all over and it was just impending doom. And he, I think he did a good job of portraying that of portraying like the idea that, like, oh my god, it this is all about to come to an end. I can't like like accept this.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:06

And could we talk about how amazing Allison was to take those knives out of those bodies, stuff them in, go for the gun, and then knowing that it's gonna get flung out of her hands, she still gets a few stabs in. She's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:16

I love I when she stabbed him, it made me so happy because she was doing what he would do, which is do anything you have to do to survive. And it was brilliant. It was like, yes, now you're getting it. Just act fast. Do whatever you gotta do. Be that like antelope that is trying to run away or whatever it is, you know, be the whatever el like whatever wild animal has like horns on them that they used to stab predators, do that, be that person.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:39

Be the yellow apex predator.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:40

That would be even better if she became a killer to kill Michael, but we don't get that right now. Maybe that's uh maybe that's Halloween ends, is they all become serial killers.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:48

Well, she was definitely Michael's best matchup. She was making the the smartest moves. But just as a side note, when they said that he was the apex predator, I could not have rolled my eyes any harder. Also giggled, of course, with all of us here because of Krawl. But like, all right, I just gotta say what I have to say here. The number of times that this movie said Michael Myers has been haunting Haddenfield for 40 years and he's gonna die tonight, it was ridiculous. And I whispered it into Chris's ear probably 18 times, and I'm sure she hates me for it. It was actually 23. Yeah, it was a lot, but they said it in the movie every 30 seconds, especially Tommy. I was like, Tommy, I swear to god, if you say it again, I'm I'm I'm gonna kill you here. Anyway, there was some very cheesy dialogue that happens, and Apex Predator is one of those things.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:41

But I thought it was a deliberate choice. I thought it was to show us this whole like machismo thing that Tommy's got going on, and he thinks he's gonna get his revenge and they're gonna go out and they're gonna hunt and they're gonna find him and they're gonna kill him, and he keeps saying it over and over, and gets everybody revved up. And what happens in the end? You're dead. You're dead, and you were dumb, and you were saying stupid things the whole time, and you you cause this mass hysteria. And in reality, you put your your own cause further back because you couldn't just chill out and focus on what needed to be done. So I thought they like deliberately showed what a what a douche move that was.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:12

And let's be clear, we all know Crawl has just ruined the term apex predator for all of us.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:16

Yeah, I'm sure it had a different meaning before, but now it's just been ruined. Mac, I think you're 100% right. I do think they did it on purpose. I just didn't like it. I think it it I completely agree that it fits into what happened in the story. It fits into the plot, but him going that hard is much of the character stuff that we get that like pushes that direction. And like, I we didn't need to see him going around telling people to like be smart and keep your eyes open and do it. Like, what do you like? Okay, you're not helping. It Michael Myers kills people for a living. It's all he's ever done.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:53

Literally nothing else. Yeah, he was trying too hard. And did anyone think, okay, cool, you got this bat. I could just see Michael Myers just reaching over, either lifting him up with it because Tommy won't let go, or just taking and breaking in half as he's like pulling it away from him.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:08

Yeah, it wasn't a great he didn't have a lot of execution plans.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:12

No, he's like, let's get these people together and all of us can defeat Michael Myers.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:17

When Michael gets up though, and he starts wreaking havoc once again. I love that they squeezed in a slash across the ankle. And I was waiting for it because he's already down low. You know he could take somebody out. But then like it wasn't even the first one. Like he got several other kills in or slashes in, and eventually he was like, Oh yeah, there's an Achilles sloop.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:35

Okay. So I haven't fully seen this movie, but Requiem for a Dream, where it has like all those really quick close-up tight shots of, I guess, I don't know, drugs, whatever. I've only seen flashes of it, but that's what this movie reminded me of when you're getting all those close-ups and seeing all those facial reactions to those kills, especially that Achilles tendon.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:55

I'm doing my favorite scene, right? And I'll transition as the characters. Okay. How do I stay away from Achilles tendon recording for a dream? Um I will concede that I did enjoy that shot in that scene, even though I did not really like that scene at all. We love an Achilles tendon slash. Um, but not unlike the sequel to Leprechaun, they put Michael McDonald in a movie and he got my favorite scene. It's pretty much every scene with Big John and Little John seeing those two gays like renovating the Myers house. Uh I don't know if you noticed, but there's like a bench at one point where you can see that they're like realtors in the area. And just seeing like they're lived in cute, like gay couple, like the way they interacted with the kids in the neighborhood, and then the way they like explored the house when they thought that there was an invader, it was truly like a heightened comedic moment for me, and I was so on board with that the whole time. If we had gotten more scenes like that and fewer scenes with Tommy Doyle, and like no scenes of the hospital mob, I would have given this an easy slash. Because those characters were so enjoyable. I'm surprised nobody else picked that as their favorite scene. Did we not love that scene?

SPEAKER_05 1:17:06

We're saving it for you because you have such little room to compliment this movie with.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:10

Oh, there were a couple scenes that I had. My first one though was actually the Kyle Richards scene. I mean, I did appreciate that it was Stewie from Mad TV.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:17

You know, Paris, I think you're on to something about that comedic value in their set of scenes. The comedic value that really didn't work for me are the scenes that involve Vanessa and Marcus. And I think they really were trying to make something happen, and I was really supposed to think they were like a quirky couple, and they had some interesting things that they said back and forth to each other. But I don't know if I've seen what felt like as bad acting as this in as big a movie as this. And I'm not sure why. I I'm not here to say like they're not good actors, but it really stood out to me how forced and like goofy they felt, but not in a cool way.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:00

Particularly him for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:03

But I did enjoy their little back and forth about the gun in the car. She's like, I shot this shit before. Give it to me. For some reason that made me laugh hysterically.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:14

I think if you told me they were best friends, I was on board. And then when they said they were married, I was like, Oh, thanks so, honey. Something this is a weird combination. Like his character was just weird and overly goofy, and their interactions were not matrimonial.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:31

I was surprised that they weren't Julian's parents because I thought when you're looking into the 2018 film, and she locks eyes with Michael Myers as he's walking down the street and he like runs back in from getting his stuff from the car. I thought, like, with that number of houses that were left, I I thought that was Julian's house for sure. So when they see him on the news and like, that's that's Julian, I was like, Oh my god, they're gonna realize it's their kid, and this is gonna be a really sad moment when they end up dead because they show their death in the trailer. But then they're like, That's that little asshole kid from next door. I'm like, oh, okay, this is actually great. I love this.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:08

Yeah, I just I found that a lot of these characters felt that way to me where they felt like a forced comedy thing was trying to happen, and it it really did not work. I I would say everyone in the bar didn't work for me. Everything that happened in the bar almost, like even to the point of our old school characters coming back, and it just all of that was very clunky. Like the way Paris didn't like the hospital scenes and things, I didn't like the whole bar. We're all here. I don't know. There was even a stupid scene where someone spun all the way around on a bar stool. Like, why did you spin in an entire circle? And I know I shouldn't be paying attention to that, but those are little things, like this stuff doesn't feel natural and this stuff didn't work.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:50

What I do like though about the Big John Little John like scenes is when we have the interaction with the kids. Like I feel that like that added something to the film, having them use the legend of Michael Myers to spook them and to scare them away, I think was good. And I think the kids even playing that prank on them also really worked well. I think a lot of it was just kind of like humor. Who knows? Maybe there's an inside joke that the rest of us just don't know about, and and I'm cool with that too. But I feel like we actually got to know them a good bit. We got to see so much about them that other movies would not let you see. You would just see them get stabbed.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:24

Okay, wait, I forgot to mention the main reason I love that scene, and that's because when we see them dead, we see that Michael posed them to match like that really cute like wedding photo or whatever that was. And it made me think, like, Michael is really only posing these gays in like a gentle, tender kind of way. And I thought about Chris's theory that she's mentioned before. I don't know if it's Chris's theory, but the theory that Chris has mentioned that Michael Myers is gay. And I was like, is he is he like not mad about these gays that moved into his house? But he does know that he has to kill them, but he's gonna be like really cute and sweet about it when he does.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:57

He also particularly went into the collection of records and changed the record from Halloween music to like a love song. So not a small feat. He doesn't even know music, he's never had a record player. He figured it out though.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:11

But to be fair, he did like poke the dude's eyeballs out, so that's not super tender.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:15

That's a that it's just like a face hug. The eyes are the windows to the soul. And Michael Myers was having none of that.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:22

That does sound familiar though, from back in my psych days where a lot of staging happens with things covering eyeballs, whether it's like buttons or quarters or shiny objects or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:32

Ooh, I don't like that. That feels real real.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:34

It's to give them life, apparently. So I don't know. There's a thing with eyes and staging. I don't remember what it's about.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:39

I don't like that either.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:41

Right, to make them look like they're still alive, is I think generally the idea. But anyway, I I can respect that decision. It was interesting because I didn't really pay attention to the staging in previous Halloween movies, but that one does particularly strike you. Like in the beginning, when he's when he's stabbing the husband in the back like 40 times with all the knives in the kitchen, it just looks like he's having fun. It looks like he's just like, and there's another one, and there's another one. But when we get to theirs and you hear that music playing, and you realize like, oh, he he has to be in the house somewhere. Like, who's he putting the music on if no one else is there? He's enjoying it, he's soaking up that moment. He's just like, oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna like have that feeling of love now.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:14

Yes, Michael is very interesting and dynamic in this movie for sure. But Ryan, I do agree with you. These people, and when I say people, I mean the supporting cast that we see new to this movie, they do seem goofy. Goofy, some are trying purposely to be goofy, but people you have that are like Tommy aren't trying to be, they're just there, and I guess that might have been the purpose, but I just thought he's just here to look like a dumbass.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:47

Like, I truly believe that Tommy and Lonnie would be this way if they went through this and grew up in this town and still are in this town and hanging out in this bar. But I didn't enjoy it.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:58

Yeah, I could honestly not possibly care less about Tommy Doyle at this point. I was, I mean, he's arguably one of the worst parts of the film for me, but I'll get to a different I'll get to a different point later. What I did love in terms of the character was a little touch, however however slight it may have been, when Lonnie says that Allison's dad was the one who sold him Peyote. And it was just that back and forth of like, oh, okay, Ray, what were you actually talking about? And I l I love that. I love that Lonnie, as much of a brat as he was, seemed to grow up to be not as bad of a guy, even though in the 2018 version they talk about what a reputation that family has. Even though. But I think for me, the really big shining star of this movie was Allison, and she continued to be from the previous film. I love that she didn't let go of that knife. I love that she brought it back to that hospital room and just wrapped it up because she knows that at some point they're gonna need it again. I love that however reckless she may be, she is standing up for something, she's standing up for someone, and she is not so easily swayed by her mother's influence because she could have ended up being a very, very different person.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:14

So true. As trash as her mother's character is, for me personally, she lives up to the Lori level that's been set.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:24

I think the best part of the characters in this film is it really shows the community, though. It really shows what a small town feel they have. Everybody knows each other and they have some form of like relation, and the whole bar scene is super, super weird and and cheesy and everything. But I think they try to explore the idea that this is not going to affect just one or two families, that a ton of people are gonna know about this, and the people who've been affected by Michael in the past, like they might talk to each other, they might get to know each other, they might form these connections, and so even so even though some of them are like lame and annoying, that's just real life, though. Uh I think it's good though that they build these, these, these relationships out and like show that there's this network of people who have this involvement with Michael. Because otherwise, why would they go on this big chase? Why would they have this hunt for him? Why would they care so much? They would like just let the cops like handle it. No, they like feel personally invested in the idea that they want to kill him.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:17

Oh, and you got a nice little support group with pitchforks.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:20

If only they had actually had pitchforks, they would have been way more effective than some of the weapons they had, because that's what that was a great weapon.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:27

Honestly, Karen coming through with a pitchfork, great moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:31

Yeah, Karen uh not coming through and going out with the pitchfork, bad moment. Why'd she leave? Why'd she take it out of him? Why didn't she do it again? Who why didn't we finish that job there? Because she's not Allison.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:43

Also, she had to be the mechanism to get Michael out to where the mob was.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:48

Well, I know, but at that point, you got him. Just keep stabbing him with the pitchfork till his head's not on.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:55

She wasn't brave enough to do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:57

There's a system in place, you just have to trust it.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:59

She's like, really, she really cared a lot about the mask, and at that point, it's just I don't know. Very Karen actions up in here talking about come out and get me, I'm an innocent woman. Like, yeah, uh-huh, sure, you're an innocent woman. Okay. You deserve to die too.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:14

I mean, I get that point. And I appreciate that part, but what happened was once she is this mechanism to get Michael to where the mob is, that's the part of the ending, and I think it's the worst part of the movie. Yeah. Because I'm sitting there thinking, this is stupid, it's a waste of time, it's a total joke. They they think that they can all gang up on Michael and it's gonna work. It got me for a second. I really thought I was like, but the this is not how this movie goes down.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:52

Am I right, Chris? Yeah, there's no way they're gonna actually let Michael Myers be a little bitch on the floor. He looked like a little bitch for a minute. He did, but then you realize the movie still has a little bit of runtime left. And Jamie Lee Curtis has a monologue she hasn't finished.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:10

Alexis turned to me in that moment and goes, Aww. She felt so bad for Michael Myers laying on the ground after he just killed 30 people.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:17

I did feel bad. He had he It's because they kept kicking him when he was down. He's still an old man.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:22

That's that's true. Like they didn't just like give up and go, okay, like let's handcuff him or somebody just shoot him or anything like that. They were just like, yeah, kick and slash and punch and hit with baseball bats. And she just couldn't handle it. She's like, I really feel bad for him kind of right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:35

Let me tell you, what I didn't feel bad for is every single time someone goes to actually do something productive in terms of capturing or killing Michael Myers, they have to freaking, again, monologue about it while they're like holding their gun up to him. And that's how he always gets away. In this instance, that wasn't exactly how he got away, but it was close enough. Like when we have the old cop holding up his gun, I'm like Don't talk about it, just shoot the man. But Alexis, that's the moment where I wish I hadn't known that there was another one coming because it would have been such a different feeling. But I knew he was gonna make it because I know we have another Halloween movie. I mean, I did you didn't think about it, I'm happy for you. I unfortunately thought about it and I was like, all right, well, he's gonna come back somehow.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:19

I thought in that second they were gonna kill him and we were gonna get Halloween ends as like an echo of Halloween three somehow. I legit thought they're gonna pull this on us. I don't know how they're gonna do it, but they're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:31

I'm kind of on board.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:32

Yeah, Ryan, I had the same experience. I wish I had not known that there was a third, because in that moment I might have been like, oh, is this how it ends for him? And then I would have been gagged, but probably disappointed when I saw him get back up. But seeing those circumstances arise and knowing that he was gonna somehow make it out alive, I was like, nope, you're asking too much of me. Um but I am tasked with giving you the best part of this movie, which isn't hard. There are some things I really liked about this movie, and that is the heightened gore, the extreme brutality in all of the kills that we get, as well as the added amplified comedic moments. I think those were like the two biggest highlights of the movie for me, and the things I liked the most.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:11

Good. I'm glad you enjoyed them.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:13

Speaking of comedic moments, when Lori randomly pulled a doctor or nurse aside in the angry mob in the hallway and just like knee him in the balls and he fell to the ground. Did anyone else laugh at that?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:25

I was confused. I wasn't sure if he hit her or she hit him.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:29

Yeah, I thought it was funny and also just like very unnecessarily angry of her. I also need to take this opportunity to say, I'm so glad she stayed in that freaking hospital bed. She got up for a second, and I was like, Don't you dare tell me this girl's gonna have stomach surgery and then go on a rampage. And when she got back in bed, I said, Thank you so much, because I was not prepared to suspend that amount of disbelief.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:51

You know, everybody complains about Halloween 2 and how Lori was just relegated to being in a hospital bed or doped up and barely coherent and just honestly shambling away. But I've always thought that was the perfect way for her to be after the traumatic night she had, and I'm so happy that she did the same thing in this movie essentially. Yeah, she gets up, she bursts her wound back open, and goes back to bed. But here's what I think is one of the worst parts of this movie. With the worst being Tommy Doyle, the second worst being Dr. Loomis's voice. But the third, and this is a distant third, I'm not actually that mad about it, but I couldn't get Doctor Sleep out of my head. It's Hawkins not dying, and it's Hawkins being in the room talking like this, being all raspy, and oh I knew you were sweet on Ben Tramer. And first off, love the reference to Ben Tramer. I was hoping that Ben Tramer would show up in this movie so we finally know what this guy looks like, outside of the context of being burned alive in Halloween 2. But it was just him existing, not offering much to the story, really doing nothing to add value aside from having a tender moment with Lori about how they kissed once, and I'm like, also, you were in your early 20s and she was 17 in 1978, so I don't I'm not invested in that love story either.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:14

They did offer something important here, and that is the funniest little moment of the movie that is unintentional, and it is when they well, it's intentional, but it doesn't feel like it's like, oh, this is meant to be a funny moment. It's when they both start moving in the bed and realize they're both in pain and too old to be trying to do get up and do stuff, and we all laughed. I'm too old for this shit. Yep, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:36

I don't have a lot to hate on. Like I know it's not a perfect movie, but there's not a ton of stuff to where I was like, oh, I wish this wasn't in there. Obviously, the bar scene was super gaggy, and we could have done without that. So I don't know if it's like the worst worst part, but it was it was definitely it it it's painful a little bit to get through because you're like, where's this going? I don't know the direction you wanted to take here. I don't care about any of the characters you have on screen, and it's taken a good 15 minutes of this movie up. So that was that was a bit much. Um, but I I kind of hate the whole Hawkins self-blaming guilt, like whole storyline part of the film. I just did it pay off in any way? I'm I'm still questioning that.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:15

I feel like it was an insight to show us that like everyone in Haddonfield feels a level of responsibility.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:23

It is that, and it's also the fact that he had his little moment of humanity and was so overwhelmed with the guilt he had of shooting his partner when he tried to kill Michael that he couldn't possibly shoot someone else again to give you a range of difference of like he was gonna blow that motherfucker's head off, as you remember from that 2018 film. I think it's to show the distance there. But honestly, the fact that he killed his partner accidentally, I'm sure, and then stopped Loomis and fired up to the ground, I don't know, is it was just a little bit too much of a reach for me. Again, not enough to hate, but a little bit too much.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:03

I really wish they had played that differently and had him in a position where it was just him and he could have killed Michael and he didn't, and though, you know, at that point they just caught him. I think that would have made more sense to me for him having that guilt because at least he's like still being decent, and we didn't have the the whole storyline of him killing his partner and having to deal with that because it made it made him seem like really weak and ineffective in that moment. I didn't like that because I feel like he had he really had this other character up until that point, and now suddenly it changed. Maybe that's a good thing. Yes, he's more human, obviously, he's more flawed, as are we all, but I I think it would have played out differently had he just had that moment of like I couldn't do it, I just couldn't shoot him, and we instead, you know, put him in prison for 40 years. That's why everything else is not canon anymore. But I guess it's okay. I just I don't think it had the same payoff as they were hoping for for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:48

Yeah, once again, those shots were mad inaccurate, as with the rest of this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:53

Yeah. Is he a stormtrooper? Come on, hit something.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:56

Everybody everybody was a stormtrooper here.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:58

I hear you. And another one of the shots that were taken that was a big miss for me was his partner giving a little bit more insight to Michael Myers, the kid, saying he was a little bit weird, saying that his mom made him go play with him because she felt bad. That little detail was actually something that detracted from the movie a bit more because I don't want to know that Michael Myers was a loner. I don't want to know that he just stood up there and looked out the window. Actually, standing out there looking out the window, totally fine. But to know that parents had to go invite, like force their kids to go over to play with him, that's not something I cared to know because Michael Myers was supposed to seem so cute and innocent and normal, right? Like it was supposed to be something he just he just snaps. I could have done without that detail. But despite those elements that detracted from the movie, there is absolutely nothing that's gonna stop me from watching it again, and I'm so stoked to get more rewatches under my belt.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:54

Totally. I wish I had watched it like you had, Chris, where you watch the 1970s version and then the 2018 version, and then this. So I'll definitely be doing that sort of a viewing party pretty soon, probably.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:08

I'm down to re-watch it. It likely wouldn't be anytime soon, but I'm not I don't have anything against it.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:13

I also probably wouldn't re-watch this movie intentionally, and if I were to, I'd probably just skip through all of the scenes that I didn't like and just watch the ones that I did.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:22

I think it has major rewatch value. I think you have to love it for what it is and don't hate it for what it's not. Forgive it for what it's not. So I think when we get the the final chapter, I would totally watch them all in a row. Whatever you want to call it, quadrilogy, tetrology, whatever it is. I want to see them back to back to back to back and just skip through all the credits.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:41

And then I'll have the Halloween supercut all worked out for us. But for now, there you have it, folks. Halloween kills, lover for what it is, don't hate it for what it's not, has managed to earn four slashes and one hack. Now we've had a lot to talk about here, but it doesn't end here by any means. There's a lot that we may have missed on our first watch, all hyped up in theaters. So we want to know what you think. We want to know what you felt when you're sitting down in the theaters experiencing this film. Keep in mind there are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting with our website, hackerslash.live.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:11

And on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:14

And if you actually agree with Paris in this respect, we want to hear from you. You can reach out to our Hackerslash Hotline and leave us a voicemail at 757-606-0128 or visit hackerslash.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:27

And if you actually made it to the theater and saw this in Dolby, please let us know. Send us an email to feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:33

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider joining the new blood drive and becoming one of our patrons. You can visit patreon.com slash hacker slash to earn cool perks for as low as $1 a month. But don't forget, if you decide to join our three or five dollar tier during the month of October, you'll receive our fourth anniversary Halloween poster.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:50

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember, evil dies tonight. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:02

Okay, team. Daniel has a question for us. Daniel asks, I'd love to hear your take on what makes a cast or Final Girls likable and ideal for a slasher film.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:13

That's an excellent question. I think uh my my answer has evolved over time. I was just listening to an audiobook on my trip over to Virginia. Hi, it's good to see all you in person now. Lovely faces, all of you. Woo. And it was looking into the dynamics of Halloween 5 because the final girl from Halloween, I'll just leave that vague. A Halloween film is uh met with an unfortunate demise, and a different final girl takes up the reins. She doesn't she's not really a final girl traditionally, but they try to play this whole game, and they made her such a starkly different personality that the audiences hated it, but then they also kind of endeared themselves to her. So I find that classically, my ideal final girl was like a Lori Strode, like someone I could see myself in, like the quiet introvert who's kind of boring, not doing much. But now I think I'm just cool with it being whoever, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:14

For me, I I don't know, I don't have a lot of feelings about final girls. I've missed, you know, like in school when you like missed a day and you're like, wait, when did everybody learn this? I like miss the day where everybody like really got into final girls. But I do care about a cast, and for me, what makes a cast likable is good decision making. Because if you're out here making dumb decisions, I'm tapped out immediately. Like, are you joking me? Why'd you open that door? That was dumb. We all know that was dumb, and I can't get on board.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:42

When coming up with a cast of people to watch die, I'd like them to be at least remotely attractive. Uh, women, gays, that'd be fantastic. And obviously, we know there's got to be a dumb bitch. That way I can have someone I can relate to.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:55

Very interesting. I like my final girls to have a lot of backstory, essentially, and a lot of progression throughout the entire movie. So they're shy, they're not opening up, and they just turn into a badass at the end. And I'm thinking about our final girl and ready or not. And I don't know why, but that one always sticks. It's, you know, someone who's kind of, you know, not really observant at first and just kind of like, okay, what's going on? Going with the flow. This is funny, this is cool. And then realizing, okay, no one's actually coming for me, and I need to take care of myself. And seeing that evolvement is like really awesome. She was a great final girl.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:36

Truly. And I think what I appreciate about her, and what I appreciate about, you know, final girls in general, is when they don't just run the entire movie, and that's just due to scripting, of course, not to the character. But I love when instead they fight back most of the movie. Like, obviously, there's that moment where you're you're completely at the at the whims of of the killer or whatever, and you can't do everything within your power because you're held down or whatever it is. But I think if you're putting up a good fight for most of the film, I'm down for you. The people that they have just like running around, like trying to escape, that ends up really boring. And it's so much more interesting when you're like fashioning weapons or figuring out places to hide or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:19

Yeah, like Paris Hilton could have never been a final girl in House of Wax. She was just meant to meet that demise in that very specific way. Absolutely. You know it.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:28

I think when it comes to a good cast, though, it's it's kind of a different story because if there's if there's like a good horror cast, you don't want all of them to be that like strong-willed fighter. Some of them need to be weaker, some of them need to be, you know, more scared. And I think what makes a good cast is when you have a variety of personalities that complement each other, and you don't have two scaredy cats and one really strong person.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:52

Oh, for sure. You at least need someone who's gonna show nip, someone who's gonna die making a joke or thinking nothing's happening. You need someone who's small and can tuck in, tuck into closets and hide, and you need someone who's probably actually gonna be the killer.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:06

Are you talking about us individually?

SPEAKER_05 1:41:08

I am. Here we are, my ideal cast.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:12

I'm tucking into the closet.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:13

Yeah, you're the small one to tuck in the closet for sure. Definitely me.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:18

If it's a walk-in closet, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:20

You're you're also not that big. Closets are roomy.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:23

It's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:24

Tucking into a closet, maybe not the biggest talent of Alexis's. There's other small spaces she could find.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:30

I'm gonna be real here. Being trapped in a closet is something that uh it may be novel to you, but I think Paris and I are over it.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:36

Yeah, I won't be going back anytime soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:40

I was gonna say, I think that's called cocaine.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:44

Yeah. The Stephen King special.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:46

That's how you write books, right? I do truly believe that Mike got out of jail, is roaming around doing his thing, and he just keeps thinking, why do these Stroud women just keep following me around when I'm just trying to walk around, do my thing? Strode. Stroud. That's because I was thinking about spelling it. I'm gonna try that again.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:13

I've never seen things vibrate through Ryan with such fun. I'll go show you something that might.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:22

And honestly, the look on her face watching this movie was great. Listen, Dolby works magic. They know what they're doing, they they charge you extra to get you on board.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:34

I personally am a big fan of this gory micromicers. Mercomers. I have a question for Ryan. Ryan, even with the flashback, do you remember who Marion was?

SPEAKER_02 1:42:47

I don't know what makes you think I remember who anyone was. I was just going along with it. I knew that they were important. She was a nurse in the second one.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:55

I believe you. She was also in the first one. She was driving Dr. Loomis when they discovered that Michael escaped and he climbed on top of the car and crashed into the window and stole the car from her.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:07

Yeah, with that detail, I really feel like she should have learned how to defend herself from the inside of a car a little bit better, because boy, did she do it badly.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:15

I mean, at this point, she's just so old.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:18

I don't think that's an excuse for how poorly anyone in this movie shot a gun.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:24

Mac doesn't want the polished kids. He wants the ugly 70s kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:28

Oh my god. I actually, in the moment that they were on screen, I was like, dang, kids in the 70s were so ugly.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:35

But no, back then casting was very different. And like when you were seven, you didn't have to go to plastic surgeons and become this like perfect child to be on TV and movies. Right. You were just a kid who could also read some lines and and make it into a movie or whatever. But these days everybody has to look like a magazine cover if you want to be in film, and it's kind of crazy. I I love that back then you could just be a normal human being. It just looks different. If you watch a movie from back then, the humans themselves look different.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:05

It's the antibiotics in the chicken.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:07

That's what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:09

Call them GMOs.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:11

That's right. Get that 5G, son.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:15

Ask me if I laughed. I don't think he did laugh. Nobody thinks my joke's funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:20

It does beg the question when does Michael do things like other humans, like go to the bathroom or fart? Like is that why he walks slowly? He pees in his suit like scuba divers.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:32

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember evil dies tonight. Bye.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:37

How could we forget?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:38

How could we forget? They said it every line.