From: tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Deus Imperator)
Subject: Re: Friday the 13th (First 2 the best?)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 22:01:13 GMT

In article <BrtBJt.Ju7@news.cso.uiuc.edu> tpjg9663@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Thomas P. Johnston) writes:
>graziano@rocko.enet.dec.com (Rocko Graziano) writes:
>
>
>>Actually, the original _Night of the Living Dead_ broke down alot of the
>>tabbos, _The Omen_ and _The Exorcist_ set the stage for mainstream horror
>>films, and _Halloween_ really kicked the flodgate open for 'slasher'
>>films with it's widespread popularity and success.  
>
>>The _Friday the 13th_ and _Nightmare on Elm Street_ films are all sad
>>profit-only ripoffs of the movies that really made this genre possible...
>
>I enjoyed the Nightmare on Elm Street films (several of them, anyway.)
>They were better than the Halloween and Friday series because they
>were more interesting.  Exploring nightmares, no matter how unrealistically
>it's handled, is better than just watching some maniac kill teenagers
>with a variety of garden tools and kitchen implements, IMHO.
>
I would agree with your assessment on Nightmare on Elm Street.  To me, the
Dream Scenes were always the best part of the movie, and I loved to see
how they would resolve themselves into physicality.

However, after viewing all five Halloween movies in a row, I came to realize
a lot of people are selling them short.  Of course, authorial intention
may vary, but this is what I get:

Michael Myers parents were members of a druidic cult.  It was decided that
through controlled breeding, they would try to bring Samhain, the embodiment
of Halloween back to earth.  Unfortunately, there were twins, and no one
in the cult had a clue what was going to happen.  Which one, if any, had the 
power?  So they were allowed to live until such an age as one displayed the
gifts.
	Michael manifests the Samhain powers, and kills his parents, but before he can finish the pact, by reclaiming the other half of himself by killing
his sister, he was stopped.  Michael was sent to an asylum, and his sister 
was raised in love
	During the long stay at the asylum, Pleasance became fully exposed to 
Michael's derangement.  The doctor tried to convince Michael that he wasn't the 
living embodiment of evil.  Soon however, it did not work.  The doctor instead
came to realize that Michael was a supernatural force, and petitioned the
state to hold him.  He failed.

Halloween I and II tell the tale of Michael trying to regain his birthright
denied him by not only killing his sister, and thus gaining any part of the 
power that went to her in the womb, but also spreading the fear of Samhain
into the world.  With that fear, Myers would grow ever stronger.

As we saw, not even bullet and fire stopped Myers.  At that point, I was 
ready to give up on the series, not suspecting Myers had anything supernatural
about him.  However, the third one changed that.

Halloween III was very strange to reconcile, but with the "evil cult of druid"
context, it makes sense.  The doctor in the story, selling the killer masks
with the silver shamrocks (both powerful druid symbols) was trying to increase
the power of Samhain, and ressurect Myers, wherever he was.

It worked, and although his sister had died, she bore a female child.  In the
druidic faith, women are the head muck a mucks, and all magical power is passed
on in the female line.  THat part of Samhain given to his sister was important
enough so that Myers needed to get it back.  So he went on a killing spree
again, once again without success.  However, at the end, we see that it
isn't a case of Myers getting all "Bad Samhain," and his sister all "Good,"
for the deaths triggeres something within her and she goes for the scissors.

Halloween V is similar plot, except for the ending that convinced me of a 
greater scheme.  Myers is put in prison, the first slasher to be captured.
However, powerful explosions rip apart the jail, and a man with silver tipped
boots frees him.  A member of the cult?  Perhaps.  If so, the next, if there is
one, would be more about the cult.  Look at the pattern.

Halloween I and Halloween II  Myers stalking his sister, II starts immediatley
	after I
Halloween III Strage scientist with siver shamrocks, called Season of the Witch
Halloween IV and V Myers stalking his Niece, V starts immediately after IV

The next must be a tangential movie of some kind.

Of course, this is a lot of plot tapdancing, but such thoughts of conspiracies
keep JFK from resting, Elvis alive, and Paul McCartney dead.  If they 
would do it, I could see it as a powerful statement of horror.  Rather than 
trying to condense such far reaching machinations in a single movie, we
see as the plot slowly unfolds.  Good stuff.
 

-- 
Thanatos, DeathUrge, Master of Everything But Love tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
"Oh God, does this mean we have to fight?"
			-Selina Kyle, _Batman_ 
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