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A nostalgic look at classic music, video games, TV and films asking the question: "Does it hold up?"
Each episode features a different host that brings a fresh take on a film, TV show, video game, or music album of their choice. What can we discover? Do old favorites have a shelf life? Will the classics hold up? “The Classic Hold Up” is an AudioVideoLand production by Digital Storytelling students of Michigan State University in collaboration with Impact 89FM.
Welcome to the classic hold up, where we analyze media from the past. Each episode features a different host that brings a fresh take on a film, TV show, video game, or music album of their choice. Do old favorites have a shelf life? Will the classics hold up?
Speaker 2:Hello. I'm Ben Nathan. I'll be your host for today's classic hold up episode. I'm currently a fourth year student at Michigan State studying film production to the digital storytelling major. I've always had a deep passion for filmmaking and content creation ever since I was a young kid.
Speaker 2:I can remember making movies with my dad on the home video camera. As I started to grow a little older, I proceeded with my other passions, such as basketball and football. It wasn't until my senior year of high school when I found out how much I love movies. I remember at such a stressful time in my life, I knew I had to relax. So I bought a ticket to go see Dune on opening night.
Speaker 2:Ever since, I was hooked. I knew that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After seeing Dune, I have watched almost a thousand movies ranging from small indie comedies to massive blockbuster sci fi dramas. I love them all. Currently, some of my favorite films include Dune part two, Alien Romulus, and Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me.
Speaker 2:However, in today's episode, we will be discussing Halloween. To put it frankly, it was a miracle this film was even made in the first place. Halloween was filmed on a very tight budget of $325,000. But if you talk to a fan of the franchise, you would never have known that was the case, as it went on to become one of the most popular horror franchises of all time. This feature film was directed by legendary composer John Carpenter, who would later go on to become one of the great directors of all time, making films such as The Thing and Big Trouble, Little China.
Speaker 2:But that wouldn't be the case without Halloween kicking off his career as a director. The film is known for its exceptional camera work, nearly flawless soundtrack done by Carpenter himself, and iconic characters. The story follows our two main characters, Laurie Strode and serial killer Michael Myers. In the beginning of the film, it is revealed to us that Michael, at a young age, took his sister's life by stabbing her multiple times while she was getting dressed in her bedroom. From that point forward, Michael had been imprisoned in a mental institution closely looked at and supervised by doctor Loomis, played by Donald Pleasance.
Speaker 2:Eventually, seventeen years later, Michael escapes and begins his revenge on the town that once forced him out. It is then we meet the infamous Laurie Strode, played by a young 19 year old Jamie Lee Curtis. Many Curtis fans considered this her breakout role, as it put her on the map in terms of being a serious actor. We follow Laurie through the town of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween nineteen seventy eight. It isn't soon after the characters' worlds collide with many of Laurie's friends and colleagues being killed through the night.
Speaker 2:Eventually, Michael and Laurie are forced to face off as Laurie nearly becomes Michael's next victim. Doctor Loomis arrives on scene shooting Michael multiple times. He falls off a balcony. However, as our characters go to look at his body, he's gone, leaving his fate unknown as the film ends. Now, if you ask John Carpenter, that would have been the end of Halloween as a franchise, done after one.
Speaker 2:However, the producers and financers of the film had other plans. They wanted sequels, more of them. This left John in a weird place. He didn't want to return and ruin the story that was so great, but he also didn't want to leave his baby in the hands of someone else. After a great deal of pressure from his producers, he eventually returned to write indirect Halloween two.
Speaker 2:According to Carpenter, this wasn't the most pleasant experience, not in the slightest. He's been quoted in an interview saying, I will say that what got me through writing the script was Budweiser, six pack of beer a night, sitting in front of the typewriter saying, what the hell can I even put down? I had no idea. We were remaking the same film, only not as good. Eventually, on Halloween Eve nineteen eighty one, Halloween two was released.
Speaker 2:The film found moderate success critically, but massive success commercially, grossing over 25,000,000 on a $2,500,000 budget. The producers wanted more, but Carpenter took a step back, mainly just producing and scoring the third film, which was an an anthology story about a witch. After this, the producers wanted more of Michael. However, John wasn't on board with the idea. After clashing with the producers for some time, John stepped away completely, selling his rights to the films.
Speaker 2:Since the third film, we have seen almost 10 iterations of Halloween, including sequels, soft reboots, and hard reboots. Some sequels even include notable personnel such as Paul Rudd and rapper Busta Rhymes. After a thirty plus year hiatus, Carpenter returned to score and produce the Halloween reboot series beginning in 2018. This specific reboot series gained notoriety for the names attached. David Gordon Green was set to direct and write, which was a big deal at the time, as he was considered a successful director.
Speaker 2:Danny McBride also joined him on the writing team. And most importantly, Jamie Lee Curtis was set to return as Laurie Strode. This recent reboot trilogy has put Halloween more on the map now than it ever has. While some films are admittedly better than others, the series has always had an underlying theme of evil. Each film, at one point or another, has taken a look at Michael psychologically.
Speaker 2:Characters in the series try to unravel what it is that makes Michael want to kill. What drives him forward? Why does he do what he does? At the time of recording, the latest Halloween sequel series has come to a close, hosting three profitable movies with lackluster reviews. Currently, there is another reboot planned for the near future with a reboot film and television series in the works.
Speaker 2:There's no doubt Halloween has become one of the most loved horror franchises of all time, and Michael Myers is one of the most iconic serial killers we have ever seen on the big screen. The original Halloween movie is a cult classic among horror fans, But the question is, does that movie stand the test of time? Would it be as successful today as it was back then? Does Halloween hold up? Now my own personal experience with the film has been quite a mixed bag.
Speaker 2:As far back as I can remember, especially as a young kid, I've always hated horror movies with a passion. They used to scare the daylights out of me. Every time I used to see a small trailer on the TV, I literally couldn't sleep for weeks. However, as I grew older, I grew a general interest in them, and my mom was a huge fan of the original Halloween movie. So after persistence from her, I finally decided to sit down and watch it.
Speaker 2:My initial reaction to the film was alright. I thought it was a cool movie with a cool concept, but it wasn't anything special. It was an old horror movie from back in the day. It wasn't scary anymore, so I really didn't care. A few years had passed by, and eventually, I forgot about the film.
Speaker 2:However, as it began one of my first jobs at Jimmy John's, I met a huge fan of the Halloween film and the franchise. He went on to become one of my best friends. So, of course, he told me over and over again, I had to rewatch the original movie, the new reboot series, and all the sequels if I got around to it. Finally, I put the pedal to the metal and rewatched the original movie and the reboot series from 2018. After my second time watching the original film and the first time watching the reboot series, my reaction was generally positive.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed the films for what they were, but I never really watched them critically. At this point in time, I would consider myself a Halloween franchise enjoyer, but not necessarily a fan. This is why I thought it would be important to go back and rewatch the original Halloween movie and ask myself, does this truly hold up? Is Halloween still worth the hype all these years later? Alright.
Speaker 2:I'm here with today's guest, Tim McKay. Tim, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what your experience, with the movie has been?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. My name is Tim, Tim McKay. I'm a senior at Michigan State. I'm also dual enrolled in UCLA, and I love movies.
Speaker 3:As me and Ben were talking about last week, I try to, watch a movie a day, and this actually ended up being something that I had never seen before. I'm not really versed on old school horror, especially like nineteen seventies era. So this was a good watch this week, but
Speaker 2:Good. Well, I think Michael Myers is definitely one of the definitive classic characters in the genre. So I'm glad we're going over his characters today as as well as the whole movie. So to begin, I wanna kinda ask you about the release, the original release of the movie and its past. So I know that when this movie first came out, it wasn't a big hit at all.
Speaker 2:It was it did very poorly. Critic review wise, it did alright at the box office, but it wasn't until a one review came along that kind of framed it as this, Alfred Hitchcock Psycho type of movie, and people started to view it in that different lens. So if you wanna kinda take me through why you think, originally, it didn't do so hot at the time of the original release.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, that's that's really good question. I really love like the way Hitchcock, I think that's a really good way to put this. It seems more of like a, like a rear window type slasher to me than anything else.
Speaker 3:Like a little bit of a mystery of like who this guy is. We have the, we have the doctor who's following Michael around this whole time. But I think a lot of the reason that it was actually viewed so poorly when it came out was the era. So 1975, Vietnam ends. And all these movies come out.
Speaker 3:They're just giving everyone some warm hugs. Movies about just going on with your normal lives and nothing scary. And then suddenly, this absolute bombshell in 1978 drops, which is Halloween. And we're seeing, especially, like, children in tarot. We're seeing, teenagers getting ripped apart.
Speaker 3:And I think when that came out, that really scared audiences and it kind of pulled them away from their dreamland they've been living in and trying not to talk about Vietnam and trying not to talk about anything that was uncomfortable for them at this time. And I think that this is one of the ones that really started the whole movement where everything started going back to normal.
Speaker 2:How do audiences see this movie now is is a big question. And I think because it's so old and such a low budget, it's it's very tedious to kinda navigate that. And I wanna know what after watching it for the first time, very recently, what are your thoughts about how how people are looking at this movie in in today's terms?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, a lot of it has to do with the editing, but to even start it off in the first place is that this movie, as you said, low budget. It's a small town in Indiana. And even, like, coming to grasp that is a lot easier for people, especially because of the success of Stranger Things, which quite obviously like moved to the Midwest to to get the same sort of feel that this one has even though this one is set late seventies, Stranger Things is early eighties I believe. But there's that.
Speaker 3:There's the the editing, where I feel like the shots go for so long. And when you watch a lot of really kind of all of these older ones, something that happens is there's a lot of cuts. And there's not as many cuts in current cinema. And this was because of issues with effects or issues with, not being able to like track a sequence as far as they want to. And suddenly when you're watching this movie when the sequences go and they go and they go and the camera's not cutting, it it feels so modern in that sense.
Speaker 3:And you don't really see that a lot. And I think that that, especially the opening sequence, which is a master class, just holds up so well because of that. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I a 100% agree. And I think when you look at factors, again, like these like these little tiny details that carry the movie so well, I think it helps it it definitely helps it with audiences today and how they perceive the movie because with the box office success, especially of the the recent sequels, it's undeniable the success of of the movies and and how even just if not for the original movies, just how interesting Michael Myers is as a character. People love to see him. He's mysterious. Even all these years later, he has this presence to him that you just cannot deny as absolute terror to watch on screen.
Speaker 2:And again, with this with the sequels coming out recently, I think people whether they think they're good or bad movies in the first place, they view them as as as classic movies. They wanna go see them. They wanna go see what the character's gonna do next. We need to talk about the the future of of this movie and how audiences are are gonna perceive this in in in ten, twenty years, even fifty years from now Mhmm. Just like we're watching this one.
Speaker 2:How do you think audiences are gonna like this when we look at those time frames?
Speaker 3:You know, I think this movie is timeless because there's a lot of things that don't seem to change when it comes to screenwriting or creating movies. And how to start your movie off, as I just mentioned, is really important. And this one does it perfectly. Like, we see a young Michael Myers moving throughout the house. It's in this one long sequence.
Speaker 3:And we learn everything we need to learn about this whole character from him. We learn how he does his kills, what he uses for his kills. We use what does he sound like, the theme song that's playing. We even see what he looks like, like as a kid, which like ends up explaining this whole So I think when especially when we're like an hour an hour and thirty eight minute long movie and we're able to learn everything about this character that pretty much our director is saying, it's not that deep. This is the character.
Speaker 3:He's just a demon child. You just leave so much more time to play around with everything else. To play around with Jamie Laird Curtis's character and to play around with the like the the kills that actually come in later. So I I can as I I can see some of the style of it being lost, I think that the story itself is gonna stay intact over time.
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Speaker 2:And I am a com Start your journey at comartssci.msu.edu. Alright. We are back with some questions from the audience. And Tim, I'm gonna toss this first one to you. So the the role of Laurie Strode was seen as empowering to women at the time of its release.
Speaker 2:Do you think that still holds true today?
Speaker 3:That's It's a good question. I feel she does seem like a like a very head screwed on character that's that's grounded. Know, we see all these other characters, especially we see the the young couple who ends up, getting murdered by Michael. And they're, you know, drinking as they come out of the car. They're going upstairs.
Speaker 3:They're having sex. And we're trying to use those characters to kind of like elevate this other character being like, she's above this, she's staying with the kids, she's locking the door up. She's cautious. So she's like walking around, she looks around, she knows what's going on. And I know I'm I'm gonna keep doing it, but I I'm gonna go back and to Vietnam that it in this movie, like, everyone in this town seems so comfortable.
Speaker 3:And they seem like, oh, no. Like, that that was something that happened a while ago. Like, the murders of that that family happened so long ago. And she seems to be a character who knows that there's been a horror in the town and feels like everyone else in a sense is almost going crazy not knowing what she's talking about. So yeah, I feel like in that sense that you could She's empowering in that way.
Speaker 3:I feel like she is. I didn't really think of it originally that way. But compared to some of other characters in the movie, I think that she stands, like, above them in intelligence and just kinda how she's acting or demeanor.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Alright. Moving on to our next question from another fan. Do you think there's more depth to this film than just being defined as a slasher? If so, how?
Speaker 3:Okay. Yeah. I will say, like, one thing that immediately comes up my mind that I always look for in movies, and it's like the battle between young and old. Okay? And it's this, younger character who doesn't believe in older character, or an older character who thinks that a younger character doesn't understand too much about the world.
Speaker 3:And I think that's between the sheriff and the doctor. I believe his name is Loomis. Mhmm. So, like, we have Loomis who knows the horrors of Michael Meyer. He knows what's happened in the past.
Speaker 3:And we have, like, the younger sheriff who's never seen anything like this, and he he doesn't believe him at all. And I think that that direct clash, which seems to be kind of like a side plot in this movie, was deeper than that. It feels like something that, like, that Kubrick would almost come up with. Like, you know, and there's a main trade of, like, Clockwork Orange and things where we see just two characters who aren't able to agree or see eye to eye, and it seems like it's just because of their age and experience.
Speaker 2:Moving on to our, third question of the day. Did it have a significant impact on later horror films? If so, what kind of influences do you see?
Speaker 3:I do see a lot of, kind of the allowing the background to speak for itself more. You know, when we see a lot of shots where someone's tracking these characters and the camera's moving backwards and they're walking towards the camera and we can't help but just to look everywhere else in the frame. Because we've already seen Michael established as a character and we're like, where is he hiding? Is he behind the the clothesline or is he in the bush or something? It that has just been used so much so often.
Speaker 3:I remember, like a scene in Hereditary where they like to keep the camera wide, and you always feel like there's kind of like a specter lurking in the background. And I I had the same vibe with this, and I could really understand why so many movies do it now.
Speaker 2:Fourth question. This movie was Jamie Lee Curtis's breakout role. Do you think her mother being in Psycho had any influence on her decision to take the role or get the role? Do you think it was the right decision to cast her?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, think that she she's the perfect cat. And, I mean, we've said the movies, like, between Psycho and this are so entangled, anyways. And I think that this is also just a like, monumental horror moment. And I think that where else do you look when something like that to the daughter of someone who already gave you one of, like, the greatest horror performances of all time.
Speaker 3:Although I will say this isn't my favorite my favorite, Jamie Lee Curtis performance per se. It's her first role. She seems like she's kinda still easing into it. Sometimes the facial expressions, to be honest, were, like, making me laugh a little bit and the way that she was carrying herself. But I think she's still fantastic in this movie.
Speaker 3:Don't see anyone else in the role.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I 100% agree. I think it for me, it obviously, her mother helped her probably get the role, get into it. I I think that's especially with looking at nepotism in today's standards and how significant we kinda realize it is Yeah. It's probably undeniable at the time that this was the case.
Speaker 2:I I I do believe in my heart that it had some sort of influence, but it was it was well intended, I think, because the movie turned out so well.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How did the sequels to this movie hold up to the original? Were there significant changes in effects used?
Speaker 3:So as I said, I have kinda only been able to look through some clips over the past days of, the new movies. And the main thing is the villain seeming to be straying away from Michael in that way. Like I was watching a new one where he had an apprentice who was doing the kills for him. And for me, that just, like, loses the whole purpose of, like, what this character is. I I don't know if you agree with that.
Speaker 2:But I I I can get on board with that a 100%, especially in this in this later one, Halloween Ends, I I had the chance to go see it in theaters the time, and it it was a dumpster fire. I went with a friend who lives and breathes Halloween. That's his favorite franchise. He has tattoos of Halloween, and and he he disappointed, to put it lightly. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I don't think I don't think the sequels hold up to the original at all in that sense. I don't think they follow in the path that it was intended. And I think just with the the right situation, getting them out of John Carpenter's hands it into a big company, I just I just think at some point it was just bound for for Doom. I think that's fully fully what happened.
Speaker 3:Am I also wrong to say that this kinda turned into a trap setting sort of environment too? Like, he was, like, home alone kinda, Michael was breaking in, there's traps everywhere, like, that that just doesn't feel like what this one was, to
Speaker 2:be honest. Yeah. When you don't have anywhere left to go and you wanna make make it so broad to make all this money, it's it's it's hard to find a good story,
Speaker 3:I would
Speaker 2:So Alright, Tim. So we gotta we gotta discuss the big elephant in the room. Does this movie hold up over time? It's been fifty years. Do you think this movie is is still the Halloween that it once was?
Speaker 3:You know what? I think that simply umbrella answer, yes. I think it does hold up. But there's a lot of factors that I think of when I when I'm, like, coming to this conclusion. So first, the music.
Speaker 3:I mean, absolute classic soundtrack. It's so simple. It's so ominous. I don't see that going anywhere. As I mentioned before, the camera work.
Speaker 3:I I think the camera work is completely timeless. Like, I I don't see these are shots that are hard to recreate today with all the new camera abilities and new upgrades and crazy rigs that they didn't have past then. Like, that opening sequence is genuinely is genuinely ridiculous. You know, like we're going through an entire house. We're going outside.
Speaker 3:We're lifting up like we're craning. It it's just insane. So I think that that holds up. As I mentioned before, there's I think that the lack of edits really does a lot for this. But I think that when we talk about what's most important, it's it's Michael Myers.
Speaker 3:And Michael Myers is, like, a known is a known figure. You know? He's he's now been here long enough and kids will still in your neighborhood be running around dressed up as Michael Myers if they don't know who he is. You know? And if that has something to say about the movie or just about the characters created, it's that Halloween's a classic.
Speaker 2:You mentioned Michael Myers as a character, and I think I think that puts it into such a a a good a good point. I think that's such a good point because if this movie wasn't so good originally, what's then what has, frankly, allowed it to have 15 sequels? What's allowed it to to, to make all to make money time and time again on each sequel? What's allowed it for kids to be still dressing up in the costume, you know, fifty years later? And I think that's because it it is that it has such strong roots and has such a strong identity and personality in it.
Speaker 2:I think that it's just undeniable. And I think that what they were able to achieve in creating Michael Myers as a as a horror villain is is so amazing because how how do you get such a such a just non established character in its own isolated movie on a $300,000 budget to become one of the greatest villains, I think, of all time and one of the scariest, most iconic villain villains? I think that if you look at just those factors alone, like I said, Michael Myers and and and just what what the franchise has turned into, what the what the revenue has turned into, what the what the character what the what the what people are doing now to dress up as a character and stuff, I I think that you can't deny that that this movie holds up because people just keep going back to it no matter what. Even if even if the studio gives them slop, people will still eat it up all day. And I think whether that's good or bad, it still just means that Halloween means something to people.
Speaker 2:It holds up.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, even now, like, sure that there's all these extremely visually impressive new horror movies coming out and there's kind of been a seal broken on honestly what you're allowed to do and what you're not. And this still lived at a time where they weren't really sure what they were able to do or how far they could push things for the audience to be, like, still wanting to stick around, you know. And like, especially, like, I think Reservoir Dogs is actually, like, a major one who did that. But this lives at such a nice area where I think that if you want to sit down and you want to watch something and you don't want to see like guts spilling out or you don't want to see something that's gonna like really disturb you or these extremely graphic scenes.
Speaker 3:I think this is a good one for that, you know, and I I think that's why people are okay with coming back to this every Halloween because it's it lives at a point where it's a bit scary, but it's not necessarily, like, extremely disturbing. And not saying that there's the the content in the movie is not disturbing. I just when I when I'm sitting down to watch, like, new horror movie, sometimes I don't even like, I wanna close my eyes because I'm like, I don't the the new makeup design and the new props and the new it's just it's overstimulating to a certain point. I feel like I'm kinda getting lost in the story when I'm just so focused. Like, when I think of another Ari Aster, like Midsommar.
Speaker 3:You know, I love I do love Midsommar, but at the same time, it's like I'm watching this movie and some of these things happening are so violent and they're so graphic. And it's nice sometimes to be able to go back to a time where maybe some of the punches were pulled a little bit on some of these kills. And it's just like an easy sit down watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I I totally agree with that. And I think that I like I like I like I've said a billion times earlier, it's easy to look at the movie through through just the lens today and what and what it what at its face value could be. And I get if someone wants to look at me and say, it's too it's too campy, too corny, the budget isn't enough, it's too old, I would say I would be disappointed, I'd say, okay. I I I think that some of that can hold it back a little bit.
Speaker 2:But, again, like you mentioned, just what they were able to do, the camera work, the editing, it's all the things that are in between the cracks a little bit that just that makes it it holds up for me because of that because, again, that story, Michael Myers as a character, what it's able to achieve now fifty years later, good or bad, it's still achieving new things. I just think that these things that we've mentioned, everything here, has outweighed completely the the negatives that this movie brings to the table, which I still frankly frankly think is not a whole lot. So Yeah. Final verdict. Tim, what do you say?
Speaker 3:This movie holds up? This movie holds up. You know, it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 2:Good. I a 100% agree. I think this movie holds up. I think it's timeless. It'll be interesting to see where this movie's gonna take us forty, like, fifty years from now, I think.
Speaker 3:But Yeah.
Speaker 2:Overall, I I'm impressed with Halloween. I think it I think it's a movie that, even today, is still reaching new heights and new audiences and and really pleasing fans around the world. And I've never seen a horror movie be able to do something like that. You look at the other ones, like Friday the thirteenth, Night Nightmare on Elm Street, they're trying to make new ones. They're in production hell.
Speaker 2:You can't get around it. So I say Halloween, yes. Halloween holds up. Nice. If you haven't seen it, go watch it.
Speaker 2:Tim, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you had a good time discussing the things at hand, and I think I think you really did bring something insightful to the table today when discussing Halloween. So thank you so much for joining
Speaker 3:Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I do wanna thank, all the fans out here that were sending us some live questions. That was pretty cool. I've got some real movie buffs out there, some really good questions.
Speaker 3:And, I'm glad that you guys enjoy Halloween. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And thank you for having me on the show, Ben.
Speaker 2:Good. Yeah. Of course. I'm glad like I said, first time watch. I think we couldn't have picked a better time to do it right after Halloween.
Speaker 2:No. So it was very it's yeah. It was very entertaining to have you on. So thank you, Tim McKay, for joining me. My name is Ben Nathan.
Speaker 2:I'm the host of this podcast. Special thanks to professor John Whiting for making this podcast possible. This has been the Classic Hold Up discussing Halloween nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1:Find the classic holdup on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us at audio video land for updates, teasers, and behind the scenes content of all audio video land productions. The classic hold up is an audio video land production by students of the college of communication arts and sciences at Michigan State University in collaboration with Impact eighty nine FM.