October 29, 2024 • 25 mins
Credits:
Email us: thefilmdeptpod@gmail.com
HOSTS -Davey Parks, Simona Grigonis, Jeff Wallitsch
Production Assistant - Angelica-Rose Keenum
Production Sound Mixer -Amber Harris
Co-Producer/Editor - Lilly Richie
PRODUCERS -Tom BjelicSam Decker
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY -Adam PaulRoudi Boroumand
To read the hosts' reviews, head over to substack.com/thefilmdeptpodcast
This semester, The Film Department has teamed up with the mad geniuses of The Beverly Theater. Imagined by The Rogers Foundation, The Beverly Theater brings cinematic connectivity, novel collaborations, live happenings, cultural portals, and a zest for independent spirits to DTLV. With a mission to stage uncommon cinematic, literary, and live experiences, The Beverly Theater is Las Vegas’ first and only independent film house, storytelling arena, and live music venue.
For the latest screenings and events at The Beverly, visit thebeverlytheater.com
The Film Department Podcast is supported by UNLV Film. At the film department of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, every story has a beginning.With degree programs for undergraduates and graduates, state of the art equipment and facilities, incredible professional internships around the world, and expert guest speakers, students discover the power and potential of cinema as they prepare for the film and television industry… and beyond.
Learn more at UNLV.EDU/FILM
UNLV Film. Find your voice. Tell your story.
Email us: thefilmdeptpod@gmail.com
HOSTS -Davey Parks, Simona Grigonis, Jeff Wallitsch
Production Assistant - Angelica-Rose Keenum
Production Sound Mixer -Amber Harris
Co-Producer/Editor - Lilly Richie
PRODUCERS -Tom BjelicSam Decker
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY -Adam PaulRoudi Boroumand
To read the hosts' reviews, head over to substack.com/thefilmdeptpodcast
This semester, The Film Department has teamed up with the mad geniuses of The Beverly Theater. Imagined by The Rogers Foundation, The Beverly Theater brings cinematic connectivity, novel collaborations, live happenings, cultural portals, and a zest for independent spirits to DTLV. With a mission to stage uncommon cinematic, literary, and live experiences, The Beverly Theater is Las Vegas’ first and only independent film house, storytelling arena, and live music venue.
For the latest screenings and events at The Beverly, visit thebeverlytheater.com
The Film Department Podcast is supported by UNLV Film. At the film department of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, every story has a beginning.With degree programs for undergraduates and graduates, state of the art equipment and facilities, incredible professional internships around the world, and expert guest speakers, students discover the power and potential of cinema as they prepare for the film and television industry… and beyond.
Learn more at UNLV.EDU/FILM
UNLV Film. Find your voice. Tell your story.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Film Department is supported by UNLV Film.
(00:04):
At the Film Department of the University of Nevada Las Vegas,
every story has a beginning. With degree programs for undergraduates and
graduates, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities,
incredible professional internships around the world, and expert guest speakers,
students discover the power and potential of cinema as they prepare for the film
(00:24):
and television industry
and beyond. Learn more at unlv.edu/
Film. UNLV Film. Find your voice. Tell your story.
Welcome to the Film Department, the movie review podcast of the UNLV Film Department.
(00:45):
This semester we'll be discussing films screening at our partner movie house,
the Beverly Theatre, Las Vegas' only independent film house and performance
venue. I'm Debi Parks, a fourth year film major here at UNLV Film.
For those watching the video podcast, I'm joined with my here, my friend here,
Michael, and I would be joined by our friend, Simone, but she is out this week.
Simone, we miss you and we look forward to talking about movies when you get back.
(01:06):
And I'm also here with... A mechanic from Myers-Auto Body.
No, hi, I am Jeffrey Wallach. I am a third year film major,
dressed in my Michael uniform. I am also the president of the horror club on campus,
Freight Club, and really excited about today's episode. We're going to have a lot of fun.
Oh yeah, but before we get to talking about classic horror staple, let's talk about
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what's going on at the box office. We got a little battle of the killer clowns between
Terra Fire 3 and Joker Folia Do at the box office right now.
Really interesting matchup between the two. I was not expecting
Art the Clown to come out as a victor. I've never experienced what I feel like is the
closest thing people get to fantasy basketball, but instead it's psychopathic killer clowns.
(01:50):
Yes, yeah, absolutely. It's shocking because the first Joker was so critically acclaimed. I mean,
Joaquin Phoenix literally won the Oscar for Best Actor, and the fact that the sequel is like
bombing at the box, it's making negative money. Yeah. It is getting critically panned. It's really sad.
I mean, I'm very happy for Terra Fire and Art the Clown. I haven't seen any of them yet. They are on
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my list. I know horror club president. How could you not see Terra Fire? I'm going to. Definitely.
I think I'm going to start with Al Halozi. I know that's the first time we see Art the Clown,
right? If I'm not mistaken. I think he shows up in the ninth circle before that.
I know. In a very limited role played by a different actor.
Okay. But yeah, even beyond just the critical consensus behind Joker, I remember that movie being
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a real moment for people. It was something that there was a lot of discourse about it, and it was
something that a lot of people went out to go see in the movie. I remember it being one of the last
movies I went to go see in the theater before the pandemic, and that feels like a lifetime ago.
So I guess that would kind of explain maybe why there's not as much hype, like culturally behind
the second movie. But yeah, it really is interesting that there's just no sort of push to go see it by
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what I feel like is the general movie going audience. But as for Terra Fire, beyond just the fact that
it's this really gory, grind house kind of slasher movie, I'm really surprised at the
cultural tour to force that it's become. It's going from this really independent movie that was
funded by Kickstarter, and now it's something that people are actively going out to see. It almost
(03:24):
feels like a return of the Midnight movie where you're kind of like daring yourself to go see,
you know, can I stomach the level of violence that I'm going to see in this? So yeah, you know,
they're not for everybody, and I don't even really think they're for me personally. I'm not the
biggest fan, but like he said, I'm really excited about seeing this new horror icon come into
(03:44):
being and seeing it. I would do a DC movie. So, yeah, I mean, you have a big budget studio,
you know, Warner Brothers movie that's doing terrible at the box office. You have Terra Fire, which is
I don't know the studio that's producing Terra Fire 3, but I'm pretty sure these movies are still
somewhat independent. Even though they have a bigger budget, which mad respect to them for that.
(04:05):
That's awesome. I love that. I love a good Gorno. I love seeing Blood Guts and Gore. You know,
I love the Saw movie. So yes, I definitely need to see Terra Fire. And personally, I'm happy to see
Joker get knocked out. It is a bit sad. I was looking forward to it because I like musicals too,
and I heard that this one was a musical. So that was that intrigued me, but from what I'm hearing,
the musical elements are actually the worst part of the movie. So that's kind of disappointing,
(04:28):
but can't really have an opinion, I guess, until I actually sit down and watch it, which I honestly
might never do. And Streets say, "Unconfirmed rumor that lady God, I'll push back her release of her
album because of the critical panning of the movie, which is really unfortunate." So sad. But we have
that to look forward to at least. And she's great. She was great in the stars, born. I thought she
(04:49):
was a great choice for Harley Quinn. It's sad that people are not really raving about her performance
that much. I mean, yeah. So maybe in 10 years, it'll be one of those things that people reclaim as
I can't be classic or something. I don't know. Like Megalopolis perhaps. We'll see.
But we have a lot of great stuff coming up at UNLV Film here. We have the American Film Market
(05:11):
coming up, which is very exciting. This is the first time, I believe. It's being held on Las Vegas.
And we have a really awesome collaboration going on between the department and the market. We'll
be having some of our students go over and act as interns. It's a really exciting opportunity
for a lot of us to get in and learn more about the distribution side of the film industry,
which is something that I wasn't really aware of until I got to go to the can. Film Festival
(05:35):
3 UNLV Film, which was something that I'm forever going to be grateful for. But it's a really
exciting new frontier for those who are really curious about working in the industry, but maybe
having to found their niche yet in production or screenwriting or post-production. So yeah, we have
that coming up.
(06:01):
Well, this week guys, we're reviewing John Carpenter's 1978 genre defining Halloween. It's going to be
screening at the Beverly October 28th through the 31st. I don't know about you, David. I am going to
go see it at the Beverly. I actually just bought my ticket. I'm going on Halloween at 9.30 pm to see
Halloween at the Beverly. Really excited about that. So if any of our listeners are going to be
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going there and you want to say hi, I'm going to be in the full Michael get up and everything. So
really excited about that. Just to be sure, this is the 1978 Halloween, not the 2018 Halloween or
the Rob Zombie Halloween. Exactly. There's three films in this franchise named Halloween for some
reason. Don't know why. But I guess we could start here. I feel like this is a good place to start.
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Do you remember the first time you saw Halloween? What you thought of it. And then this most recent
time rewatching it, has anything changed for you? Do you have a new take? Is there something
maybe that stuck out to you this time, David? Yeah. So growing up in a Latino family, there's
something a lot of people I've talked with about have as sort of a share in cultural experience. And
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that's watching horror movies at way too young of an age. I think the first time I watched Halloween,
I must have been in about the third grade. And my uncle had this big binder full of pirated DVDs
that he would buy from a guy at the local like Mexican store. And one of those was the original Halloween.
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And I remember watching it and just being really captivated by it. There was something about it that
was so off-putting about the fact that it took place on a street that looked just like the one I grew
up in in the Bay Area. It was so uneasy seeing this character who was about the age my sister was
kind of going about and just doing her life not knowing that she was in such impending doom.
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It reminded me a lot of the first time I saw a Jaws. And I really think that the way Laurie moves
about the street reminds me a lot of watching swimmers go out onto the beach at Amityville. And like we,
as the audience, know that there's danger and that there's a killer around, but she doesn't. And I
just remember that was the first time as a kid watching a movie and thinking that that was something
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the director could do is put a character in a situation where you know something is coming,
but they don't and like that sort of built tension. And then rewatching it, I've seen this movie
gosh probably at least 10 times. And every time I watch it, I have that same feeling I had when I was
a little kid. And it's just such a fun movie to come back to every Halloween. It's the most festive
(08:44):
Halloween movie. It's like genuinely the Halloween equivalent of like watching elf at Christmas.
So yeah, I would agree. I think my first time. So I actually didn't get into Halloween until I was
in high school. And it was right around when they announced the new David Gordon Green film. So this
is 2017. And I remember it was on AMC Fear Fest. If you guys remember that, I don't know if that's
(09:05):
still a thing or not. I hope so. But AMC Fear Fest, they would show all these horror movies. They
would show all the Halloween. And I remember my dad was watching it and you know, I come in and he's
like, Hey, come watch this with me. And the two things that stuck out to me the first time I saw it was
number one, the shot. So when you say the shot Halloween, like usually like there's the one that
everyone thinks of. And for me, it was the shot when Laurie is standing and the darkness behind her.
(09:29):
And you just see that creepy face just slowly illuminating in the dark. I loved that shot. It's
stuck out to me so much. It was so creepy. And then the second one would be not too long after that
when Michael does that really epic setup. By the way, the core strength. That was just incredible. Yes.
And what I love about that shot specifically is the fact that it could have been so easy for
(09:50):
Carventor to rack focus to Michael. But he keeps Michael out of focus. He keeps him blurry. The focus
is still on Laurie. And so it's just this really creepy shot of just his body slowly coming up in
his head turning. And so that really stuck with me the first time I saw it. I've seen Halloween a
billion times. This is a it's probably tied with super bad in terms of movies. I've seen the most.
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It's like it's cinematic comfort food. It's a rainy day movie for me. I just love getting a bed
and watching Halloween. It's such a I just I love seeing Michael Tara Park these promiscuous teens.
You know what I mean? I will definitely get into that. This most recent time I watched it again
last night. I watched the 4k. The shot factory 4k. It's beautiful by the way. You guys physical media is
awesome. Support physical media. But I saw I think this most recent time I made a point specifically
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to count every single time Linda says totally exactly. So do you know the you know the number? I
don't. So it's 11. She says it 11 times. Now I think also in the TV cut it might be a couple more
of but I'm going with the theatrical here. I do know this is just a really dumb side. I don't
know if you've ever heard of it. There is a Halloween drinking game. The idea is you get together
(11:00):
with your buddies. You get some bottles of liquor and you watch Halloween and you take a shot every
time Linda says totally. So it's 11 shots in the span of 90 minutes. By the end of it you're either
really wasted or you're just as dead as Linda ends up. You know it's one of the other.
But so that was just this last reason. This most recent time I wanted to count specifically how
many times she says totally. So with Halloween let me ask you this too. We just talked about the shots
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in terms of the cinematography. What are some shots that stick out to you? What's something that
you like about in terms of how it was filmed? Well going back to when I first watched it as a little
kid there was the one shot I remember actually really scaring me and it's when oh gosh I'm such a
fake fan. What's the name of the kid? She's babysitting. Tommy Doyle. Tommy Doyle looks out the window
(11:45):
and sees Michael standing on the porch and it's this really like it's so dark and you just see a
silhouette and you can tell based on the way he's standing that he's looking right up a house and
such. It's like a really quiet shot. I don't think there's a musical sting when it happens and it's
so scary. It's so creepy and that's what I always think of whenever I think of this movie is that
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one shot and it really embodies the concept of Michael Myers as the shape. Yes. And I think that's
what was really fascinating for me is you know the really interesting thing about Slasher movies is a lot
of the times the main villain kind of gets worked on as the series goes on you know Jason Voorhees
doesn't get his hockey mask and told the third movie but in Halloween it's just Michael Myers. Yes
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and it's so rare that you watch a movie and a filmmaker just knocks it out of the park and has a
perfect villain right there at the heart of the script and I think that's what really makes this
movie work for me. Definitely and I'm happy you brought up that shot. I have so many fun facts. These
are all my brain you know a lot of it is useless Halloween fun facts. The first one there is that in
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that shot I do believe that that is actually Debra Hill the producer of the movie in the costume
because he looks a little bit smaller and I think because it's a wider shot too so that's why they
wanted her for maybe for whatever reason they couldn't get Nick Castle who is the primary actor that
does play Michael for most of the movie but yeah and that's and that's a great shot. I love that one
too. Specifically those wide shots because he cuts back to that wide shot a lot of the the
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Doyle not the Doyle the the Wallace House. Sorry yes exactly and what I love so much about it is it's
like it has this like graininess to a shot on film right but also the blue lighting and this blue
lighting is featured throughout all of the film where you're seeing you know it's a it's a cool
crisp autumn Halloween night and I just love that I love that they chose to utilize that blue lighting
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I just I love that they chose to utilize those those really beautiful wide angle shots
and you know that's actually something like I know we're not going to get too deep into the franchise
because that's like a whole other podcast but with like Halloween 2018 a lot of that film was shot
very warm it's very tungsten and I just feel like you know with Halloween you want it to be blue you
want it to be cool because it really puts you in the mood of what it's like to be there on that night
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so that's a great shot I also want to bring up one of my I think this this most recent rewatch I
think my new favorite shot there's a really awesome tracking shot where Annie is on the phone and
she's walking back and forth and then the camera is moving with her and you see Michael in the
background and then it comes back and he's not there and again I just love the fact that he's out of
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focus it's so creepy it really is building suspense and that's one thing that this movie is a
masterpiece at building suspense it is a it is a masterclass of of mood and atmosphere and suspense
and you have you know very little violence right very it's very tame very little blood
but the whole movie is sort of defined by its atmosphere it's almost like a separate character in
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it of itself so I thought that's what was really fascinating this time around was realizing how
involved in dynamic the camera is and for a long time I really pictured in my head that this
movie had a very static camera and that's not the case a lot of this movie is pans and sweeps and
you know dollies there's a specific shot where we're from michael's POV as he's in the car and he's
(15:16):
passing the school and you see the camera look from the road to the school and you're seeing
everything that he's seeing it's this very dynamic shot or the scene where uh dr. lumis is standing
there and you see the car pass by him in the background and it's such a subtle thing but it's so
brilliantly shy and not just in terms of what we're looking at about how the camera moves and I
(15:40):
thought that was really cool definitely and we got to give a shout out to dean kundi for that he is
the cinematographer of the first Halloween he also came back for two and three that's why those
films also look so beautiful as well um he went on to have an amazing career in hollywood he shot all
three back to the future movies he shot Jurassic Park and then unfortunately the last thing I think
the last big thing he did was jack and jill um which is like kind of a sad conclusion to the career
(16:05):
that started with hollywood um but either way you know this first one and you brought up the idea of like
the the fact that the camera is always moving so I think we should talk about the opening scene right
the opening scene is defined by the use of it was called the panaglide which is panavision's version
of the steady cam um it wasn't the first movie to use it that was i think rocky i think rocky was
the first movie to use the steady cam but hollywood uses it for this brilliant opening i think it's
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one of the greatest opening scenes in any movie ever where you are forced to follow this killer you're
put in the the perspective the p o v of this killer as he is you know stalking going through the house
going up the stairs and eventually killing the girl we don't know at the time like this is his sister
and like that shocking reveal that this is a child that's like the time that it actually breaks it's
supposed to be one interrupted take it wasn't it was actually there's a few hidden cuts in there
(16:53):
but it was edited very well that you couldn't tell it all looks like one take um so how do you feel
about sort of like that use of the steady cam how do you think that kind of enhances
well i think exactly the kind of brought it up i i really love watching movies and approaching it
from the perspective of the people who are watching it you know when it was first released and
i think the camera does such a good job of building up like you said that suspense but ultimately
(17:17):
the reveal that the audience doesn't even know it's coming that the acts of violence ever watching
being perpetrated or being perpetrated by a child in a suburban home and i was really interested in
that because i think to understand the impact that halloween has not just on the horror genre but like
on america you have to understand you know what was going on in the 1970s you know we're coming out
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of the late you know just crime wave of like violence and you know televised serial murder trials
cults um the 70s were a really violent time in the united states and i actually brought this little
excerpt from a new york times article written from in 1971 so you know i'm bringing my academic sources
here but it says here uh you know they're talking about growing crime in the united states and it says
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according to the fbi killings within the family accounted for one fourth of all murders in 1971
and another 40 percent of the murders were the result of arguments usually between people who
already knew one another there is no doubt that the fear of crime is growing in the suburbs
probably faster than the crime rate four years ago a study comparing suburban and slum areas of
Baltimore found that suburban residents were five times more likely to be afraid of crime but actually
(18:27):
five times less likely to become victims of crime than those who lived in urban dwellings and i
think that's a really good way of kind of looking at what the perspectives of people who were watching
this were that suburban crime specifically violent crime was like a huge fear that people were having
and it's understandably so that you know they're watching the televised trials of ted bundy and
(18:50):
Charles Manson and the hillside strangler and all of a sudden they have this fear that oh that could
be me and then here comes john carpenter with this script that essentially says yes it could be you
and it's going to be you and i think that's what really made this pop because you know Halloween wasn't
the first slasher movie it wasn't even the first holiday slasher movie but it was the one that
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really you know brought it into the american consciousness and i think that's why yeah and you know
i i don't have receipts like you do that i i've heard a lot of interviews with carpenter and one thing
he talks about is you know with a lot of horror films like you look at a movie like Dracula you look at
a movie like psycho our protagonist go to the killer they go to Dracula's castle they go to the
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baits motel this is one of the first times where the killer comes to you and he comes to your house
and definitely a place into that suburban fear um so i'm really happy that you brought that up um
i think one thing i also wanted to bring up to with this film i feel like a lot of people like to go into
sort of the the subtext right the idea like well what's this really about like here you mentioned
(19:56):
in suburban fear another thing that's often brought up is this idea that this sort of christian
endorsement of abstinence and sustaining from drugs i mean we all know the scene and screen though
you know you can never have sex you can never do drugs um so i want to ask do you think that that's
something that the film kind of brings in because you know me personally like i i i always like to go
with authorial intent that's just me personally and carpenter has specifically said that that wasn't his
(20:18):
intent the idea behind the film wasn't to be like oh no but kids if you're living in the streets you
better not be having sex and doing drugs because you'll get killed and if you're the virgin you get
to survive till the end like Lori does um so i sort of go with that as well i don't really think
that that's something in the film but what do you think about that do you think that's something
i think whether he intended to or not it's so textually part of the film like so much of the reason why
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you forgot to do a spoiler at the top but spoiler warning if you haven't figured it out
this so far into the the review the reason why most of the teenagers dies because they're too preoccupied
with sex or drinking to pay attention to their surroundings and be aware of the danger they're in
whereas Lori is so focused on you know doing her job as the motherly protector of these children
(21:07):
that she's the last one to realize that she's in peril and through that you know there's been so many
essays written about the reclamation of the fallace by you know stabbing Michael with the crochet
needle um so whether or not he intended to do that uh i think the movie does sort of endorse that kind of
uh you know very traditional piratin view of teenagers and things um but i don't think it's to the
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detriment of the movie at all okay i definitely i i i i can see that as well and i do agree with what you
said that the idea is not so i mean the only reason let Lori survive is because she is aware she's
paying attention she's not you know her mind isn't i gotta get my freak on like my friends are like
that's their whole thing they they they just are so desperate to ditch the kids their baby sitting
to go have sex with their boyfriends whereas Lori is obviously more focused on that i i know we have
(21:57):
to wrap up soon i'm getting like the the i from our producer so i just want to uh conclude by saying
you know halloween this is my favorite movie of all time and i think the reason why i love this movie
so much is because of its simplicity it's it's a movie that you know critics scholars historians they
love to dissect they love to talk about the psychosexual subtext they love to talk about you know
(22:22):
suburban fears and what i love so much about it is that at its heart it is a haunted house movie it
is a movie that every ten minutes there is a musical sting which by the way we haven't even talked
about the score it's one of the greatest scores of all time but every ten minutes there's a jump
scare there's something you know and it kind of invented jump scares in that way right but
where halloween i think works so well is its simplicity it almost plays kind of like a hitchcockian
(22:47):
you know thriller almost like an episode of the twilight zone and what i mean by that is that
it's a complete film right like we have twelve sequels we have a whole franchise we have lore we have a
lorries his long lost sister we have he's part of a pagan cult remember that bullshit was right but
the point is with the first halloween it is a story about evil and it's a story about how it's
(23:08):
infected this kid and how he grows up to become the psychopathic killer and it is a complete story
in and of itself a lot of people think that it ends with this cliffhanger ending of like well he's
still alive that means there's more story to be told but that's the exact point of the movie the
theme of the movie the ultimate message when you really strip it down to its bare core is that evil
never dies as that you can't kill evil as that he is everywhere right you have this epic montage
(23:31):
you're seeing all these locations from the movie you're hearing the halloween theme kicking back in
again and you're just hearing him breathing and obviously the meaning behind that is that he's
everywhere and he's always going to be there and when you have these sequels when you have this
franchise it dilutes that message quite a bit in my opinion so for the people out there who you
know are listeners who are like okay i want to get into the halloween films which timeline do i
(23:53):
go with because there's so many to choose from there's a but it's a choose your own adventure type of
franchise i'm going to propose this timeline just watch the first one because the first one is a
complete story it's a perfect film in my opinion it's not a perfect film it's so flawed the acting
i mean come on like the dialogue certainly it's not a perfect film it is for me but it is a it
it it when it it sets out with a goal with a message and it completes that goal by the end is a
(24:17):
perfect story in terms of a beginning a middle and an end well that wraps it up for this week's film
department podcast we hope you enjoyed today's class and if you did you can feel free to like subscribe
and share wherever you listen to your five podcasts just a reminder halloween will be showing at
the Beverly October 28th through the 31st and if you would like to go check out see it at the Beverly
(24:38):
support your local theater be sure to check out their latest programming at the Beverly calm including
dates and times for halloween thank you and we'll see you next time i'm David Barks and i'm Jeff
and definitely go see halloween at the Beverly because if they're probably going to be showing the
4k it's going to look amazing it's going to sound amazing and there is no better environment to
(24:59):
watch this movie than in the theater so absolutely go see halloween at the Beverly
imagine by the Rogers Foundation the Beverly Theatre brings cinematic connectivity novel
collaborations live happenings cultural portals and assessed for independent spirits to downtown
Las Vegas with a mission to stage uncommon cinematic literary and live experiences
(25:20):
the Beverly Theatre is Las Vegas's first and only independent film house story telling arena
and live music venue check out our event calendar at the Beverly Theatre dot com
[MUSIC]
The Film Department is supported by UNLV Film.
(00:04):
At the Film Department of the University of Nevada Las Vegas,
every story has a beginning. With degree programs for undergraduates and
graduates, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities,
incredible professional internships around the world, and expert guest speakers,
students discover the power and potential of cinema as they prepare for the film
(00:24):
and television industry
and beyond. Learn more at unlv.edu/
Film. UNLV Film. Find your voice. Tell your story.
Welcome to the Film Department, the movie review podcast of the UNLV Film Department.
(00:45):
This semester we'll be discussing films screening at our partner movie house,
the Beverly Theatre, Las Vegas' only independent film house and performance
venue. I'm Debi Parks, a fourth year film major here at UNLV Film.
For those watching the video podcast, I'm joined with my here, my friend here,
Michael, and I would be joined by our friend, Simone, but she is out this week.
Simone, we miss you and we look forward to talking about movies when you get back.
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And I'm also here with... A mechanic from Myers-Auto Body.
No, hi, I am Jeffrey Wallach. I am a third year film major,
dressed in my Michael uniform. I am also the president of the horror club on campus,
Freight Club, and really excited about today's episode. We're going to have a lot of fun.
Oh yeah, but before we get to talking about classic horror staple, let's talk about
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what's going on at the box office. We got a little battle of the killer clowns between
Terra Fire 3 and Joker Folia Do at the box office right now.
Really interesting matchup between the two. I was not expecting
Art the Clown to come out as a victor. I've never experienced what I feel like is the
closest thing people get to fantasy basketball, but instead it's psychopathic killer clowns.
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Yes, yeah, absolutely. It's shocking because the first Joker was so critically acclaimed. I mean,
Joaquin Phoenix literally won the Oscar for Best Actor, and the fact that the sequel is like
bombing at the box, it's making negative money. Yeah. It is getting critically panned. It's really sad.
I mean, I'm very happy for Terra Fire and Art the Clown. I haven't seen any of them yet. They are on
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my list. I know horror club president. How could you not see Terra Fire? I'm going to. Definitely.
I think I'm going to start with Al Halozi. I know that's the first time we see Art the Clown,
right? If I'm not mistaken. I think he shows up in the ninth circle before that.
I know. In a very limited role played by a different actor.
Okay. But yeah, even beyond just the critical consensus behind Joker, I remember that movie being
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a real moment for people. It was something that there was a lot of discourse about it, and it was
something that a lot of people went out to go see in the movie. I remember it being one of the last
movies I went to go see in the theater before the pandemic, and that feels like a lifetime ago.
So I guess that would kind of explain maybe why there's not as much hype, like culturally behind
the second movie. But yeah, it really is interesting that there's just no sort of push to go see it by
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what I feel like is the general movie going audience. But as for Terra Fire, beyond just the fact that
it's this really gory, grind house kind of slasher movie, I'm really surprised at the
cultural tour to force that it's become. It's going from this really independent movie that was
funded by Kickstarter, and now it's something that people are actively going out to see. It almost
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feels like a return of the Midnight movie where you're kind of like daring yourself to go see,
you know, can I stomach the level of violence that I'm going to see in this? So yeah, you know,
they're not for everybody, and I don't even really think they're for me personally. I'm not the
biggest fan, but like he said, I'm really excited about seeing this new horror icon come into
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being and seeing it. I would do a DC movie. So, yeah, I mean, you have a big budget studio,
you know, Warner Brothers movie that's doing terrible at the box office. You have Terra Fire, which is
I don't know the studio that's producing Terra Fire 3, but I'm pretty sure these movies are still
somewhat independent. Even though they have a bigger budget, which mad respect to them for that.
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That's awesome. I love that. I love a good Gorno. I love seeing Blood Guts and Gore. You know,
I love the Saw movie. So yes, I definitely need to see Terra Fire. And personally, I'm happy to see
Joker get knocked out. It is a bit sad. I was looking forward to it because I like musicals too,
and I heard that this one was a musical. So that was that intrigued me, but from what I'm hearing,
the musical elements are actually the worst part of the movie. So that's kind of disappointing,
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but can't really have an opinion, I guess, until I actually sit down and watch it, which I honestly
might never do. And Streets say, "Unconfirmed rumor that lady God, I'll push back her release of her
album because of the critical panning of the movie, which is really unfortunate." So sad. But we have
that to look forward to at least. And she's great. She was great in the stars, born. I thought she
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was a great choice for Harley Quinn. It's sad that people are not really raving about her performance
that much. I mean, yeah. So maybe in 10 years, it'll be one of those things that people reclaim as
I can't be classic or something. I don't know. Like Megalopolis perhaps. We'll see.
But we have a lot of great stuff coming up at UNLV Film here. We have the American Film Market
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coming up, which is very exciting. This is the first time, I believe. It's being held on Las Vegas.
And we have a really awesome collaboration going on between the department and the market. We'll
be having some of our students go over and act as interns. It's a really exciting opportunity
for a lot of us to get in and learn more about the distribution side of the film industry,
which is something that I wasn't really aware of until I got to go to the can. Film Festival
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3 UNLV Film, which was something that I'm forever going to be grateful for. But it's a really
exciting new frontier for those who are really curious about working in the industry, but maybe
having to found their niche yet in production or screenwriting or post-production. So yeah, we have
that coming up.
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Well, this week guys, we're reviewing John Carpenter's 1978 genre defining Halloween. It's going to be
screening at the Beverly October 28th through the 31st. I don't know about you, David. I am going to
go see it at the Beverly. I actually just bought my ticket. I'm going on Halloween at 9.30 pm to see
Halloween at the Beverly. Really excited about that. So if any of our listeners are going to be
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going there and you want to say hi, I'm going to be in the full Michael get up and everything. So
really excited about that. Just to be sure, this is the 1978 Halloween, not the 2018 Halloween or
the Rob Zombie Halloween. Exactly. There's three films in this franchise named Halloween for some
reason. Don't know why. But I guess we could start here. I feel like this is a good place to start.
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Do you remember the first time you saw Halloween? What you thought of it. And then this most recent
time rewatching it, has anything changed for you? Do you have a new take? Is there something
maybe that stuck out to you this time, David? Yeah. So growing up in a Latino family, there's
something a lot of people I've talked with about have as sort of a share in cultural experience. And
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that's watching horror movies at way too young of an age. I think the first time I watched Halloween,
I must have been in about the third grade. And my uncle had this big binder full of pirated DVDs
that he would buy from a guy at the local like Mexican store. And one of those was the original Halloween.
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And I remember watching it and just being really captivated by it. There was something about it that
was so off-putting about the fact that it took place on a street that looked just like the one I grew
up in in the Bay Area. It was so uneasy seeing this character who was about the age my sister was
kind of going about and just doing her life not knowing that she was in such impending doom.
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It reminded me a lot of the first time I saw a Jaws. And I really think that the way Laurie moves
about the street reminds me a lot of watching swimmers go out onto the beach at Amityville. And like we,
as the audience, know that there's danger and that there's a killer around, but she doesn't. And I
just remember that was the first time as a kid watching a movie and thinking that that was something
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the director could do is put a character in a situation where you know something is coming,
but they don't and like that sort of built tension. And then rewatching it, I've seen this movie
gosh probably at least 10 times. And every time I watch it, I have that same feeling I had when I was
a little kid. And it's just such a fun movie to come back to every Halloween. It's the most festive
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Halloween movie. It's like genuinely the Halloween equivalent of like watching elf at Christmas.
So yeah, I would agree. I think my first time. So I actually didn't get into Halloween until I was
in high school. And it was right around when they announced the new David Gordon Green film. So this
is 2017. And I remember it was on AMC Fear Fest. If you guys remember that, I don't know if that's
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still a thing or not. I hope so. But AMC Fear Fest, they would show all these horror movies. They
would show all the Halloween. And I remember my dad was watching it and you know, I come in and he's
like, Hey, come watch this with me. And the two things that stuck out to me the first time I saw it was
number one, the shot. So when you say the shot Halloween, like usually like there's the one that
everyone thinks of. And for me, it was the shot when Laurie is standing and the darkness behind her.
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And you just see that creepy face just slowly illuminating in the dark. I loved that shot. It's
stuck out to me so much. It was so creepy. And then the second one would be not too long after that
when Michael does that really epic setup. By the way, the core strength. That was just incredible. Yes.
And what I love about that shot specifically is the fact that it could have been so easy for
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Carventor to rack focus to Michael. But he keeps Michael out of focus. He keeps him blurry. The focus
is still on Laurie. And so it's just this really creepy shot of just his body slowly coming up in
his head turning. And so that really stuck with me the first time I saw it. I've seen Halloween a
billion times. This is a it's probably tied with super bad in terms of movies. I've seen the most.
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It's like it's cinematic comfort food. It's a rainy day movie for me. I just love getting a bed
and watching Halloween. It's such a I just I love seeing Michael Tara Park these promiscuous teens.
You know what I mean? I will definitely get into that. This most recent time I watched it again
last night. I watched the 4k. The shot factory 4k. It's beautiful by the way. You guys physical media is
awesome. Support physical media. But I saw I think this most recent time I made a point specifically
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to count every single time Linda says totally exactly. So do you know the you know the number? I
don't. So it's 11. She says it 11 times. Now I think also in the TV cut it might be a couple more
of but I'm going with the theatrical here. I do know this is just a really dumb side. I don't
know if you've ever heard of it. There is a Halloween drinking game. The idea is you get together
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with your buddies. You get some bottles of liquor and you watch Halloween and you take a shot every
time Linda says totally. So it's 11 shots in the span of 90 minutes. By the end of it you're either
really wasted or you're just as dead as Linda ends up. You know it's one of the other.
But so that was just this last reason. This most recent time I wanted to count specifically how
many times she says totally. So with Halloween let me ask you this too. We just talked about the shots
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in terms of the cinematography. What are some shots that stick out to you? What's something that
you like about in terms of how it was filmed? Well going back to when I first watched it as a little
kid there was the one shot I remember actually really scaring me and it's when oh gosh I'm such a
fake fan. What's the name of the kid? She's babysitting. Tommy Doyle. Tommy Doyle looks out the window
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and sees Michael standing on the porch and it's this really like it's so dark and you just see a
silhouette and you can tell based on the way he's standing that he's looking right up a house and
such. It's like a really quiet shot. I don't think there's a musical sting when it happens and it's
so scary. It's so creepy and that's what I always think of whenever I think of this movie is that
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one shot and it really embodies the concept of Michael Myers as the shape. Yes. And I think that's
what was really fascinating for me is you know the really interesting thing about Slasher movies is a lot
of the times the main villain kind of gets worked on as the series goes on you know Jason Voorhees
doesn't get his hockey mask and told the third movie but in Halloween it's just Michael Myers. Yes
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and it's so rare that you watch a movie and a filmmaker just knocks it out of the park and has a
perfect villain right there at the heart of the script and I think that's what really makes this
movie work for me. Definitely and I'm happy you brought up that shot. I have so many fun facts. These
are all my brain you know a lot of it is useless Halloween fun facts. The first one there is that in
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that shot I do believe that that is actually Debra Hill the producer of the movie in the costume
because he looks a little bit smaller and I think because it's a wider shot too so that's why they
wanted her for maybe for whatever reason they couldn't get Nick Castle who is the primary actor that
does play Michael for most of the movie but yeah and that's and that's a great shot. I love that one
too. Specifically those wide shots because he cuts back to that wide shot a lot of the the
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Doyle not the Doyle the the Wallace House. Sorry yes exactly and what I love so much about it is it's
like it has this like graininess to a shot on film right but also the blue lighting and this blue
lighting is featured throughout all of the film where you're seeing you know it's a it's a cool
crisp autumn Halloween night and I just love that I love that they chose to utilize that blue lighting
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I just I love that they chose to utilize those those really beautiful wide angle shots
and you know that's actually something like I know we're not going to get too deep into the franchise
because that's like a whole other podcast but with like Halloween 2018 a lot of that film was shot
very warm it's very tungsten and I just feel like you know with Halloween you want it to be blue you
want it to be cool because it really puts you in the mood of what it's like to be there on that night
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so that's a great shot I also want to bring up one of my I think this this most recent rewatch I
think my new favorite shot there's a really awesome tracking shot where Annie is on the phone and
she's walking back and forth and then the camera is moving with her and you see Michael in the
background and then it comes back and he's not there and again I just love the fact that he's out of
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focus it's so creepy it really is building suspense and that's one thing that this movie is a
masterpiece at building suspense it is a it is a masterclass of of mood and atmosphere and suspense
and you have you know very little violence right very it's very tame very little blood
but the whole movie is sort of defined by its atmosphere it's almost like a separate character in
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it of itself so I thought that's what was really fascinating this time around was realizing how
involved in dynamic the camera is and for a long time I really pictured in my head that this
movie had a very static camera and that's not the case a lot of this movie is pans and sweeps and
you know dollies there's a specific shot where we're from michael's POV as he's in the car and he's
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passing the school and you see the camera look from the road to the school and you're seeing
everything that he's seeing it's this very dynamic shot or the scene where uh dr. lumis is standing
there and you see the car pass by him in the background and it's such a subtle thing but it's so
brilliantly shy and not just in terms of what we're looking at about how the camera moves and I
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thought that was really cool definitely and we got to give a shout out to dean kundi for that he is
the cinematographer of the first Halloween he also came back for two and three that's why those
films also look so beautiful as well um he went on to have an amazing career in hollywood he shot all
three back to the future movies he shot Jurassic Park and then unfortunately the last thing I think
the last big thing he did was jack and jill um which is like kind of a sad conclusion to the career
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that started with hollywood um but either way you know this first one and you brought up the idea of like
the the fact that the camera is always moving so I think we should talk about the opening scene right
the opening scene is defined by the use of it was called the panaglide which is panavision's version
of the steady cam um it wasn't the first movie to use it that was i think rocky i think rocky was
the first movie to use the steady cam but hollywood uses it for this brilliant opening i think it's
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one of the greatest opening scenes in any movie ever where you are forced to follow this killer you're
put in the the perspective the p o v of this killer as he is you know stalking going through the house
going up the stairs and eventually killing the girl we don't know at the time like this is his sister
and like that shocking reveal that this is a child that's like the time that it actually breaks it's
supposed to be one interrupted take it wasn't it was actually there's a few hidden cuts in there
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but it was edited very well that you couldn't tell it all looks like one take um so how do you feel
about sort of like that use of the steady cam how do you think that kind of enhances
well i think exactly the kind of brought it up i i really love watching movies and approaching it
from the perspective of the people who are watching it you know when it was first released and
i think the camera does such a good job of building up like you said that suspense but ultimately
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the reveal that the audience doesn't even know it's coming that the acts of violence ever watching
being perpetrated or being perpetrated by a child in a suburban home and i was really interested in
that because i think to understand the impact that halloween has not just on the horror genre but like
on america you have to understand you know what was going on in the 1970s you know we're coming out
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of the late you know just crime wave of like violence and you know televised serial murder trials
cults um the 70s were a really violent time in the united states and i actually brought this little
excerpt from a new york times article written from in 1971 so you know i'm bringing my academic sources
here but it says here uh you know they're talking about growing crime in the united states and it says
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according to the fbi killings within the family accounted for one fourth of all murders in 1971
and another 40 percent of the murders were the result of arguments usually between people who
already knew one another there is no doubt that the fear of crime is growing in the suburbs
probably faster than the crime rate four years ago a study comparing suburban and slum areas of
Baltimore found that suburban residents were five times more likely to be afraid of crime but actually
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five times less likely to become victims of crime than those who lived in urban dwellings and i
think that's a really good way of kind of looking at what the perspectives of people who were watching
this were that suburban crime specifically violent crime was like a huge fear that people were having
and it's understandably so that you know they're watching the televised trials of ted bundy and
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Charles Manson and the hillside strangler and all of a sudden they have this fear that oh that could
be me and then here comes john carpenter with this script that essentially says yes it could be you
and it's going to be you and i think that's what really made this pop because you know Halloween wasn't
the first slasher movie it wasn't even the first holiday slasher movie but it was the one that
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really you know brought it into the american consciousness and i think that's why yeah and you know
i i don't have receipts like you do that i i've heard a lot of interviews with carpenter and one thing
he talks about is you know with a lot of horror films like you look at a movie like Dracula you look at
a movie like psycho our protagonist go to the killer they go to Dracula's castle they go to the
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baits motel this is one of the first times where the killer comes to you and he comes to your house
and definitely a place into that suburban fear um so i'm really happy that you brought that up um
i think one thing i also wanted to bring up to with this film i feel like a lot of people like to go into
sort of the the subtext right the idea like well what's this really about like here you mentioned
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in suburban fear another thing that's often brought up is this idea that this sort of christian
endorsement of abstinence and sustaining from drugs i mean we all know the scene and screen though
you know you can never have sex you can never do drugs um so i want to ask do you think that that's
something that the film kind of brings in because you know me personally like i i i always like to go
with authorial intent that's just me personally and carpenter has specifically said that that wasn't his
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intent the idea behind the film wasn't to be like oh no but kids if you're living in the streets you
better not be having sex and doing drugs because you'll get killed and if you're the virgin you get
to survive till the end like Lori does um so i sort of go with that as well i don't really think
that that's something in the film but what do you think about that do you think that's something
i think whether he intended to or not it's so textually part of the film like so much of the reason why
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you forgot to do a spoiler at the top but spoiler warning if you haven't figured it out
this so far into the the review the reason why most of the teenagers dies because they're too preoccupied
with sex or drinking to pay attention to their surroundings and be aware of the danger they're in
whereas Lori is so focused on you know doing her job as the motherly protector of these children
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that she's the last one to realize that she's in peril and through that you know there's been so many
essays written about the reclamation of the fallace by you know stabbing Michael with the crochet
needle um so whether or not he intended to do that uh i think the movie does sort of endorse that kind of
uh you know very traditional piratin view of teenagers and things um but i don't think it's to the
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detriment of the movie at all okay i definitely i i i i can see that as well and i do agree with what you
said that the idea is not so i mean the only reason let Lori survive is because she is aware she's
paying attention she's not you know her mind isn't i gotta get my freak on like my friends are like
that's their whole thing they they they just are so desperate to ditch the kids their baby sitting
to go have sex with their boyfriends whereas Lori is obviously more focused on that i i know we have
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to wrap up soon i'm getting like the the i from our producer so i just want to uh conclude by saying
you know halloween this is my favorite movie of all time and i think the reason why i love this movie
so much is because of its simplicity it's it's a movie that you know critics scholars historians they
love to dissect they love to talk about the psychosexual subtext they love to talk about you know
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suburban fears and what i love so much about it is that at its heart it is a haunted house movie it
is a movie that every ten minutes there is a musical sting which by the way we haven't even talked
about the score it's one of the greatest scores of all time but every ten minutes there's a jump
scare there's something you know and it kind of invented jump scares in that way right but
where halloween i think works so well is its simplicity it almost plays kind of like a hitchcockian
(22:47):
you know thriller almost like an episode of the twilight zone and what i mean by that is that
it's a complete film right like we have twelve sequels we have a whole franchise we have lore we have a
lorries his long lost sister we have he's part of a pagan cult remember that bullshit was right but
the point is with the first halloween it is a story about evil and it's a story about how it's
(23:08):
infected this kid and how he grows up to become the psychopathic killer and it is a complete story
in and of itself a lot of people think that it ends with this cliffhanger ending of like well he's
still alive that means there's more story to be told but that's the exact point of the movie the
theme of the movie the ultimate message when you really strip it down to its bare core is that evil
never dies as that you can't kill evil as that he is everywhere right you have this epic montage
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you're seeing all these locations from the movie you're hearing the halloween theme kicking back in
again and you're just hearing him breathing and obviously the meaning behind that is that he's
everywhere and he's always going to be there and when you have these sequels when you have this
franchise it dilutes that message quite a bit in my opinion so for the people out there who you
know are listeners who are like okay i want to get into the halloween films which timeline do i
(23:53):
go with because there's so many to choose from there's a but it's a choose your own adventure type of
franchise i'm going to propose this timeline just watch the first one because the first one is a
complete story it's a perfect film in my opinion it's not a perfect film it's so flawed the acting
i mean come on like the dialogue certainly it's not a perfect film it is for me but it is a it
it it when it it sets out with a goal with a message and it completes that goal by the end is a
(24:17):
perfect story in terms of a beginning a middle and an end well that wraps it up for this week's film
department podcast we hope you enjoyed today's class and if you did you can feel free to like subscribe
and share wherever you listen to your five podcasts just a reminder halloween will be showing at
the Beverly October 28th through the 31st and if you would like to go check out see it at the Beverly
(24:38):
support your local theater be sure to check out their latest programming at the Beverly calm including
dates and times for halloween thank you and we'll see you next time i'm David Barks and i'm Jeff
and definitely go see halloween at the Beverly because if they're probably going to be showing the
4k it's going to look amazing it's going to sound amazing and there is no better environment to
(24:59):
watch this movie than in the theater so absolutely go see halloween at the Beverly
imagine by the Rogers Foundation the Beverly Theatre brings cinematic connectivity novel
collaborations live happenings cultural portals and assessed for independent spirits to downtown
Las Vegas with a mission to stage uncommon cinematic literary and live experiences
(25:20):
the Beverly Theatre is Las Vegas's first and only independent film house story telling arena
and live music venue check out our event calendar at the Beverly Theatre dot com
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