happiness. The podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, TV shows, and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us happy while hopefully bring a smile to your face along the way. And evil

Stephen: 0:17

dies tonight. As we returned to Haddonfield sooner than we expected as recovering the newly released Halloween kills.

Steve: 0:27

But before we spoil the hell out of this amazing new release, what's been making you happy. My love.

Stephen: 0:31

So there's been a lot of things recently, but one of them is that Kate Walsh has returned to Grey's anatomy as Addison Forbes.

Steve: 0:41

Yes. I know that that makes you very happy. And for me it means that I see her and I go, I know her

Stephen: 0:47

exactly. And you know, we're in season 18 of Grey's anatomy at this point. And so it's fun to see. From the beginning coming back. Yes. Grey's

Steve: 0:57

anatomy is now a legal age to have sex with people,

Stephen: 1:01

you know? Well, what else has been making us happy, darling? Well,

Steve: 1:05

we've been bingeing through the circle season three on Netflix. Yes. And we are one episode away from the finale, so we don't know who wins, but I know that we are hashtag team Chi

Stephen: 1:15

team Kai, for sure. And unfortunately hashtag James ruined it because he's had two opportunities where he could have put his foot down, but he gave in to Nick both times and let people from his Alliance be

Steve: 1:31

carted off. Yes. And for those of you who haven't watched it, Nick is the worst dude, bro. That you could possibly imagine if you imagine dude bros.

Stephen: 1:39

Yeah. If you could take dumb, toxic masculinity and put it into human form, it's Nick,

Steve: 1:47

Nick. But at the same time, he's walked over James and two eliminations in a row right now and is basically earned himself the chance to win. Not that we want him to win, but if he wins, I'd have to say hats off. Yes. Because you did rule the game.

Stephen: 2:01

Yep. I agree. And then there's this 1920 year old gay guy named Dan. Yes.

Steve: 2:09

Who is a Muppet? He reminds me of in angel season five, there was an episode where angel turns into a Muppet. And as the episode goes along, angel who normally is broody becomes like more and more puppet. Like, and as he becomes more puppet, like I'm like, that's what Daniel is like in human flesh is he's just human Muppet.

Stephen: 2:28

And he's terrified of everything. Surprised

Steve: 2:31

at everything. Yeah. And it's just, it's a, it's almost sweet. Cause he's like a 19, 20 year old Virgin who's claims never been kissed and all of that. And so he's a sweetheart, but yes, he also has a Muppet, so that'll be a very nice person when they find someone the right for him.

Stephen: 2:50

Or we see five years from now that he's joined a biker gang.

Steve: 2:54

I don't know about

Stephen: 2:55

that. Yeah. So one of the things that's also been bringing a smile to our face is thanks to wow. Presents plus app. We've been watching drag race UK season three and drag race Canada, season two. Yes.

Steve: 3:10

It is very rare that Ru lets us have simultaneous running seasons. Normally one ends and then another one comes and you know, we're lucky now we're at the point now where we have drag race on list year round. I know. And

Stephen: 3:23

I'm so okay with that,

Steve: 3:25

but this is the first time that I remember where the there overlap where on Thursday nights, you know, or Thursday at like first thing in the morning, you can watch UK and by nighttime you can watch Canada. Yeah. But I am loving both. And UK, who are you team? Who are you reading for?

Stephen: 3:41

So I was team Victoria. But now I think all around performance. I might be team kitty Scott

Steve: 3:51

clause. Yes, she's she's my number one right now. I also want crystal to lose more than anything. Oh, crystal

Stephen: 3:59

needs knocked down a couple pigs. Just because she's a talented 19 year old. Who's a cunt. Yeah. She has never been knocked down and her ego is running a muck right now. So she just needs a little put in her

Steve: 4:17

place. Yes. Yeah. Meanwhile, with Canada, I know we've only watched the first episode, but I am team sucky doll.

Stephen: 4:23

Oh. Soki doll looks so fantastic. And I'm excited to see where she goes with that and yeah, that one's going to take two episodes before. I'm sure of exactly who I like. And don't like,

Steve: 4:38

I know that I do not like geometric because I feel like if you're lip-syncing for your life and you look like a boy. You

Stephen: 4:47

know, you were upset that you saw boy nipples and I didn't have as much of a problem with that as you did. Like, I do think that some double-sided tape should have been used to make sure that the fabric stuck to her chest. Yes.

Steve: 5:02

I mean, if they're, if they're taping their testicles, like up in their butt hole, they should be able to tape their fabric down to their nipples. That's where the testicles go. I don't know. I'm not a drag queen.

Stephen: 5:14

Yeah. The testicles do not go into their butthole. Where do they go? I'll show you some time later.

Steve: 5:19

Okay. Sexy.

Stephen: 5:23

So, but to the topic at hand fair warning. This is your last chance to pause the podcast. Go watch Halloween kills in theaters or on peacock. It costs$5 on peacock. So super inexpensive.

Steve: 5:41

And you can watch saved by the bell, the new one while

Stephen: 5:43

you're at it. Yes. And then come back because this conversation is going to fully spoil the movie. Last warning.

Steve: 5:52

Yes. So the creative team behind this, a lot of the returning people are folks from Halloween 2018, which we covered last week. So if you haven't listened, you should go back and check that out. The last movie that we saw, David Gordon green, who directed this movie besides 2018 that I know of at least as pineapple express, although he's done a bunch of other films and more recent ones are titled goat. Our band is crisis mango horn, and the sitter, if any of those mean anything to y'all. Yup.

Stephen: 6:22

And he's, I think he has a very interesting perspective and I really like. What he's doing with this series?

Steve: 6:32

Yes, I agree. Meanwhile Danny McBride also returns any, has had his hand in many of Green's previous movies, but he's also acted in alien covenant lended his voice to the two angry birds movies and was in Tropic thunder and Superbad as well.

Stephen: 6:45

Yeah. And it was interesting whenever it was first announced that Danny McBride and David Gordon green were going to be associated with this. I knew Danny McBride purely from comedy things. And I was like, I don't feel good about this at all, because I just didn't think, you know, somebody that is purely comedy is going to be able to capture. The essence of Halloween.

Steve: 7:15

Yeah. I know. Even one of the three producers bill block has his movie credits, including bad moms and dirty grandpas. So for creative team with more experience and comedies than anything else, this is the movies are dark.

Stephen: 7:27

Yeah. I was wrong. They, they had it right now. One of the new writers is the new kid in the writers room because David Gordon green likes to work with a new voice on each movie so that they don't go down the, oh, we're so smart. Isn't this so creative. They have somebody to come in and be like, yeah, I'm going to poke holes in your story. And this one is Scott teams. He previously worked on the TV series rectify, but he's writing the story for the upcoming reboot of the Exorcist, which is David Gordon. Green's next trilogy project because he worked with universal. And just like how this is going to be a form movie scene. Acknowledging Halloween, 1978 extra system is going to be a foreign movie series acknowledging the first one and then three new ones. 50 years later.

Steve: 8:19

Yeah. Well, he's doing great so far. I, meanwhile, our friend Malik Cod comes back as the main producer, along with bloom house says Jason Blum. And as we mentioned, bill block.

Stephen: 8:29

Yep. And I'm super happy for Jason Blum to be on the entertainment scene. He's given us wonderful things like into the dark all kinds of fabulous horror movies. And it's nice that someone is focusing their entire movie-making career on scary movies.

Steve: 8:50

Yeah. I know that originally, when you watched a horror movie, it normally was like dimension films or Miramax or when, and I love that now, like you hear a bloom house and you think, and you think like,

Stephen: 9:01

yes. And did they've consistently gotten. Like, as he's gone along and his movie making process, he's getting to work with such a great variety of people that the movies Blumhouse are putting out are just better and better. Yeah. Yes.

Steve: 9:16

Meanwhile, in terms of the acting shops behind the movie, the strug women, all return Strode strong. Yes. Jamie Lee Curtis is Lori, Judy Greer as Karen and Andy Matta check as Alison. And then we have James Jude, Courtney, and the Castle's return to sharing the role of Michael

Stephen: 9:33

Myers. Yup. And I do love that they keep bringing that castle back to do the unmasked Myers so that it, you know, he was the original Meyers from 70. And anytime that they kind of show him without a mask it's Nick castle that they're

Steve: 9:49

showing. Yes. Meanwhile, I guess he's not as agile as it used to be. So with the mask on it's James Jude, Courtney,

Stephen: 9:58

especially some of those scenes where he just lumbers real fast toward somebody and it is brutal. I'm like, yep. I'm probably not net castle. Yeah,

Steve: 10:06

exactly. Meanwhile, returning from the previous movie as well, patent from T and Ts falling skies as deputy Frank Hawkins, we previously thought he was murdered by Dr. Sartain in the last movie. And he gets his own flashbacks where he's portrayed by Thomas Mann, who we know from beautiful creatures, as well as Hansel and Gretel, which

Stephen: 10:24

hunters excellent movies. Yes. David Arnold returns is Cameron illum who, before Halloween kills, I have. Very negative feelings about because of the die we wanted them to die because of the way that he treated. Alison, he is the son of Lonnie ELAM, and Cameron is played by Robert Long. St. Anthony, Michael Hall is a recap. Tommy Doyle, I'm sorry. Robert Longstreet is Lonnie ELAM. As I said, Dylan. Arnold is Cameron ELAM. Sorry about that.

Steve: 10:55

It's okay. And Robert Long street, we know from a bunch of stuff most recently, including a

Stephen: 11:00

midnight mass midnight mass, he's been working heavily with Mike Flanagan, which I fully

Steve: 11:05

agree. Yes. And as you were saying, Anthony, Michael Hall is recast as Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie babysat for in the original 78 movie. He's known for his leading role in USA's the dead zone and starring roles in John Hughes films, like the breakfast clubs, 16 candles and weird science. Yep.

Stephen: 11:22

Tommy Doyle was originally portrayed by Brian Andres in 1978. And Paul Rudd in the now no longer cannon Halloween six cursive Michael Myers, Paul red was approached, but declined as he was already tying to Ghostbusters after. And a Cod actually felt that his star power might be too jarring for people and would pull them out of the story.

Steve: 11:45

I agree. I mean, if he was leading the charges, the horrible Tommy Doyle, I don't think it would worked. I've been like ant man. Why you being bad? Yeah. Now there are also three returnees from the original Halloween. Charles cipher returns is Lee bracket, the former sheriff

Stephen: 12:02

Kyle Richards as Lindsay Wallace. The other young girl that Laurie ended up saving, but was originally babysat by Annie.

Steve: 12:11

Good. Yes. And Nancy Stevens is Marion chambers. They're retired associate of Dr. Lumis when Wescott choked out original and,

Stephen: 12:17

Side note, Nancy Stevens was also in Halloween H2O and like a nurse as Mary and chambers again. And because after Loomis had retired, she was his personal caregiver and Michael had come to his, her house to find information, to track down Laurie, because in that he was just focused on Lori. So it's nice to have her back in this one again, she's like, I dunno, it's seeing all of the originals. Holds a special warm place in your heart. It's like getting the gang back together.

Steve: 12:56

Yeah. Yes, exactly. And the movie had a really interesting development backstory McBride confirmed back in June, 2018 that he in green, it originally intended to pitch two films that we've shot back to back then they decided against it to wait until they saw their reaction for the first film, which ended up being awesome. So of course the SQL was announced in October, 2018, right after the film's opening weekends. Yup.

Stephen: 13:18

And in July, 2019, Halloween kills was officially announced by title, along with the third entry Halloween ends with green and McBride co-writing scripts with teams and kills and Paul, Brad, Logan who mango horn and Chris Bernier, the house Hulu Halloween Anthem. For AMS. And I have even heard this back in 19 that it was announced both films will be produced and filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina at the same time from September through November of 19. So I had always heard they're going to be filmed back to back and they'd already be done. Andy Matta, Chuck who plays Alison revealed that that was nixed due to too intense of a schedule. I missed that next part. Cause in my mind, as we were talking about the other night, I was like, I think insert, he filmed, like I think they're done. And I was wrong about that.

Steve: 14:09

Yes. And I always love it. When you got to say I was wrong. Now this film was originally set to be released in October 16th, 2020, but in July, 2020, it was officially delayed to October 15th of this year due to COVID stupid COVID yes, it was also announced on September 9th, 2021, that it would also be streamed on paid tiers of peacock for 60 days. Which

Stephen: 14:33

that was definitely a shocking thing, because I was like, Ooh, they're going to lose a lot of revenue. But then I also thought, you know, what, how great is that? Because there are still people that aren't going out to the theater, they don't feel safe going out. And I fully respect their decision if they don't feel safe, going to the theater of not going, but everybody deserves the chance to

Steve: 14:59

watch Michael Meyers and murder the fuck out of hatting fields. Yeah.

Stephen: 15:02

So I thought it was really great that you could stay home and do it. And it's inexpensive.

Steve: 15:06

Yes, sir. And we are recording this on the Sunday after it's released, where it's currently projected to make between 50 and$55 million from its 3,700 theaters, this opening weekend.

Stephen: 15:18

It made 22.9 million on Friday, including 4.8, 5 million from Thursday night previews. It became the biggest R-rated and horror film released during the pandemic beating out a quiet place. Part

Steve: 15:31

two. Yes. Critics are in generally they are dirty buttholes giving it poor scores with a metric or Metacritic score of 42 out of a hundred based on 42 reviews and rotten tomatoes having a 38% tomato meter based on 137 reviews to spite its audience score ranging from 75 to a hundred percent, depending on where you see it. Yeah.

Stephen: 15:52

And I think that. Says a lot that critics may not like it. The audience is saying, Hey, we're having a really good time.

Steve: 16:02

Yes. And it makes me wonder a lot of times, you know, especially being that this is the middle part of a trilogy. The, the critiques included that there were too many parallel plot points that don't go anywhere. But to my reaction to that, I'm like, that's because there was one more, of course not EV like this isn't a self-contained movie. We knew that going into it, that it is the midpoint. It is the empire strikes back of the Halloween movies. Right. And this new one. And so, you know, at the end, Michael's winning and not everything is resolved because there's going to be more

Stephen: 16:31

it also makes me think are the people that are writing the reviews, are they horror fans or not? Because you should not be reviewing a horror movie if you do not like the genre and too, have you seen the previous movies in the entry or are you seeing this as the only one. That you've seen because reviewing this as a standalone movie, isn't really fair. Exactly.

Steve: 16:56

Meanwhile, positive reviews include the return of cast members from the 78 film and the way that they were used, as well as its scares in its staffs. I jumped. Yes. And that is always a good a Testament as to whether it's scary or not. Yes.

Stephen: 17:12

So the movie starts off with Cameron Brillo blocking down the road after leaving the dance and he's leaving poor, dead Oscar, a voicemail, but how he fucked up with Alison and the first movie. And he sees possibly dead deputy Hawkins who turns out to be alive and stays. He needs to die and I'm the one that's going to get him. And then we flashed back to 1978, shortly after. Laurie and Loomis had their fateful final encounter with Michael Meyer. Yes.

Steve: 17:47

And we see that Hawkins sees Meyers that fateful Halloween night, walking down the street and misses two shots at him en route to find Michael he and his partner, Pete discuss Meyer's childhood. Because Pete mentions how he was friends or was forced into play dates with Michael as a child and was always just a little off

Stephen: 18:04

w okay. Wood is your mom the type that would have been like, okay. Cindy son is a little shy. I told her that you were going to go over and you're gonna have a play date with him. Be nice. No,

Steve: 18:20

my mom was already pissed enough that I had two friends that I wanted to hang out with all the time. And she was like, fine. I guess I'll drive you over to their house. But it was like a huge thing, anytime that I want to do anything social, because it was bothering her in her life.

Stephen: 18:31

I could almost see mama Martin being like. He doesn't have many friends. I need you to be his friend.

Steve: 18:39

Yes. While your mom is kind.

Stephen: 18:41

So, but he says that whenever he was over at Michael's house, Michael didn't really want to play. All he wanted to do was stand in his sister's bedroom window looking

Steve: 18:51

at yes. And that ends up becoming one of the themes of the movie ending with even the final scene. What do you think he was always looking out and why is he still transfixed on that window?

Stephen: 19:04

I honestly, I'm of two minds of it. Is he looking out at the world that he doesn't understand that he knows deep down that he's different and doesn't fit in. Or as we saw in some of the beautifully shot scenes throughout the movie, not just at the Myers house, when you're looking out the window, there's a good chance. You're mainly seeing your reflection. And I don't know which it is. Was he looking out like it it's Judith's window? So that says something because we know of his obsession with his sister, but was it what she was looking out at and what he could look out at or was it just him seeing himself? What about, what do you think?

Steve: 19:55

I don't know, but I mean, what I do know, or I think is crazy is how at the end it seems like when Karen looks out is that she figured it out.

Stephen: 20:03

Yeah. She, she seems to think that it's seeing yourself. Yeah. And, and, and maybe that's very true that, you know, he is seeing himself and studying himself and just, I, I, it's very like, again, this movie doesn't give you motivation. It doesn't give you the answers. Because it's scarier when you don't know and just

Steve: 20:31

pup poses questions. Meanwhile, we also get to see a young Lonnie ELAM getting bullied by the Malaney kids only to trip and find themselves face to face with Myers. He curls into a ball apologizing for bullying, Tommy Doyle only to be skipped over as Michael goes home.

Stephen: 20:46

Yeah. It's interesting too, that the Malaney kids bullied him the same way. He bullied Tommy Doyle. If he's going to get you, he's going to get you into like, beening the boogeyman. And so I thought that that was interesting that the bully gets bullied, which you end up seeing a lot. Yes.

Steve: 21:07

And meanwhile you know, even in the last movie, as well as in the original 78 movie it's very, he's very much painted out to be like a little shit head. However, do you feel like this experience with Michael scared him into being a better human? Because we see him being a pretty decent guy in present

Stephen: 21:21

day. Right. And I do think. That of all the times that he was, you know, he tripped Tommy made him crashes pumpkin and was scaring him about the boogeyman. And now Lonnie has run face-to-face with the boogeyman. Tommy almost died from the boogeyman. Yeah. I think that at that point they bonded because it was something that nobody else besides Lindsay could understand. Yeah. And I think that that did change him. And I think trauma like that can change you in this time. It was for the better,

Steve: 22:04

yes, I agree. I mean, when we go back to young Hawkins with his partner, Pete following Myers into his childhood home Hawkins' partner is standing by Judas bedroom window when Michael comes out and they struggle.

Stephen: 22:18

And it was one of those things where Pete's looking out the window and. He looks down and he sees the bloody footprints and you're like, oh dude.

Steve: 22:28

Yeah, Myra is during that struggle, ends up having him in a choke hold and in trying to shoot Myers Hawkins misses and shoots his partner in the

Stephen: 22:36

neck right in the neck. And he starts bleeding out super fast and he shoots at him some more. And you wonder, I know when he's a rookie. Yes.

Steve: 22:48

I mean, have you ever even shot a gun before? Let alone maybe like, has he even held one? Because I mean his accuracy rate, I mean, I do better in my shooter video games. I mean, he was just shooting all over the

Stephen: 22:58

place. Well, I can also kind of understand that there's a deep fear. You just killed somebody. And so you're also knowing that there's this killer that you're trying to get. I can see him being off, but he wasn't even calling,

Steve: 23:16

not at all. As his partner is bleeding out, he lies to him saying we got him, which he did not get him. No. And while the police surround Myers out front, Dr. Loomis rushes in and questions Hawkins, did Michael kill again, did

Stephen: 23:29

Michael kill again? And we flashed

Steve: 23:31

to the opening credits.

Stephen: 23:33

And so we were watching it and I was like, oh my God, that computer Lumis is so good. It wasn't a computer Lumus.

Steve: 23:42

Nope. He might look and sound just like Donald Pleasants, but he's not. He is portrayed physically by the films, art director, Thomas Jones Jr. While he's a voice by Colin Mehan and the two together, when you combine their superpowers, appear to be Dr. Loomis in the flesh.

Stephen: 24:00

Really, really, really good. I was severely impressed because I fought that. Seeing like that technology that they use now, like the Whitney Houston tour that's going on. That's all holograms. I thought it was kind of like that. Yeah,

Steve: 24:20

I understand. And what did you think of the opening credits with the pumpkins?

Stephen: 24:24

So the Halloween opening credits a lot of them that are hearkening back to the first deal with a pumpkin and or a jack-o-lantern and stuff. And this one does too, but in this, all the pumpkins are on fire and just burning down. Yes. Like the house, like the house and the city and the people. There are some pretty deep themes for a slasher film in this movie.

Steve: 24:54

Yes. And back in the present day, we see the returning doctor and nurse from Halloween 2018, who now have names, it's husband and wife, Marcus, and Vanessa. And you loved that while their costumes were with Marcus being the doctor and Vanessa being a nurse, it is later revealed that Vanessa is at the doctor and Marcus is the nurse in real life, swapping those stereotypically gendered roles.

Stephen: 25:16

Yup. And they're having a drink at a bar and there are some boisterous people behind them turn out to be the 78 survivors, Tommy Lindsay, LaMi, and Marian who we've discussed. And over the years they have trauma bonded and they spend every Halloween night together, helping people remember what happened with the boogeyman. And Tommy gets up on stage and he's telling the story of what happened that night. And he finishes with it's Halloween night and Haddonfield we're terrorist supposed to be. Where we hide behind masks and we pretend we aren't what we are. Is he real? Who knows? Who's next? Maybe not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow, but one day the boogeyman is coming for me. He's coming for you, but he's not going to get us because we will not succumb to fear, which is horrible foreshadowing because the entire town succumbs to fear and becomes their worst selves.

Steve: 26:17

And after Tommy's attempt at stand-up, which I understand is not really stand up. We finally get to see the Strode women riding in the backseat of the truck thing with Lori screaming at the firetrucks, let it burn,

Stephen: 26:31

let it burn. And she's bleeding out from the wound she took from Michael. Like that's a lot of blood coming out of her abdomen.

Steve: 26:41

Yes. And as we see the firemen put out the fire in the house, one falls into the basement and we see Michael Meyer step out of the weapons locker, beginning a gnarly series of murders as Meyer as a slaughter is each firefighter.

Stephen: 26:55

So like at the end of Halloween 2018, we were like, there's no way you can survive that he's just going to die. And. Then, you know, you see him in the trailer for Halloween kills coming out of the fire and you keep thinking, okay, you know, they just did a, Ooh it's Michael Myers. He can survive anything, but they gave her a reason how he survived the fire. He went behind the metal screen if the weapons locker and dad towel, he was able to survive the heat and the flames. And I was like, you know, Bravo for them, giving him a reason and also Bravo for Michael being smart enough to figure that out.

Steve: 27:39

Yes, exactly. And in real life, a bud heard firefighter tried to position to edit these scenes out. And I just have to say what the hell. I mean, first of all, I found out that they were actual firefighters from the cannon air force base fired up. So if firemen were like, sure, we'll go on and get slaughtered one by one by Michael Myers. Sounds like a good time to me. I don't understand why one other firefighter would then cause in doing that, he's almost judging the firefighters who actually did.

Stephen: 28:06

We shouldn't be having our first responders slaughtered that way. It's disrespectful to our first responders. Well, you know what? Two podcasters died in the original 2018 Halloween. We didn't, I throw a fit. No, we didn't.

Steve: 28:21

We could've, we could've, we could've, we could've petitioned to get that edited out, but we didn't because we wanted to see those really fucked up brutal murders in the last

Stephen: 28:29

week. Yup. And him going after all of these people. I mean, you just see from these open and kills, this is going to be severe. This is going to be on a level we have not seen before. Yes.

Steve: 28:44

Meanwhile, in the hospital we see Laurie go into surgery, a very graphic surgery, as they are closing the knife wound a while. Karen does take a moment to mourn the loss of her husband with just the right amount of grief considering he brought it on himself.

Stephen: 28:57

And you know what? I loved that. We see that because it really shows because a lot of times, and you know, I love screen. Yes. And screen two is one that I kind of, so Sydney walks away after the events in the theater and she just walks off and kind of has that self satisfied, satisfied, smile on her. Her boyfriend had just been killed in front of her and she never really had a time to grieve. And you see, it seems like she's okay. And I appreciate here that the moment Alison or sorry, Karen is by herself. She

Steve: 29:42

falls apart. Yes. And rather than making a movie about grief, though, she does end up, you know, processing it as quickly as she can and getting back to it telling Alison that Lori is going to be okay. Unlike her dad, but she says he'll always be with us, even if we can't see him, which then has turned around later on in the movie because they say this very same exact thing about Myers.

Stephen: 30:03

And there's a scene at the hospital and it's where the cops are starting to talk to the people. And I really like what Alison says is, you know, my mother's biggest fear was that. People were going to say my grandmother was right and the boogeyman is real. And it just, the whole thing that we talked about, and last week with the urban legend coming to life and everything, I love that that's still the through line here, but before we can get too far, we have this fun old couple

Steve: 30:49

yes. Felons,

Stephen: 30:50

Sandra who happened to be Laurie's neighbors. Yes.

Steve: 30:54

And as soon as we found out that they were Laurie's neighbors, I'm like, this is not going to end well for them. And you laughed when her husband throw shade at Laurie's saying, you know, the crazy old lady next door,

Stephen: 31:05

and the wife was like, you better not talk shit about that woman. She will fuck you up.

Steve: 31:09

Ultimately though it is Myers who fucks them. As he beats the shit out of Phil as he escapes from their bathroom before breaking a kitchen light and jamming it through her neck and a what the fuck visual effect that is like truly gnarly. Yeah.

Stephen: 31:23

And then after he, you know, he does that with her and she's still alive and bleeding out. He takes Phil's body and puts it over the kitchen island and repeatedly stabbed him. But unlike previous Michael stabbings, it's not the same knife over and over. He keeps grabbing new knives and putting them in until there's like seven knives in

Steve: 31:53

Phil's back. Yes. And Phil was clearly dead after like the first, maybe second knife. So why do you feel Meyer stabs in so many times with so many different knives? So

Stephen: 32:03

I really do think there's a line later about. Him being a six year old with the strength of a man. And I kind of see it in, you know, how the Michael Myers head tilt and Remy does it when we say certain words that he recognizes and it's that, and it's that childlike innocence or understanding of new experiences, new emotions, and just seeing something brand new. And I think in that moment, it was six year old, mentally six year old, Michael Myers going, I wonder what happens if I do this and this and this and this and this and this. That's how I saw it. It wasn't for the brutality. It's what happens when I

Steve: 32:55

do this. And I agree. It definitely looked like he was like studying the experience, but it was also just chilling, watching

Stephen: 33:01

it happen. And, and I think that it was more chilling because we're used to seeing. With his big butcher knife stab, stab, stab, stab, but it was the use of multiple knives that made it disturbing. Yeah. I feel

Steve: 33:17

like it's one thing when you under and it's part of the whole reason why, like they chose not to have them be as sibling going after us because so almost more terrifying when you don't understand the why behind the murder. And this one is one where we don't know why he's doing it and it's just makes it that more chilling. Yeah. Yeah.

Stephen: 33:33

So Michael is making his way from the compound towards something and he has made it past Phil and Sondra's house who knows where he's headed next. But we go back to the bar and Lonnie gets a call from Cameron frantically asking him to come get him. And I have a theory because Lonnie answered the phone and said, Hey, Bonnie how's Clyde. And. It wasn't, you know, some big macho dad being like, can't believe my son's in a dress. And you know, it's because I think after their shared trauma, Tommy and Lonnie are now lovers, there is no mention of Tommy or Lonnie being married, because you would think that with all this that's happening tonight, at some point there had been like, I have to go get Jenny and make sure she's okay. Wasn't mentioned at all. And I, I think that, you know, there's a chance that they bonded, you know, Lonnie's wife probably divorced him at some point. And now Tommy and Lonnie are raising Cameron. Yes.

Steve: 34:50

Well, there's nothing to discredit that. So it is an interesting theory for short. Now it's at this point where people start getting texts and news alerts, that something is up and we get to see the news where we learned that two patients are still unaccounted for Meyers and another person. Yes. We also learned that Julian survived as he'll immense, his old babysitter just as we do. Yes. So Marcus and Vanessa decided to head home since it all went down on their block. And

Stephen: 35:19

what's interesting is whenever the news shows the pictures of the two inmates who were still loose, they don't have names underneath the pictures. They like, it starts acknowledging that one of them is Michael Myers, but they don't say which person on the TV is which, and that sets up,

Steve: 35:38

Problem. Yes. Cause Vanessa gets into a car and see someone in the backseat and she assumes that the person that she saw, who she did just see on the news. Is Michael Myers. It does not. It is the other inmate. Right.

Stephen: 35:51

But the problem that I saw immediately as she runs out to this car and she's about to get in her car is the only one with fogged up windows. Anyone who saw the original 1978 Halloween with poor Andy bracket knows that when she went into the garage and the car, she was going to take to go pick up, her boyfriend had fogged up windows and Michael was in the back seat. People need to realize if your windows are fogged up and you're about to get in there's someone in there breathing and making them fogged up. Don't get in.

Steve: 36:26

Yes. Meanwhile, she does exactly what I would do. And she suggests for her husband to go look before getting everyone else from the bar to come out

Stephen: 36:33

and help. So like the other night, when we were woken up in the middle of the night, by a very strange noise that we couldn't put our finger on what it was. And I was. I'm going to go investigate. Yes. And it turned out to be my hair dye that I had left in the trashcan the pressure of the chemical rash among

Steve: 36:54

yes, but my reaction was babe, go check it out.

Stephen: 36:58

So Marianne chamber starts a thread that is going to go through for the next hour, whenever Tommy's going outside. And Maryann said evil dies tonight.

Steve: 37:12

Yes. And Tommy really held onto that really hard, almost as hard as he held onto old huckleberry the baseball bat from the bar, which ultimately becomes in my opinion, his penis metaphor, because he's going to save the world with his old huckleberry.

Stephen: 37:26

I didn't get that, but okay. Yes.

Steve: 37:28

The other escapee drives away crashes the vehicle and escapes, and then we get to meet the Johns.

Stephen: 37:34

Yes, yes, yes. And it's big John and little John and, you know, we immediately see where they're living and my heart hurts immediately. Big John's upstairs getting high, listening to old Halloween records and little John is downstairs preparing a charcuterie board. And these three little shitheads prank them that a candy bar they had gotten from their house had a razor blade in it, and their friend is outside bleeding to death and they go out front and, you know, there's vomit on the ground with a razor blade in it. And it turns out to be a prank and they're like, ha ha. We got you. And their third friend had gone inside the John's house to steal the remainder. Candy. And so to get back at him, they tell the story of, do you know whose house this is? And you know, what's kind of funny is this movie. And the thing is all about urban legends coming to life. The razorblade in the candy was the big urban legend in the eighties where even like my small town hospital, you could take your candy out to get an x-ray and they will let you know if there was anything inside of it, because I don't even know if there were actually any instances of razorblades in candies, but it became such a national thing that people were afraid of. You know, you only should only go to the houses that, you know, so that you know that the Candy's going to be safe. Meanwhile, we all

Steve: 39:17

know that strangers have the best candy.

Stephen: 39:20

So, you know, what do you think prompted these. Dubai a haunted house.

Steve: 39:30

Well, I could only imagine that it's because it was a hell of a lot cheaper than any other house on that block. And I would think that I don't think that they would have to talk about all the you know, the murders of the 78 when they were selling the house because only one of them with the police officer happened in that house. And the house was abandoned at that time. So I'm sure the realtor for this sweet old couple, this gay couple from out of town comes in and they're told that the house is going to be at a historically low rate because 30, 40 years ago, a little boy killed his sister. And I would think if we were buying a house and one house was, I don't know what Haddonfield house rates are, but let's say one house was$150,000. And the same exact house that's gorgeous is like$80,000. Wouldn't we choose the one that was$80,000, just because of one tragedy decades ago.

Stephen: 40:23

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I definitely would, nowadays we have the advantage of the internet so that we could do some searching to see what type of murder happened there. But if it had only been like the Michael Judah thing, I probably would have been okay. Yes,

Steve: 40:43

but I mean, this is the second gay couple that we've seen by a murder house after American horror stories early this year, where a gay couple moved into the murder house to turn a profit. And I just want to know what the heck is up with us, gaze buying serial killer property.

Stephen: 40:56

So I do think that gays in general love the horror genre. We like being scared. We also enjoy a deal and there's probably a good chance that the horror properties have excellent architectural bones. If you look at how they've done with the crown molding and those stairs and the old Meyer's house, they did a beautiful,

Steve: 41:26

oh yeah. It almost looks like a different house from the original spoiler alert. It is a different house than the one used

Stephen: 41:30

in the original. Well, yeah, I mean, you can build it pretty easily. Cause I've seen online that there's this guy who built a two D replica of the Myers house that he puts in front of his house every year for the month of October. And I think that's pretty neat.

Steve: 41:49

Yes, it certainly is. And back at the hospital, Karen and Alison learned that Myers is alive as Cameron arrives. Karen is convinced that my, my goal is coming to the hospital to get Laurie and wants them to hunker down. While Allison wants to go off with Cameron to find and kill him. Of course, Alison ends up sneaking out the moment. She has the chance, even though she tells her mom that she'll stay with.

Stephen: 42:11

And in this, you wonder, you know, who is right. Karen thinking that Michael is coming to the hospital and they need to be safe and prepared, or Alison who feels they need to go and hunt them down, you know, with the story of the boogeyman that Karen has grown up with and Michael showing up at the compound, she's pretty right to believe that Michael was coming for her mother. She doesn't know exactly how it all happened. So in her mind, she's like, well, if he came to the compound for my mother, he's going to be coming to the hospital. We need to be prepared and, you know, I get

Steve: 42:55

that. Yes, I do as well. But Alison knows better because Alison was involved with Dr. Sartain when he was the one who reunite them. And so she could have easily taken that time to explain it. I feel like there's a third option, which neither one considers, which is getting the fuck out of Haddonfield. Let's get

Stephen: 43:11

mom transferred to a hospital, you know, in Peoria in Chicago, some other bigger town in Illinois, let's get the hell out of here because as Alison says, Michael Myers has haunted this town for 40 years tonight, we hunt him down. Yes. Not the smartest decision, but I can also feel that her life has probably not felt in her control for ever. And she's now trying to exert some control.

Steve: 43:45

Yeah. Yes. Meanwhile Tommy leads the charge to assemble a massive mob dedicating to stop. Are dedicated to stopping Meyer as well. The town starts to search for him and we instantly get this feeling of dread that it's not going to have. Well,

Stephen: 43:57

no, because Tommy is hell bent on revenge and as it's all starting and it's, they do a good job of jumping around so that you can see the terror building in different places. Lindsay, Marianne, Marcus and Vanessa are driving around in Lindsey's car and they see two kids on the swings and the. And it's two of the little shitheads from the John's house.

Steve: 44:32

Yes. The third one is missing and they're waiting for him. And they mentioned that there was a guy in a mask playing hide and seek with them just popping in and out from behind you.

Stephen: 44:42

Yeah. And Lindsay's like, you need to go home and they're like, there he is. Hi. We're not scared of you. We're not three. And Lindsay turns around and it's Michael and she's like, run, get out of here. And they see that he's holding the other kid's mask. And so the kids do take off. And Michael decides to recreate the scene from when he first escaped from Smith's Grove in 78. And he jumped on the station wagon that Loomis and Marian showed up in. And it's very similar to that first scene where he breaks through the window of the station wagon and grabs her and assaults her. And she gets out of the car. But this time. It's a different, because she's armed this time she's as bad of a shot as rookie Hawkins was it's 78. Cause she shooting Vanessa and Marcus are like Mary, you're going to kill us because she's shooting blindly. She stopped through the windshield, she's shooting through the roof. And

Steve: 45:47

question though with the kids mentioning, they were, they were saying that Michael was playing hide and seek with them that he kept on like going from tree to tree popping out. Now we've talked before about how he has like the mental capabilities. It seems or the mind of a six-year-old now. I mean, if he was really going to try and murder those two kids, wouldn't he have just like popped out behind one tree and come at them.

Stephen: 46:10

Yeah. I don't think that he actually probably was intending to kill these kids. I think he probably was studying them examining. And playing with them. The friend of theirs that he killed was older than these kids are probably antagonized Michael and brought it on

Steve: 46:30

himself. Yes, exactly. But I, it does raise a question that like, you know, he didn't go for those kids because like, in his mind he was like playing in a way that a really fucked up serial killer murderer would be with kids. But yeah, I almost like the credits to like their statement of like that he was playing with them and

Stephen: 46:49

because

Steve: 46:49

not playing with four survivors because he ends up taking a gruesome chunk out of Marian's hair before she runs out of

Stephen: 46:56

bullets. Oh. And wa and it was at first you were like, oh yes. Cause she has the gun pointed right at him. And she goes, this is for Dr. Lumas and there's

Steve: 47:05

no bullets left. Yeah. There is not any ends up stabbing her multiple times in the chest. Marcus is brave and tries to choke him out with a stethoscope only to get knifed in the eye. And that

Stephen: 47:16

was the. That made me go, oh, we are not playing around in this game. I was not expecting the knife through the eye socket. And not just a little bit like almost to the hilt.

Steve: 47:28

Yes. Yeah. You like, it was very gruesome Vanessa who had crawled out of the car previously and that struggle the returns to shoot him still not a good shot. Nope. He pops the door open and the gun ricochets back and she ends up shooting herself. Yep.

Stephen: 47:42

And like, while this had been going on, Lindsey took the pillowcase that the kids had been gathering candy and which was not a thing. When I was growing up, we had plastic pumpkin Jacquelyn or things that we carried our candy and kids, these days use a pillow cases, which makes sense. You can hold a lot. Yes.

Steve: 47:59

You certainly can. And she knocks them with the bricks instantly. I thought of like in a Pokemon game, when you use a move that doesn't work against the opponent, it's like, it's not very effective. Yes. So she ends up running and hiding in the dirt,

Stephen: 48:11

except that. Grabbed her by the throat and was choking her out against her SUV. And she pulls off he's. She starts pulling off his mask and it's when the mask comes far enough off of his face that he throws her to the ground. There is a, as we saw in the first movie, when they pulled them out, the podcasters pulled the mask out and he had that reaction and it set off a reaction with everybody else. There is some deep connection between he and this mask, and it's enough that instead of killing her, he throws her away so that he can get the mask back in place. And is it.

Steve: 48:56

I think it's like a security blanket that allows him to become the murderer. Like, I don't know whether he'd go around slashing people with the mask on.

Stephen: 49:03

Right. And I think you're right. And it's interesting that they're building on this connection between him and this mask, because we even saw in the original 78 with his Harlequin mask, when he killed Judith, he put the mask on before he killed her. Yes. And he,

Steve: 49:25

there's something about what we can get away with or what we feel more comfortable doing when we're in a disguise of some. Sorry. And then I

49:30

think

Stephen: 49:31

there's, there's a whole deep discussion about. You know what people do online and everything like that, whenever you can hide behind something.

Steve: 49:40

Yes, exactly. And I was wondering in that scene, cause she like breathing and huffing and puffing behind the tree and I'm like, don't do that girl. You're going to get yourself killed. He's gonna hear you breathing. And then I took stairs at work the next day. And I realized that it's because exercise and physical activity, as hard as I was taking the stairs up to the third flight, I was like, no wonder why Lindsay was breathing so hard. She had just run.

Stephen: 50:07

I think it's that. But I don't think, I think it's more than that because you see in almost every horror movie when someone is running from these people and they're scared, it's you're hyperventilating and you can't get your breath. And so you're taking very forceful breaths, which are the, and you can't get yourself to. And you're trying to cover up your breathing because you're terrified. And it's your body's response responsive. You have to breathe more to calm down, like with exercise and yeah, anybody that's running from the killer, you're screwed because you're more likely to give yourself away

Steve: 50:52

now, back at the hospital care and tries to calm down Laurie who insists on getting up after her surgery. But she was stabbed and she calls her stab wound. It's just a paper cut Karen. Yes. At that point, Karen notices, Alison has gone and she left a note saying something along the lines of like evil dies tonight. And she's going to continue to let Lori believe that Michael

Stephen: 51:12

is dead. Oh. And it's in, we got him. We fucking, or we burn him to the goddamn ground, Karen and.

Steve: 51:23

Heartbreaking about how good she feels, knowing that she's yeah, she's

Stephen: 51:27

releasing 40 years of tension and like and you can even see her interaction with Karen changes in that moment. And she says, you know, where's Alison and Laurie says, you know, I'm just so geeked out on pain meds. I don't know kiddo. She calls her kiddo. And I mean, you can see that she's now ready to interact differently with the world. Yeah. And that's part of what is so heartbreaking. Yes.

Steve: 52:02

Well, we flashed to Lani driving the car with Alison and Cameron reminiscing about his times, doing drugs with Allison's dad on their way to meet up with Tommy outside of Lindsey. They find Vanessa and Marcus displayed on the merry-go-round and, and strung up on the swing, set all wearing masks from the silver Shamrock from Halloween three.

Stephen: 52:21

I love that because Halloween three was never part of Michael Meyer, Michael Myers timeline. Silver Shamrock is okay to exist in this timeline with the pumpkin, the witch and the skeleton masks. Yes.

Steve: 52:40

Back at the hospital. And we learned that Lori and Hawkins swapped a kiss once he wanted more, but knew she had the hots for Ben tremor, the guy Lori had a crush on and want him to go to the dance with in Halloween 78.

Stephen: 52:52

And they're both also living in a time where they're happy because they both now. That Michael's dead because Larry says we got him and he goes, it's about damn

Steve: 53:08

time. Yes. And you can see that, especially with the idea of Michael Myers being behind them, that there is a certain bit of chemistry there. And

Stephen: 53:17

I saw that in the first movie because you know, after the babysitter and the boyfriend died and she runs into Hawkins in the alley and Laurie says, dammit, Frank, I could have shot you. It wasn't dammit Hawkins. It wasn't dammit. Deputy. Like it was a first name basis. And even their interaction right there. I was like, there's a history here that we haven't seen yet. And I'm so glad that they are examining

Steve: 53:47

it. Yes, certainly. Meanwhile, outside of the hospital room, a different kind of tension is rising to a fever pitch as people clamor for answers. And Tommy comes in and riles them up, even worse, spreading the evil dies tonight mantra before he tells Lori that my eras is alive

Stephen: 54:05

and it just, it changes the entire feeling of everything. Once that begins to spread. I do love that Tommy comes in and he goes, you know, 40 years ago tonight, you protected me and I'm going to protect you. I love that. It has now changed that he feels a love and a deep bond with her. And that he knows that he just wants to put,

Steve: 54:39

checked her. Yes. Meanwhile, Karen is trying to convince Laurie to that. It's all going to be okay. Saying there is a system.

Stephen: 54:46

And the system failed Karen.

Steve: 54:48

Yes. And who do you think is right? Does Lori need to get up out of the hospital and take things into her own hands? Or should they give the police the first responders, the people who are dedicated to helping stop this, stop this.

Stephen: 55:05

So the logical part of my brain says people that aren't trained don't need to be out there causing more havoc, but also prior to him showing up at the compound, a lot of people died because the system wasn't set up to deal with this type of thing, they weren't taking it seriously enough. And a lot of people have died because of the system that was in place. And Laurie says, you know, she still feels so bad for the darkness that she created. Because she believes that by E all the events of 78 that she has created and made this evil

Steve: 55:57

worse. Yes. As she even theorizes, maybe the only way he can die as if I die too. And I wonder if that's forced chatting what happens in Halloween,

Stephen: 56:06

honestly. And I've been feeling that since they announced that it was a trilogy, I've been thinking, you know, it's going to end with them ending together. I do love then in the hospital scene, Karen, this time says, I'm not going to let anything happen to you, which is exactly what Laurie said to Karen in the upstairs bedroom, in the 2018 Halloween. So though they have had this horrible, traumatic life together. There is the love, like through it all, they do love each other and want to protect each other. And I appreciate that.

Steve: 56:49

Yes. And meanwhile, back at the John's his house, there's a knock at the back door, then the front door only to find out that someone with a bloody hand print came in the back door. Yeah. And

Stephen: 56:59

did they think that it it's the little shit kids from before? Well,

Steve: 57:03

at that point, once you see the bloody hand, Johns makes a comment someone's in her house and it's not a right,

Stephen: 57:08

but the knocking thought was the kids. Now at the moment, when you see that it is an adult bloody hand print, what would you have done? Get the

Steve: 57:18

fuck. Okay. Out of our house. I am not so attached to our property that I'm going to defend it with our lives. I would grab Remi and I would tell you we are going next

Stephen: 57:28

door. Well, no, we get in the car and we drive away after we checked the back seat and we call 9 1 1 on the. Saying, Hey, there is someone inside of our house. We have left, we then text Ashley next door and say, lock all your doors or get your family in cars and you drive away to everyone else. We're really sorry.

Steve: 57:51

Yes, exactly.

Stephen: 57:52

Except that's not what these two guys do. And,

Steve: 57:55

Yeah. Instead of big John grabs the tiny charcuterie knife and little John grabs that barely bigger than that knife lock themselves in the house and split up. I mean, what the fuck you dumb ass bitches. Okay. Okay. I

Stephen: 58:07

have to tell on myself right here. So you know, that I lived by myself in a Victorian home in Cincinnati and I was on the phone with my ex sister-in-law Carrie and I heard a noise in my attic and she said, Should you get out of there. And I was like, no. And so I go downstairs, I lock my basement door, I lock my front door and I lock my back door. I grab a Michael Myers knife from the kitchen. I check all the rooms as they go upstairs, closing all the doors behind me to know that it's me and whatever is in my attic. And it's a walk-up attic. It's not one of the pull-down doors. So there's a whole set of steps. So I'm going upstairs. And I was like staying on the phone with me and I'm crawling around. And I was like, can you hear that? She's like, I do hear it. She goes, you need to get out of the house. And I was like I said, what if it's, you know, some homeless person, she goes, didn't, you need to get out of the house. Dummy me, keeps going upstairs. And I'm like, whoever's up there. There's someone home and you need to get out of here. And I was like, I don't see anything in my upstairs was divided into three rooms. One was funny enough, an old grow room that was set up where somebody was growing pot in my attic. And then there was the main room and an offer him. So I can see that the there's nobody in the grow room or the main room. And it's obviously the other room. And so I'm creeping towards the door and I hear the noise and I jump out in front of the door with a stabbing motion going, ah, and all of a sudden this thing comes at my face and I fall to the ground going. It's the moth man? No, a bird had somehow gotten into my app and my phone had skittered across the floor and Carrie's sitting there screaming at my name going, are you okay? Are you okay? And I'm like, it's a bird, but yeah. So I don't have a ton of room to critique them for locking themselves. And going to investigate a strange noise in their house when I have done the exact same thing. Yes.

Steve: 1:00:31

Now as they split up and they're going big, John Little John. Yeah. Meyers is of course in Judith's former bedroom where he stabs big John in the armpit before popping his eyeballs

Stephen: 1:00:42

out. That was so brutal. Little John makes it upstairs, says Michael you've come home. And then he dies off screen. Yes.

Steve: 1:00:53

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, the escaped psych patient comes to the hospital to get help, but the paranoid crowd assumes sees Michael and all hell breaks loose as they try to track him down. Chanting evil, dies tonight.

Stephen: 1:01:04

So many people screaming is that him is that Michael, is that him? And Lori is, she's heard all this she's come out of her room. This whole scene is very reminiscent of what we all witnessed happening at the Capitol on January 6th, a crowd of. Got riled up to a moment of anger and we're acting in a way that, you know, you hope that isn't how they would act in their normal day. But you know, on January 6th we saw all these people breaking windows and they were going to break into the Capitol and take these politicians hostage and maybe worse because they had built a gallows out in front of the Capitol. And it's you see this anger and these people are without reason anymore. And they start chasing the inmate and the hospital corridors kind of circle around. And Lori sees the person go by and she goes, it's not him. It's not him. And she and Karen are screaming. It's not him. Nobody is listening. And all they can feel is this blood blast and this excited anger, and they're overcome with it. And nobody can reason with Tommy and violence has now just broken out where these mobs are headed up the stairs chasing after him. And this is interspersed back with going back to Hopkins, but you have this sense of dread as they're chasing him that, you know, this isn't going to end well and it just hurt watching it. Like, it felt really disturbing. To watch these people losing control of

Steve: 1:03:02

themselves. And a lot of the reviews are the critiques of the movie. There were people who just like complained about this, that they were like, you know, the mob mentality scenes had no purpose being in a movie. And I'm like, oh my God, the right doesn't like it. When angry mobs are shown in negative fashion and

Stephen: 1:03:21

it shows a scary underbelly that people can say, oh, this wouldn't have happened. Fuck. We've just seen it happen. Like less than a year ago. We just saw this happen and people died that day. And you can just see someone is going to die here, whether it's the people in the mob, trampoline, each other, which we see them doing or this poor person that they're chasing. But as I said, it goes back to Hawkins.

Steve: 1:03:51

Yes. He confesses via flashback that has limits was about to take the final shot to kill him. And his grief of killing his partner and Mon not wanting any more death. You stop. Lumis from executing Myers. Now he says, though, now he knows better, or he points out it's no longer just Michael. It's what he's done to this town. These people, because every time someone is afraid, the boogeyman wins and

Stephen: 1:04:14

it's right. And these people and they're acting out of fear and like all mob mentalities, even if you go back to the original Frankenstein movie with like the whole visual of pitchforks and torches, like, because they were scared of the monster and their fear made them act out. And we're seeing that like back in the day Hawkins so that he wouldn't get in trouble with supervisors, swamped out his gun with Hawkins gun. So there wouldn't be a bullet missing and then they could switch that. With his other thing. Back in present day, Karen pushes ahead of the mob in another stairwell and she finds Lance who is sobbing and terrified. And she goes, I know it's not you. I know you're not him. And she finds a way to in the hospital, lock him in a hallway to protect him and, you know lock this behind me and Tommy and everybody start coming up there. And she's saying it's not him. It's not him. And they mob is rushing at it. One of the things I meant to say this before, one of the things that Karen is talking to him, and she's more saying it to herself, Then to the inmate when she goes I know you're scared. They're scared too. And I think in her mind, she's trying to reason why this is happening. And like nobody's listening to Karen, Tommy and bracket have now stopped. They're not at the front of the mob. They're looking at what's happening, almost realizing what they've done and when we rewatched it and we rewatched it with the subtitles on you can see Karen say to Tommy and you can't hear it over the sound of the mob, but she goes, it's not him. And Tommy goes, it's not him. Karen goes, no, but it's too late at that point because the mob is breaking through the door and the inmate has nowhere to go. He takes a chair, breaks the window. And jumps to his

Steve: 1:06:36

death. Yes. To avoid being torn apart piece by piece by this angry mob. And I think that this has all Tommy Doyle's fault, his death and the climax was karma since he is not a good guy. He is the Trump of this movie.

Stephen: 1:06:49

He's definitely responsible for getting this mob mentality happening. And he is solely responsible for the death of this inmate. And bracket says, now he's turned us into monsters and he's right there. Fear of Michael has turned them in to just as bad they hunted and killed a man because they were afraid with no other reason than their own fears. And this was a very disturbing scene to watch both times that we've now seen it. Yeah. Like it left me feeling dirty. Yes,

Steve: 1:07:36

certainly. Meanwhile Lori continues to claim that Myers is coming after her and that it's personal. The Hawkins finally is the first person to get the chance to set her straight saying it was Dr. Sartain that reunited them in the last movie I'm quoting, he's a six year old boy with the strength of a man and the mind of an animal. All he wants is to go home and

Stephen: 1:07:57

you see that. And

Steve: 1:08:00

yet at the same time, as he figures that out the alarms and Alison figure it out, using a map of where he's been going.

Stephen: 1:08:06

And the, if you go from Laurie's house to the park, it's a straight path to his old home.

Steve: 1:08:15

Yes. And they are told the kids, Alison and Cameron to stay in the car while on, he goes in first.

Stephen: 1:08:23

Lonnie goes up and he knocks on the door. And at first I was like, you fucking idiot. And then I'm like, actually, they have no proof that Michael's there. It's a hunch. So of course it's somebody's home. They can tell somebody who's living there. Obviously he needs to knock on the door, but it wasn't until after like our second watching, I was like, oh yeah, you don't just break into somebody's house because you think the killer may be there. You need to knock first and see if anybody's going to answer. Yes.

Steve: 1:08:51

Very quickly he's killed off screen. You hear the gunshot go off and the kids follow him in. They find the dead John's staged in the state

Stephen: 1:09:00

and they're coming to have staged very like romantically, like one. And they weren't just stacked on each other. One's head was laying on the other one's chest. The music they were listening to is still playing. I kind of got this feeling that it was Baikal playing with dolls at that point. Yeah. Because of the way he staged everybody in the past too. Like Linda as the Judith Meyers. Yeah. And even the kids on the playground. Yes. I agree. Yeah. It's him playing with dolls.

Steve: 1:09:39

Yeah. And they then find Lonnie dead hanging from the attic

Stephen: 1:09:43

door as Michael bursts out of another one of those damn closets with the slatted doors, like still haunt me from Laurie hiding in one in the 78 Halloween. And then the scenes from 2018. He rushes at Michael that he tries to get off a few shots. Michael has his arm. They don't work. Cameron struggling. Alison rushes up to help. She gets a couple stabs before she's thrown down the stairs. And the last step you hear her

Steve: 1:10:16

leg break? Yes. Mike Myers finishes killing Cameron and paleo him on the second floor Bannister and snapping his neck on the way down to get Alison. It

Stephen: 1:10:27

was a really brutal thing because he stops looks at Cameron sees Cameron still alive. Barely, barely, because he's been impaled on the bottom broken Bannister and Michael Mann snaps his neck. And it's just that severity. Keeps shocking. You like, oh, every time you think it can't get worse,

Steve: 1:10:57

especially since, you know, I think if it wasn't for Alison yelling, like leave him alone, leave him alone. He would have left him alone. But it's the fact that she was pleading and begging for him just to come to her that instead, he was like, well, fuck you, bitch. I'm going to just snap his neck.

Stephen: 1:11:10

Yeah. And so he comes down the stairs and Alison tries to stab him and he turns the knife back around and you've seen it from the preview where he's pointing the knife at her, do it. And what we don't see in the preview that you do get to see here is her looking out the door, screaming do it because mommy Karen was outside and she had grabbed the Pitchfork from the farmer and his wife set up out front and she impales Michael with the Pitchfork and stomps on his head. Before grabbing his

Steve: 1:11:44

mask. Yes. Mask lists. Michael follows Karen across the street in pursuit of it. As she taunts him over his sister, only for it to be a trap trapper, angry towns, folk take turns, beating him with blunt weapons after he masks up, ending with Karen, stabbing him in the neck with a

Stephen: 1:12:00

knife. Yup. And again, she gets to use her gotcha line. And right before everybody starts to beat down bracket gets to say the most famous line from all the Halloween movies. It's Halloween, everybody's entitled to one good scare. Yes. And Karen stabbed him in the neck and you know, they think it's done. Tommy says, you know, go be with your daughter. Yeah. Assuming it did before the beat down house. He did pick up his mask to put it back on. Yes, I did. Oh, you did just say that. Sorry. That's

Steve: 1:12:42

okay. I know we're talking about a whole lot here and assuming it's over, Karen goes over to be with Alison as EMS arrives and Lori and the hospital reflects, I always thought Michael Myers was flesh and blood just like you and me, but a mortal man could not have survived. What he's lived through. The more he kills, the more he transcends into something else, impossible to defeat fear. People are afraid. That is the true curse of Michael Myers.

Stephen: 1:13:10

And I think that that is absolutely right, because it goes along with the whole story of the original creation of what Deborah Hill and John Carpenter came up with is an urban legend used to terrify people come to life that keeps coming back. And Laurie has been living in fear for 40 years. Now this town has been experiencing this fear and the more he's killed, no matter what happens, there's going to be a sense of fear over this entire

Steve: 1:13:48

town. Yes. And as a bracket is about to execute Meyers with one less bullet to the head, you hear Lori from the hospital saying you can't defeat it with brute force. And as that happens, Myers gets up and kills everyone in the gang ending with Tommy Doyle for last.

Stephen: 1:14:03

Yup. And he even takes Tommy's bat and bashes his skull when yes.

Steve: 1:14:10

Meanwhile Karen back at the house sees an image of a young boy in a clown costume, looking out Judith's window and goes up to investigate where it ends up Michael snuck in through the back door and we see flashes of him stabbing and killing Karen in the final closing moments of. I did

Stephen: 1:14:26

not see that coming at first. Like when Karen went upstairs, I was like, girl, don't, don't go away from everybody. You think it's over? And I know that's why she felt safe doing it. Cause she thought it was over. And like most of the closeups during the Def lead credence to them being defensive wounds. Cause she's got her hands up and it looks like he's slashing her arm or her hands. Unfortunately Judy Greer in an interview says that it has been written and intended for this to be the death of Karen while I was bummed to see the ending. I thought it was a good idea though. I thought it was beautifully written and I felt like it was a dance like an opera kind of, but it's also a bummer because I mostly, I mostly like to play with my new friends.

Steve: 1:15:10

Yes. At a check added, it's a really beautiful ending in a lot of ways. And I agree with Judy it's unfortunately the right move, which sucks, but they really make it a pretty poetic and pretty powerful. I mean, I have to agree. It is very powerful. I mean, the scene is shot beautifully. They make it a different kind of death than any of the other adapts to show that this is different. It also is poetic in the sense that, I mean, in this movie, she was the heart of the movie. She was, she was, she was the heart in the hospital. She was the heart for her family. You know, she was someone that we really were rooting for more than anyone else. And so what other kind of sucker punch of an ending, would it be if Michael is supposed to win? Right. Other than for him to kill him, if

Stephen: 1:15:55

this is the empire strikes back of the Halloween series, something really bad has to happen at the end. And this was it. And, you know, I was hoping that, you know, hashtag Strode strong would end up having three final girls in the final movie. And I know. That's not what these movies are about. Yes,

Steve: 1:16:18

it is not. And the movie does continue on with Halloween ends coming out next year on October 14th, 2022. Oh, it's going to be a long wait. I know. And so we did do some research and we found that it's been stated, the movie will start with a four year time jump to catch up with modern day. So it will be 2022 when the movie comes out in 2020.

Stephen: 1:16:38

Yep. So modern day does include addressing the pandemic with green noting where we're leaving these characters on Halloween 2018. The world is in a different place. So not only did they have the immediate world affected by this trauma they also had the pandemic, the weird politics we've all been experiencing and other million little things that are turning their world upside down, which, you know, I told you earlier, I could see that you mean, nobody tells, has said that they haven't seen somebody in the last four years wearing them. And Laurie saying, dammit, Frank, everyone's been

Steve: 1:17:13

wearing a mask. Mm, yes. Screen also describes Halloween ends as a coming of age story and a more intimate movie. So far only the Laurie and Alison have been confirmed to wreck a return with of course, Michael Myers and production starts this January.

Stephen: 1:17:29

Oh. So this is very interesting. And I, I know they can't tell us a lot of their motivations for doing the time jump. I know that maybe some of it is they need Lori fully healed so that she can have one final dance with Michael Myers. And that is one of the only things I can think of that. And I guess it's, you know, we've already had the whole town against Michael and that didn't mean. And where do we go from here? Like where has he been these past four years? Does Alison go off to college? Is she living with grandma, Laurie now that both of her parents are dead. How does this actually motivate Laurie to stop drinking and get her life under control and be the person that Alison needs in her life? Do she and Frank develop anything more? Like what has this town been going through? Is everyone on edge constantly? Is Michael Myers, you know, the America's most wanted, like what if he only wanted to come home? Where is he? It's not like the town's like there's Michael, when he's at the grocery store, just let him get his pineapple and don't bother him. Like, you know that it's not, people are just giving him his space. Like, where is he these four years? Where has he gone into hiding? Has he gone out of the city? Like, is he living in the wilderness? We'll find out next year. My love, what do you like, what are your thoughts?

Steve: 1:19:11

I hope that Alison ends up surviving. I have a feeling that Lori might end up dying in the climax for a shadowed. It I just hope though that it is more personal intimate, like they're promising word is kind of as much as it was great. Seeing the world expanded in this movie, having the entire town be about the town versus Michael Myers. I would like to see that in Halloween ends, it is more about the Strode women versus Michael

Stephen: 1:19:36

Myers. Yeah, I think it's and the motivation will probably be Lori deciding that she has to end this not even for herself, but for Alison to be able to have any sense of a normal life so that she doesn't know. Squander the potential that Alison has because Alison is definitely a modern day version of Lori smart, headstrong, intelligent. She doesn't want to end up in a compound worried about the night he may come home again. Yeah,

Steve: 1:20:13

exactly. So with our final thoughts on this movie Myers, now that killed 25 people personally, in this movie, there were more deaths. Thanks. So then I angry mob and things, but Myers personally killed 25 people. Now as the reigning champion of horror, he's killed more than even in some movies and Friday the 13th movies and Chucky movies, he has out killed

Stephen: 1:20:35

them. And I bet you, by the end of Halloween ends, there's a good chance that you can add up all the kills from how will ween to through. Resurrection. And I would say that 18 kills and ends may have a tire higher body count between the three than all the other Halloweens combined.

Steve: 1:21:02

I agree. So out of all these 25 tests, what did you feel is the most brutal visually watching it?

Stephen: 1:21:10

Cameron's death was hard to watch because you could see what it was doing to Alison the Mo and I th I think that was the most brutal for me was because he just didn't die and Michael kept impaling him and then snapping his deck. I D neck, I think that was the most brutal death scene. What about you? It's probably

Steve: 1:21:37

fell on the sand charge. Just the light through her neck was just visually. Wow. It was just amazing. And then just the terror of him stabbing Phil in the back, over and over again, not knowing the rhyme or reason for sure. Just saying, you know, he's dead. Why are you doing this? Just the horror, both visually and psychologically with those two deaths were probably the most brutal for me. Meanwhile, the most shocking. I, I I'm going to guess that yours was the knife through the

Stephen: 1:22:05

I, yeah, Marcus in the car. I was not exp like that was the first death that made me gasp. Yeah. When we were watching that, it changed the game for me. I was like, that is different. Like he didn't go for a neck kill. He didn't go for a chest kill. Through the eye

Steve: 1:22:26

cavity. Yeah. And I just think just those, that trio of deaths, so close to together, you would have thought that with Marion being such a big returning character, that like she would get more of like a death. That's just her death that then like, it was quickly like bam, bam, bam. All three of them died all in a row. You were just like, you know, after Marcus and Vanessa were being built up to be big players in this game, it just was just shocking to have all three of them die. So quickly back to back.

Stephen: 1:22:53

So we discussed last movie, Michael Myers, supernatural superhuman, or CIP, a congenital insensitivity to pain and, and had drosis, which we had talked about that he just doesn't feel pain. Is that why he's able to use all of his brute strength? Because he doesn't feel a tearing on his muscles. And the, as long as the bullet wounds or stabs, aren't. And he's able to keep going. Is that what it is? Like, I don't know where this is headed. Like, are they going into a Friday, the 13th nightmare on Elm street, more supernatural realm to it all?

Steve: 1:23:40

Well Greene has stated that he does not feel that Myra is a supernatural and green is the one creating these movies. So you would assume soon that at least in this trilogy, that they're not going to go down a full supernatural rabbit hole. However, he is admitting that with the amount of stuff that Michael's gone through, I mean, he's been stabbed multiple times, shot multiple times, beaten the fuck out of with blunt force trauma multiple times. I mean, he definitely is more than human or at least appears to be. But Laurie is hypothesizing in that climax that he is supernatural.

Stephen: 1:24:14

Well, I actually don't think, I don't think that's what she said. She said a mortal man could not have survived what he's lived through. Yes, yes. But when she says the more he kills, the more he transcends, he physically is not transcending. It says I'm a Missy. And the legacy of Michael Myers is transcending. So yes, a mortal man shouldn't have lived what he has been through, which is what leads me to believe that it's the SEPA SEPA that he doesn't feel pain.

Steve: 1:24:45

Yes. And I, that's the only thing that makes sense, because if you know, he's not supernatural, he definitely has to be more than human at this point, because I know that like, you know, it, you know, with, if I went through half of that stuff, I would have just given up and been like, okay, I'm dead now.

Stephen: 1:25:00

Yeah. You guys win. I don't care if this was my rampage. You won. Yeah, exactly.

Steve: 1:25:06

So what was your favorite part of the movie?

Stephen: 1:25:09

Favorite enjoyable part. I loved seeing the G four at the bar, like before it all happens enjoying themselves and enjoying life that it was a different perspective on, you know, Laurie had been living as a recluse for 40 years and these people were turning their shared trauma into a shared love for each other. I appreciated that. One of the other parts that I really liked were the conversations with Frank and Laurie in terms of the movie itself and the deaths and things like that. The part that made me most nervous, I think was when Lindsey was running away from him. And it was, as we talked about her heavy breathing and trying to hide from him that like made me tense. Like that was palpable. Yes. I felt that. What about you?

Steve: 1:26:17

I would say, I mean, my favorite, I mean, I loved the deaths. I would say my favorite, like death series, just in terms of just the sheer, like fun of it all. So to speak was just the way he massacred this fireman. But in terms of my favorite part, I would say that what surprised me the most was how emotional I got so many times during the hospital that you can like feel between the relationships with Karen and Alison and Laurie, as well as with Laurie and Frank. And like just the feels that I would get. I'm like, why am I like getting like choked up as they're talking about their trauma when it's a Halloween movie, like, but I did. And they sold it really well. And I don't know whether part of it was just me feeling more now that I'm living. So. Or if it just really was like that emotion was just so palpable of just like, you know, the, the, the, when she was, you know, saying when Lori was saying, like, we got them, like, we burned them down. Like, I mean, knowing that it wasn't true, but seeing her like joy and it just like broke my heart in a way that I wasn't expecting my heart to break during the movie. So I would say that those are probably my favorite parts, cause I was not expecting to have that sense of humility and humanity. I

Stephen: 1:27:24

agree. The cast and the crew, no matter how brutal this movie was and it beat, you know, killing records, they did a job of transcending this from what could have been an easily dismissed slasher sequel into something that said a lot about collective trauma, shared humanity and mob mentality that I think that the more people watch. Those themes are going to resonate and people are going to look back on this as a very important Halloween movie and also something that showed that slasher flicks are deeper than you think. Yes,

Steve: 1:28:13

I agree. And so I really love this movie. We hope that you did to listeners let us know your thoughts on the movie, as well as our discussion on it, by emailing us@happylifepodatgmail.com

Stephen: 1:28:26

or you can get involved with the conversation right away on all the socials, whether that is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or now, including talk at happy life pod.

Steve: 1:28:41

Yes. And until next time everyone evil

Stephen: 1:28:44

dies four years from now. Yes. And stay happy.

A Lifetime of Happiness: Movies, TV, and Video Games

Halloween Kills (2021)

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