SQ Classics - HALLOWEEN (1978) - November 3, 2018

Hello, my name's Patrick, and I'm a scream queen.I'm a scream queen.And so are you.

Hello again, my beautiful screamers, and welcome to a very special bonus episode of ScreamQueenz Classics.Tonight we're going all the way back.Nope.Tonight we're going back in time, but not as far back as we usually do.We're only going Back to episode 248, the Night of November 18, 2018, to talk about the original John Carpenter's masterpiece, Halloween, from 1978.But before we do any of that, please allow me to reintroduce myself.Hi, my name is Patrick Walsh, and from 2010 to 2025, I was your guide to the weird and wonderful world of horror movies.But you had to see them through my very, very, very gay little eyes.So, Patrick, why are we getting a bonus episode?Because it's Halloween, you ding dongs.That's why.And also because Scream Queen's Potter Verse episodes release on Fridays end of October is giving me five Fridays, which is an extra Friday, because normally there's only four shows a month.It just seems like the universe is saying, hey, give your crazy listeners something extra spooky.So I am.And not only is it extra spooky, I picked this particular episode because it's one of the ones I'm the most proud of.This was recorded during one of those Halloween pot a thons that I used to do where I would raise money for New Alternatives, which is an organization here in New York City that helps queer homeless youth.And I would put out an episode a day for like two or three weeks.And I would get overtired and overworked and stressed out, and people like to hear me decompose.And I had to stop doing them because they were just dangerous for my health.It was not wise.This was the last year I did them.But.And once upon a time, I was very interested in criminal psychology.I wanted to be a profiler.So I started studying that for a while, and I brought that to my take on Halloween.And I had this very unique vision of Halloween.If you haven't heard it before, you're gonna hear it tonight.It's controversial, to say the least.It's not what people are used to thinking about Halloween.So I kept it a secret for a really long time.I never told people I held these beliefs that I'm gonna share with you tonight for a very, very long time.And I finally came out of my Halloween criminal psychology closet here on the air.And the response was fabulous.The notes I got from listeners saying, patrick, that was incredible.That really blew my mind.I won't look at the movie the same way again.And I said, well, hey, that's what we do here at ScreamQueenz.I always promised was I was gonna take movies that you've seen a turn them on their heads so that you would never look at them the same way twice.Either that you could look at them without seeing the gay, or you just see my crazy vision of it.And that's what you're going to get tonight here for Halloween.But I can already hear you out there going, but, Patrick, what's been going on?Scream Queen's headquarters?Well, nothing, because quite frankly, this year has sucked in a nutshell.My shoulder has been fucked up all year and I've been in physical therapy for it.I've been seeing a doctor and we've done a bunch of treatments and it's not getting any better.It's 10 to 9 is with bone spurs.Come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to go for surgery and December.So it's another two months of sitting around waiting.And it's just been a bummer because I loved going to the gym.I love doing my Zumba class.I had plans to join a pickleball team and pickleballs for old people who can't move.And I still can't do it because of this damn shoulder.So I've just been sitting around the house being bored, watching myself getting fat and saggy, and I don't like it.But this too shall pass the surgeries for the beginning of December.It's supposed to be an easy recovery and hopefully things will be better after that.Well, Patrick, that's a bummer.Is there anything good going on?Well, yes, of course there is, because if you've been following me on Instagram, you might have seen my post about a month ago saying that New York is having a horror renaissance in theater on Broadway and off Broadway.So here's my recommendation to you, because I know some of you might be coming to New York for the holidays.It's a huge holiday destination.If you're coming to New York for the Thanksgiving Christmas season, get yourself some tickets to some horror theater.This has not happened since I was a kid.That's 50 years of waiting for horror to make a return.Surgeons on bromy.And it's happening right now, and it's happening in a big way.For years now.Nobody would touch a horror piece.Nobody would produce it.One would pop up occasionally.It would get shitty reviews that shut it down.Say, see, look, it doesn't make any money.I'm looking at you.Dracula, the Musical.I'm looking at you.Let's stop the musical.I'm looking at Dance of the Vampires.There's tons of stuff that just flop, flops, carry.Flop, flop, flop, flop, flop.You'll get an isolated pocket every now and then.Or maybe something smaller off off Broadway or off Broadway.It would have its six week run and it would be gone.But right now it's hit after hit after hit after hit.And they're good.I have been hearing Broadway audiences scream like I've never heard them scream before.Not.Well, not since 1978.My parents took me to see Dracula on Broadway and I thought that's how every Broadway show was.I thought I'd be hearing people scream at the theater all my life and I haven't heard it since.But it's happening now.The Lost Boys musical, it's.Is it silly?Yes.Is it fluffy?Yes.Is it incredible spectacle?Yes.Is it a play about vampires that they didn't tone down the vampires?Yes.Because normally they'll have a vampire play and they'll kind of leave out the vampire part.But no, they actually made a horror musical and it's damn good.Stranger Things is closing, I think in December.If you can get here, get to see it.It's a spectacular production.You don't have to be a Stranger Things fan to enjoy it because it goes back to the 50s.You're not steeped in all the current mythology.I was expecting a Six Flags theme park show, but no.Is an incredible piece of theater with an incredible cast.And the special effects are astounding.There's a Paranormal Activity show on Broadway right now which is in an original, not like an adaptation of the movie takes place in London.And this is the complete opposite of Stranger Things because instead of going for these big cutting edge technology special effects, they're going for old school theater magic.And it's just as effective and possibly even more frightening.People were screaming and it was delicious.And even off Broadway, there's two shows running right now.A ghost in your ear at 222.Both of them just extended through January.And Ghost in your ear is great.Ghost in your ear.It's just this intimate little show where an audio book recording goes very wrong.He's doing an audio.This guy's doing an audiobook about a ghost story.And the manifestation that's in the story starts happening in the studio.And what's neat about it is that you're hearing everything through studio headphones.You get a pair of high tech headphones at your seat.So as he's narrating, it really feels like he's right in your ear.So it's very intimate.And yes, there's a ghost, but when the ghost is happening, it's only happening in your headset.If you take your headset off.They said at the beginning of the show, if you get too scared, just take your headset off.You won't hear the ghost anymore because like the title says, the ghost is only in your ear.And it made for cool layer production.I really like that.But 222 I haven't seen yet.But hey, if you're coming to New York, see some scary theater and plus, let me know you're here, we'll go get a cocktail.It'll be fabulous.But Patrick, what are you doing for Halloween?Well, I'm not doing anything for Halloween because I'm not celebrating Halloween this year.What?What?No, that's right.I'm not celebrating Halloween this year.I'm celebrating Charoween because international star of the 70s, Charo is returning to the Queen's Theater, which is basically in my backyard.Remember during COVID I got obsessed with Charo and was determined and realized, oh my gosh, this is an actual real person.That's not a fever dream that I had when I was a kid.Is doing these concert videos at casinos here in Connecticut.That's not far from me.That means she tours.I have to keep an eye on her to make sure to catch her next time she comes to one of those Connecticut casinos.But then when she came back, it was literally in my backyard.It was like a sign from God.And it was an incredible show.This Jadel, I thought it was going to be campy, fun.She's an incredible performer.She's a consummate performer.I had an incredible time.I felt like she was my best friend by the time she went home.And the fact that she gave me this wonderful night three or four years ago was great.The fact that she's coming back is amazing.They have the fact that it's happening on Halloween.I'm down.I might dress up as Charo to go see Charo.I don't know yet.I think that's all I got for you.I think I have babbled enough.Have a happy Halloween because right now we're going back in time to November 18, 2018 to talk about John Carpenter's Halloween like you've never heard about it before.In 1978, a movie was released.A movie that would change the face of horror as we know it.A movie that still continues to haunt us 40 years later.Its wounds are still as fresh and as raw as the day it was released.And of course, without a doubt, the movie that I'm talking about is sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band starring the Bee Gees as the Beatles.No, no, no, no, I'm just kidding.Of course the movie I'm talking about is John Carpenter's masterpiece.The Trick or Treat tale of terror in the house across the street, Halloween.What might be difficult for the modern audience to understand is that this movie's perfection lies in its simplicity and, dare I say, its mundanity.This could be happening in any town, on any street, in any house.And in 1978, that was really damn scary.You have to remember where we were in 1978.Son of Sam had just been apprehended.The Hillside Strangler, I think, was still on the loose.Serial killers were seen to be at an all time high.So all of a sudden, the perfect little American town wasn't safe anymore.And this movie took that one step further when it revealed after that opening scene that the person causing this horror was a child not from some awful family or not coming from abuse or neglect.The perfect American family had spawned the perfect American monster.And that was frightening.And it should still be frightening because it still happens.The other thing that the modern audience may not realize is that the end of this movie we have already accustomed, become accustomed.That, you know, the 1978 on it, we have just adjusted to the fact that this child, now grown up, is raining down this barrage of terror upon innocent babysitters on Halloween night in a town that could be yours.But it turns out what, he's also really the boogeyman.Because before this kids, your killers did not get up 15, 16 times after you thought they had been defeated.This was new, this was some scary shit.This was uncharted territory.Back in the day, you, you got your bad guy, you shot him in the head.He went down, he stayed down.But now all of a sudden, all rules were off.You've already ruined my perfect little town.The sanctity of the all American town.And now this on top of it.Oh, the horror, the horror.The absolute horror.Now, of course I did not see this in the movie theaters when it came out.Yes, I saw many things way before I should have.My sister took me to see When a Stranger Calls in the theaters that same year.How that Happened, I don't know.I had no interest in, but yet I saw it anyhow.How these things happened, we don't know, but Halloween was not one of them.Yet I was aware of it.And one of the main reasons I was aware of it was that every year it came back.Every year, the night he came home, he was coming home again, and I didn't know who he was or what he was doing at home.I had no idea what the movie was about, but I knew it must have been scary as hell because not only did it come back every year that there would be lines around the block to see that movie every year.And I'm not talking about your megaplex, I'm talking about your old fashioned movie theater.It was like some old converted theater house, you know, that sat way too many people, more than you would ever put in a regular movie theater these days.And yet the lines would be around the block.No, no, no.I did not see it until it had its premiere on, I think, NBC in 1981.And while it kind of scared me, the effect was definitely hampered by the curse of commercials.Because the way the commercials run, they don't run them as often in the beginning of the movie as they do at the end of the movie.So when you're getting down to the climax, you're getting like two minutes of movie and then three minutes of commercials and then like 90 seconds of movie and three minutes of commercials.So it was very, very diluted for me at the time.But still, still it was very disturbing.What I like about it.One of the things I like about it is that the.Of course the.The actors in it are fantastic.The three girls are perfection because they could be any kids anywhere.You know, the tropes haven't been set for this type of movie.And I love that you have Nancy Loomis as Annie, who.Whose every line is just dripping in snark.Yet she's not a bitch.She's a very sympathetic character.And PJ Soul's just bubbly and vivacious and everything you wanted to be at 17.I wanted to be PJ souls when I was in high school, that's for sure.I tried.I tried.I said totally all the time.I wrote Riff on my copy of Rocket to ruin just like she did, and Rock and Roll High School.But I wasn't PJ Souls, but I wanted to be her.And I've heard people complain about the dialogue between the three girls, about how nonsensy and boring and about nothing it is, but that's exactly what three high school girls would be talking about on any given Day in 1978.Mundanity.And that's what makes this movie work.It's simplicity done to perfection.But the thing that really makes the movie stand out for me is something that came to my attention much later on and unfortunately ruined pretty much everything else in the.Excuse me, rest of the series.I'm having cocktails now because it's time for daddy to relax.Now, those of you who've been listening for a long time have heard me say this many, many a time that when in part two, they introduced the gag of oh no, she's really his sister, that that ruined the franchise for me.And it did on several levels.The main, most obvious one is that it suddenly made Michael Myers 100% inefficient.That means movie after movie after movie, he's coming back to kill a relative.Okay, either it's Jamie Lee Curtis or it's Daniel Harris or it's Josh Hartnett.Yet he never ever gets them.He gets everybody else in town.He'll kill everybody he comes into contact with, but never ever target.Bleh.That's sloppy work, Mr. Meyers.If this was a corporation, he would be fired.But my reason for disliking it is something else.Now, if you've also been listening for a long time, you will know that everyone in my family who was not a CPA is involved with some kind of law enforcement.They might be a cop, they might be a police detective, all the way up to the FBI, to the Secret Service and things like that.When it became very clear that Patrick could not do math, the law enforcement side of the family said, you know what?He's really good at this.And my cousin from the FBI and the Secret Service started to notice that I had a talent for profiling.And that's something that you can't teach.Profiling is when you can take a look at a crime scene and figure out something about the psychology of the person who did this crime.It's an innate thing.You can either do it or you can't.I'm pretty good at it.I pursued that for a very short time.I took criminal psychology classes and specialized classes that would one day lead me toward a career as a profiler, possibly for the FBI.I eventually realized I couldn't do it because all of a sudden it wasn't movies I was looking at.It wasn't abstract puzzles I was looking at.It was actual victims in actual crimes.And those people started to haunt me.24 Hours a day, seven days a week.And I said, this can't be my life every single day.I do not have the constitution for this.It's kind of a fun parlor game pastime for me now.But no, as a career, no, I'd much rather do something positive and creative like acting or podcasting.This keeps me happy.That would have put me in the loony been.However, that innate talent that I have and the things that I learned in class still pop up every now and then.And one of the things that I always will wind up doing when I'm watching a horror movie, I'll start to psychoanalyze things not based on the killer themselves, but based on their actions and the crime scenes themselves.And that led me to this controversial opinion about the original Halloween.And it only works for the original.And I'll get into the details in a minute.And I've gotten into fights over this and it's why I don't talk about this movie.It is that in my opinion, Jamie Lee Curtis was never an intended victim, ever.No, no, no.There is one targeted victim in the modern day era of Halloween in the movie Halloween, and it is not Jamie Lee Curtis.And how you arrive at a conclusion like this is you have to look at every little tiny bit of information that you're given and say, what makes this different?What's different about this crime scene from the last crime scene?What's the same about it?And when you look at it, what you get, you know, if you take the script away and if you know that, if you take away, if you don't know that he's the boogeyman, you're just looking at it from a purely psychological point of view.Michael Myers only has one victim and is in the case with many mass murderers and serial killers.They will kill the same victim over and over and over and over and over again.Like for instance, oh, Texas chainsaw guy Ed Gein was killing his mother over and over and over again in different forms.Not literally, but for some reason, people who triggered the mother button in his brain.Michael Myers is killing Judith again in 1978.Now, I don't know why he killed Judith.It's not clear.It might have been that he was just sneaking in to scare her that night, give her a Halloween scare.But then all of a sudden she was there with no top on and he was caught watching for too long and she yelled at him and freaked out, stabbed her, whatever.Not clear.But now over time, the Judith has become fetishized for Want of another word.So then when he breaks out of the hospital, the only person that he, you know, initially kills is that mechanic.A man is purely logistic.He kills that man in order to get clothes that are not from the asylum.He has to be able to blend in.And he breaks into his old house and he hides out there overnight.So Dr. Loomis says that makes sense.Little boy went home and then spends the day touring his old town.He runs into several people.He does not kill them.He runs into little Tommy, doesn't kill him.Presumably he's bumped into other people during the day, walking around in that mask.He doesn't kill everyone that he sees.That is not the game.And that's one of those things you say, okay, well, this is supposed to be, you know, this crazy Jason, like, mass murderer.Why isn't he killing everyone he sees?Oh, because he doesn't have that in mind yet.He follows some pretty girls, And it's not until Annie yells out, hey, jerk.Speed kills.That something drastically changes.He slams the brakes on that car and stares at them.For whatever reason, in my opinion, at that moment, Annie Loomis became his Judith Myers.Because it's not necessarily Lori he's following.Later on, it's Annie's car that he's following.He's standing outside the house that Annie babysits all night, looking.And he's not looking into the house where Jamie Lee Curtis is babysitting.No, he's always watching the other house.And when he finally kills Annie, it is Annie's body that is put on display.Not just on display.An altar.She's given Judith Myers tombstone.That is the kill that he wanted to make.That is the kill he's proud of.That's why she's out there for all the world to see.Look.Look what I did.Look what I did.Mikey did a good thing.Mikey punished bad Judith again.And it's just the misfortune of everybody else that they just keep showing up at the house.Linda and her dopey boyfriend Lori, they just keep showing up.And at that point, now Michael's caught.Michael's done a bad thing.And in criminal psychology, when you have a killer that puts a body on display, that is an indication that this is something that they are proud of.When it is something that is hidden, it is something they are ashamed of.For whatever reason, only Annie is on display.All the other bodies are.Are hidden.He does not feel good about them.And in this movie, he does something he does not do in any other Movie.What is that?When he comes to Linda while Linda is lying topless in bed.You see anything you like?Michael puts on a disguise.He's already wearing a mask.But no, he puts on the outfit, pretends to be her boyfriend.Why does he do that?Why does he do that?And he stands there and he watches and he watches.And it's not until she rejects him and says, this is going nowhere that he has to clean up his mess.Was it sexual?Did he think he was going to score with Linda?I mean, in some kind of.And I'm using this in a clinical sense, in some kind of retarded sexual mentality.That when she rejects him, it is then that he has to clean up his mess.And you will notice he does not stab Linda.He strangles Linda.And in clinical psychology, when someone is strangled, it is almost always the case that that murder was not planned.That murder was impromptu because it is incredibly difficult to strangle someone, even with a telephone cord.He did not walk into that room planning to kill Linda.What did he want?I'm not sure, but it wasn't murder.Of course, then Laurie shows up, and she's got to be taken care of, too.Michael did bad things.Michael's going to be punished.And the fact that Michael is also the boogeyman makes Michael terrifying.Terrifying.None of this stuff takes away from Halloween at all for me.It makes it better.I live for when I see a movie that gets its clinical criminal psychology correct.And this movie nails it.Whether it's intentional or not, all of the pieces fit together beautifully.I do this all the time, by the way.I can't help myself.Like, even in the Original Friday the 13th, I look at Mrs. Voorhees and I say, why this time?Camp Crystal Lake has tried to open before, and there were fires and there was contaminated water.Why are you killing everyone now?Okay, I get it.In 1958, you took care of the two that was slacking off and caused your son to drown.Those two I get.But why, after all these years, this time are you killing everybody?And I realized recently, I said, it's cus of Annie.She picked up Annie the hitchhiker, who is basically a young Mrs. Voorhees.It's the same job, with probably all the same optimism that Mrs. Voorhees was trying to do.All the optimism that Mrs. VoorheeS was carrying when she had that job when she was a young woman and looking face to face and herself caused her to snap.And once she killed one, she had to kill them all.She had to kill them all.Ding dong Patrick from the future here.My opinion on Mrs. Voorrie's inciting incident has expanded since I recorded this way back when in 2018, after the revelation that was made to me by Michael Verratti and Bart Mastronardi on the final Friday the 13th spectacular episode where we did a deep dive into the first movie and the first mov alone.And they pointed out that, yes, seeing herself in Annie caused her to snap.But also watching Ned pretend to drown, she was watching on the other side of the lake.They're making fun of my little boy.They're making fun of the way he died.How dare they?They rescued this fucker and not my baby boy.Fuck them all.That sends her into a rage which begets the killing spree to come Ding dong back to the show.Let's talk about Halloween.I love Halloween.I think it is perfection in movie form.And like, even the score, the starkness and simplicity of the score is perfection.You cannot get better than this movie for me.And the fact that it works at a criminal psychology level makes it even better.Did I ruin the movie for you?I'm sorry, do you want to beat me up now?Okay, come at me.I don't mind.I would.I could talk about this forever.There are so many instances throughout the movie that everything fits perfectly with this one particular psychological profile, which of course, all gets thrown out the window when you realize that he's the Boogeyman two on top of it all at the end.So I think that's it.But of course, really, honestly, the scariest scene for me is when Jamie Lee Curtis runs out of the house and bangs on the neighbor's door and they turn on the lights and they turn them off that they just don't care.Because that is something that really frightens me when people see you suffering and they just don't care.And that is how we're coming back to New Alternatives.Because I know you care.I hope you care.And if you care, show me that you care.Ding dong Patrick from the future here.It has occurred to me that there's no reason why I can't make this individual episode of ScreamQueenz a fundraiser for New Alternatives, because things haven't gotten any better for queer homeless teens in the 10 year, almost 10 years since I ran my fundraisers, they've gotten significantly worse, because let's face it, it's 2016.Everything's worse.Back then, almost half of the homeless population under the age of 18 identified as queer.And I'm I guarantee it's not gotten any better in this political climate.So for Halloween, I am asking you if you can head on over to new alternatives nyc.org and make a donation and and help some kids who could really use it.The link is down there in the show notes.Ding dong.Back to the show.So until next time, my beautiful, beautiful screamers continue to make the world a creepier place.But possibly make this Halloween a little less creepy for the kids at New Alternatives by making a donation.And never ever, ever forget the Scream Queen's golden rule.Fight or flight, Survive the night.Make it to the final reel baby.Cause there's like pie and margaritas over here.What?It's true.

All of the music for tonight's show, unless otherwise specified, has been written by Sam Haynes.You can find all of his music@www.bandcamp.com ass.Ew.Sam.