In This Episode
Halle and Alison check themselves into the hospital to ruin Halloween II.
TRANSCRIPT
[theme music]: If scary movies give you dread. Keep you up late night in bed, here’s a podcast that will help you ease your mind. We’ll explain the plot real nicely then we’ll talk about what’s frightening, so you never have to have a spooky time. It’s Ruined.
Halle Kiefer: Hello. Welcome to Ruined. I’m Halle.
Alison Leiby: And I’m Alison.
Halle Kiefer: And this is a podcast where we ruin a horror movie just for you.
Alison Leiby: Just for all of you.
Halle Kiefer: Um. It’s not where we. Happy New Year?
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: We’re recording this in December, but.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: I think it’s, um, January 2nd where you are in the in the future listener.
Alison Leiby: In the future.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Let’s see. Yes. Um, no, this it says we’re dark. Well, you know, it’s either the second or the ninth. And either way.
Alison Leiby: It’s January.
Halle Kiefer: It’s January, and we hope you’re doing well. We hope you had a great holiday, whatever those holidays were, and we’re back at it. Um, by that, I mean, eating fiber. I’m about to join a new gym, actually, because there’s one right—
Alison Leiby: Oh that’s exciting.
Halle Kiefer: I have to now that I.
Alison Leiby: What gym?
Halle Kiefer: It’s called True Vision.
Alison Leiby: Okay. Sounds like a cult.
Halle Kiefer: It it was it is. So it’s $149, which is a lot. But you get unlimited classes.
Alison Leiby: Okay. See, that’s like very appealing.
Halle Kiefer: Exactly because I’m like, I do need a class. Uh, but my friend went there and said she did hot pilates. I was like, oh, what was it? She’s like, well, it’s very culty. And I said, that seems okay. I like, I’m not going to join. And if I do, I’ll think of how fit I’ll get in a cult.
Alison Leiby: I. Am on board for culty fitness stuff. It is like I was, um, a long time Bikram yoga doer and I was like, yep, six days a week I was doing hot yoga. It was the best I’ve ever looked at my whole life. I mean, I was I was a younger person with a younger person’s body, but I was like, oh, I mean, because, like, fitness is often about routine and it’s about outside and like, you know, I’m struggling with it right now because it’s too cold to go swim, um, in New York. Just it’s too cold to, like, walk home with wet hair. And I want to do my hair stuff at home. Um, so I’m, I’m, I’m struggling. I want kind of a culty fitness situation, so.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I, um, I feel like for me, it’s it’s right near my work and it’s right near my bus stop. So it’s like, I feel like it’s [both speaking] but, um, they let you go for free to try it out, so I’m going to try it out.
Alison Leiby: All right. Give it a—
Halle Kiefer: So that’s what I’ll be doing in January, ostensibly barring some sort of other issue. Um, Alison, how are you doing? What’s up with you?
Alison Leiby: I’m fine. My skin is dry, but other than that, that’s, like, not new. Um, can I plug something?
Halle Kiefer: Yes. Of course. What are you talking about? Yes, please. I beg of you.
Alison Leiby: Um, at the end of January, if you’re in New York, I will be doing three nights. I am reworking, um. Oh, God, a show about abortion to be more kind of what I want it to be in this current moment. And I’m taking it apart. And there are lots of pieces of the old show, but there’s also a ton of new stuff and new jokes that I’m working on. And I’m doing three nights at Union Hall. Um, January 29th or no, January 30th, 31st and February 1st in Brooklyn. If you if you have not seen the show originally, it’s a fun like workout show where I’ll be doing like lots of a lot of stuff from the old show, but also, um, kind of reframing it and thinking about some new things. And if you, uh, have seen the old show and miss it, you can come see this new version. But.
Halle Kiefer: That sounds great.
Alison Leiby: Recognizing that now it’s early January technically for listeners, and in the end of January, I’ll be doing these shows, and I’m trying to remember to tell people when they are. [laughs]
Halle Kiefer: And thank you for doing that. That’s very smart.
Alison Leiby: Yeah. Trying, trying my best.
Halle Kiefer: So go see her.
Alison Leiby: Other than that, please.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, yeah.
Alison Leiby: Please come see it. And other than that, uh, I will say another plug. Uh, the Laneige, uh, sleep hydrating mask.
Halle Kiefer: I have seen those.
Alison Leiby: It’s like the it’s like a big blue jar and it’s like, uh, it’s like a gel cream.
Halle Kiefer: Ooh, okay.
Alison Leiby: So it’s like, you know, those, like, it’s not greasy. It’s like a water based, like a water cream.
Halle Kiefer: Okay, I think I know what that is.
Alison Leiby: It goes on really. If you if you like, opened it up, you’ll be like, I’ve seen this.
Halle Kiefer: Okay.
Alison Leiby: Viscosity before. Um, but it’s basically just like a very cooling lotion that you put, but, like, you just, like, slather it on at night. And I will say it is like I do wake up. It’s like, that’s the least dry I am all day.
Halle Kiefer: That sounds great.
Alison Leiby: So I don’t know, go get it.
Halle Kiefer: Um, I wish I had something to recommend. Um, well, I recommend, um, calling your dear friends and and.
Alison Leiby: Oh.
Halle Kiefer: And wishing them a happy New Years.
Alison Leiby: That’s nice.
Halle Kiefer: Um, I’m trying to think I just got some work gossip. I, I am thankful for work gossip. I cannot share it but [both speaking] oh, it just, nothing hits like it.
Alison Leiby: Oh, oof, I love work gossip.
Halle Kiefer: A little work gossip.
Alison Leiby: So, yeah, maybe we’ll recommend stuff all month. Who knows?
Halle Kiefer: Um, I’ll try to come up with something, something to recommend. I, um, I keep getting ads for. I hate to even bring this up, but I’m being inundated. I, I’m on a lot of PR mailing lists for.
Alison Leiby: Me too.
Halle Kiefer: Because, um, I worked at Vulture when Trump was elected. So then, like, I just wrote up everyone who performed at his inauguration, and it was just like a running list of the fucking nobodies and fucking nothing that wanted to perform at his inauguration. And then as a result, I’m on every possible worse PR list. And we received also this email to the Ruined email, uh, about the DailyWire+ uh, comedy Lady Ballers, which is just a. Fucking dud of a move and it’s obviously transphobic. And then.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: In addition to that they are inflating their Rotten Tomatoes score. So it has a 94 on Rotten Tomatoes it looks like dog shit ate dog shit. And I have received it on every email I like. Basically it’s like something.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Somebody has like scanned all of my emails and I’m just receiving it. And I just want them to know that the more I receive this, the more money I will give to trans organizations.
Alison Leiby: Great. Oh, wonderful. I love that.
Halle Kiefer: I just want to confirm. And, um, I know they always talk about Trantifa. If they’re looking for any cis people in Trantifa for. I’m ready to sign up.
Alison Leiby: Yep. I’m in.
Halle Kiefer: Every fucking email I get. I was like, you all should KMS wait wait wait, KYS.
Alison Leiby: KYS.
Halle Kiefer: If you will. It is. It is the worst of American culture altogether.
Alison Leiby: No question.
Halle Kiefer: And then to be like. And now we will launch a streaming platform.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Absolutely not going to go ahead and wish for their demise.
[AD BREAK]
Halle Kiefer: Speaking of someone’s demise, we are, of course, uh, kicking off a new month.
Alison Leiby: New month.
Halle Kiefer: And this is a oft discussed. And now, uh, and frequently asked for. We are doing a month of sequels.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And we’re going to try to do some big, big ones, some big guys—
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Some heavy hitters.
Alison Leiby: And we’re doing all sequels for originals we’ve already covered.
Halle Kiefer: Yes so.
Alison Leiby: So you can go back and kind of explore the originals that we’ve done, um, so that you can like or or go like relisten before you listen to the next one and see if we’ve remembered anything or talked like, you know, that’s a fun experiment.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And I feel like the way to do this is go listen to the first movie now before you listen to this.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And the first movie is, of course, a classic John Carpenter’s Halloween.
Alison Leiby: Had to.
Halle Kiefer: That’s right. We’re doing Halloween II. Um, we always like to have Alison watch the trailer. Alison, what do you think about the trailer for Halloween II?
Alison Leiby: It made me realize that every time we talk, like I mix up, uh, Michael Myers, Jason and Freddy, which I think is not—
Halle Kiefer: I think it’s very common. Absolutely. Yeah.
Alison Leiby: But like, every I was like, oh, I wonder which guy this is going to be like. It was just like, I was like, I know it’s Halloween. I know it’s Michael Myers. Like, I intellectually I know that. But as soon as the trailer started, I was like, I wonder. Uh, and then of course, we see, uh, his dumb face or his, his nasty face. I don’t like all the hospital all of it.
Halle Kiefer: It takes place largely and almost entirely within a hospital. So in case—
Alison Leiby: Don’t love hospital.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. It’s good to bring up a lot of hospital stuff. Um, and, uh, how scary, taking a baseline scary? How scary Alison do you find the concept of being stalked by a serial killer in a hospital?
Alison Leiby: It is. I mean, like, obviously like I think it’s a lot of, like nurses and doctors that we follow it somewhat like just based on what I’ve seen. But like there is this part of being as somebody who’s been in the hospital a lot for surgical recovery, like you, you are aware of how trapped you are.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: And like, I have mobility surgeries, like I have back surgery. So it’s like I’m there until I can stand up and walk out and then I can go like, home, but, um, it is like there is something scary about being in a hospital, like, especially like whatever you have going on, like there’s a reason you’re there and you are kind of trapped in, uh, I don’t like it.
Halle Kiefer: And there—
Alison Leiby: It’s something I’m aware of. Every time I go to the hospital, I’m like, if something happens here.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: So I mean.
Halle Kiefer: And they definitely play obviously with that, um, as we are, uh, as there’s mayhem unfolding, um, unbeknownst to our main character, Laurie Strode. Um, and of course, uh, she returns, uh, Jamie Lee Curtis is Laurie Strode. And we also get Doctor Samuel Loomis, who is a doctor trying to—
Alison Leiby: Loomis is such a.
Halle Kiefer: It’s so perfect.
Alison Leiby: It’s such a horror name. I mean, it’s is that why Billy Loomis has that last name?
Halle Kiefer: Yes, it is an homage. It is a nod to this iconic character who is played, which is played by the British actor Daniel Pleasance, who absolutely crushes this. And that’s what I. I feel like he makes the movies. I love Jamie Lee Curtis, but, you know, she’s a very earnest.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Um, final girl. And Donald Pleasance is giving a little bit more. He used to be on the West End. He’s a theater actor, so when he’s given a line, he’s—
Alison Leiby: I love a theater actor.
Halle Kiefer: It’s so good. Like, it just it it does amp it up into a little bit more of a camp place. But that is what there are, horror movies without those specific characters would be, you know, just doing this wouldn’t be nearly as good.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: If you had a straightforward, it’s just a sheriff or something. You need a man constantly running around in a lab coat screaming, he’s not a man. It’s something different. There’s no life behind his eyes, you know?
Alison Leiby: Yeah you do need that guy.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, and thank God he is back. Okay, great. And then finally, would you like to guess the twist in Halloween II? Alison.
[voice over]: Guess the twist.
Alison Leiby: Would you say there’s a twist here? Like a real.
Halle Kiefer: Well, you know, I mean, yes.
Alison Leiby: Was there one in the original?
Halle Kiefer: There is a twist, I.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: You probably have heard of it. But yes, there is a proper of proper twist, a proper reveal. That being said, um, looking at now, it certainly isn’t a surprise, but it’s more of like a dear God. We looked at this file and it turns out. And then you do find out something, uh, about Michael.
Alison Leiby: Okay. About Michael. I’m going to guess that. We find out. He’s, um.
Halle Kiefer: Gay.
Alison Leiby: Gay, that’s in your medical file. [laughs]
Halle Kiefer: Diagnosed gay.
Alison Leiby: Gay. Um, I, I think, Michael, it’s going to be that he has some kind of like dis— Like disease like a degenerate. Like he’s like.
Halle Kiefer: Oh I like it like.
Alison Leiby: Aging prematurely, but in a way that, like, makes him unkillable in certain ways or something.
Halle Kiefer: Ooh I love that.
Alison Leiby: So it’s like it’s like, oh, because he’s. Or like, maybe he, like, doesn’t feel pain.
Halle Kiefer: Alison these are great, excellent guesses. These are phenomenal.
Alison Leiby: And that’s why it’s like hard to slow him down in the way that like, a human gets slowed down fighting him.
Halle Kiefer: I like it a lot. Um, all right. Let us begin. Ruining Halloween II, which of course is written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, who also produces all the films. And it is, uh, directed by Rick Rosenthal. It’s his directorial debut, and I think he did a bang up job. He also really comes back and directs Halloween Resurrection, which we will get to at some point. Of course.
Alison Leiby: Some point. There are so many Halloweens.
Halle Kiefer: In the future. Let us begin. We open with the song Mr. Sandman.
Alison Leiby: Oh no.
Halle Kiefer: I always associate that movie with, uh, Crybaby. Did you ever see, the John Waters movie Crybaby?
Alison Leiby: Yes, of course.
Halle Kiefer: Which is something I remember seeing going over like people’s houses and watching that movie all the time. I love that movie.
Alison Leiby: John Waters known, uh, Baltimore again and thus Maryland legend.
Halle Kiefer: He there at the um, Academy Museum. They’re doing a retrospective of his work. And I went there and it was so great. I mean, it’s it’s pretty basic, like, it’s like, you know, if you it’s kind of like, if you didn’t know any if it’s any of his work, it’s kind of like an intro. But it was really wonderful. And just sort of seeing you just I want now I want movies that are, you know, grody. I want something that feels real and authentic, which I’ve talked about forever.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And seeing that, it’s like, oh, the whole point was to scare and horrify. And I feel like then to bring that to Crybaby, which is a musical.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: About the 50s, like he crushes it and obviously Hairspray. So, you know, like it. But Mr. Sandman is a scene in that where I, I, I think of it so fondly. And so we’re, we’re entering into this movie with Mr. Sandman sort of drawing the parallel of Michael Myers, Michael Myers being the boogeyman, being the Sandman of nightmares.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And on the screen it says Haddonfield, Illinois, October 31st, 1978. Alison, we are starting immediately after the events of the original Halloween.
Alison Leiby: Oh, shit. Okay.
Halle Kiefer: Literally, uh, we are starting actually before the ending. So they are showing us. Don’t worry. Again, it please listen to the Halloween episode.
Alison Leiby: Yes if you haven’t yet. Now would be the time.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, but, uh, listen, uh, John, Deborah and Rick here, they they knew that maybe we’re going to need a little catch up, you know.
Alison Leiby: Right yes thank you.
Halle Kiefer: And so we’re starting a little bit before the end of the last movie. So we are ending with Laurie Strode. Remember she’s babysitting. Uh, we have Tommy and Lindsay. She says, go to the next door neighbor and call the house. Go call the police. So get out of here. And the kids run screaming out of the house and ran. Run past, you guessed it, Doctor Loomis, who is on the street looking for Michael Myers, sees children running, screaming and a door standing open. He’s no dummy. Michael Myers is in this fucking house.
Alison Leiby: Absolutely he is.
Halle Kiefer: Laurie has already been battling him, but. And is under the impression he is dead. And of course, as she sort of collapsed against the doorframe, she’s on the second floor of this home. We see Michael get back up off the floor, come up behind her and start strangling her. Just as Doctor Loomis mounts the stairs to the second floor landing point, his gun shoots Michael point blank, unloads like empties the clip as Michael sort of jerks backwards and finally hits the window and falls out of the second story balcony to the grass below.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: And Laurie.
Alison Leiby: That was the end of the first one.
Halle Kiefer: So that was the end of Halloween. And Laurie says, was that the boogeyman? And Doctor Loomis says, as a matter of fact, it was. Of course, when Doctor Loomis runs downstairs, we see sort of a comically perfect man sized print in the dewy lawn. But no, Michael Myers, he is gone.
Alison Leiby: [gasps] Was that in the first movie?
Halle Kiefer: Yes. Well, we see her look, we see him look down and we see he’s gone from the lawn.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: So we’re now we’re picking up Doctor Loomis runs down.
Alison Leiby: Right now we’re now we’re in the new.
Halle Kiefer: Now we’re in the new. And he touches the grass. Uh, it’s covered in blood. So Michael is clearly bleeding.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: He appears to have been shot six times and is still moving, which is bad news.
Alison Leiby: Bad news bears.
Halle Kiefer: Um, and we see, uh, a neighbor come out and see Doctor Loomis on the lawn say, what’s going on? And Doctor Loomis says, call the sheriff, tell him I’ve shot him, but he’s still on the loose. And the neighbor says, is this a joke? I have been getting trick or treating all night. And Doctor Loomis said, I’ve been trick or treated to death all night. And Doctor turns to him and says, you don’t know what death is.
Alison Leiby: [laughs] Okay, I like this performance.
Halle Kiefer: It’s so good. Like, it’s like every line is just him yelling, you don’t know what death is and storming out. So when he turns away, of course, we immediately kick into our classic Halloween music. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo, which I wrote. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. As if I would remember if I hadn’t known that.
Alison Leiby: Doo doo doo doo doo doo.
Halle Kiefer: Halloween II Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance and then sort of a jack-o’-lantern being pulled apart to reveal a human skull. And let me tell you.
Alison Leiby: No.
Halle Kiefer: That shit hits every time. I’m like, all right, get me going.
Alison Leiby: I’m in.
Halle Kiefer: So we see we are, of course, watching, uh, through Michael’s POV, the classic killer POV. We hear his heavy breathing. He’s in the alleyways, sort of behind the houses. Um, we see a dog barking at him. We see trick or treaters on the sidewalk because they’re still a bunch of kids out. And so when he’s wearing a mask, when people see him, they don’t immediately clock. That’s—
Alison Leiby: It’s like, yeah, it’s a guy. Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And so no one in the town knows this has happened yet. So basically, Loomis is now calling the sheriff, calling people and getting the news out of Michael is still loose in the short amount of time before news hits the public domain, right. And we see the sheriff roar up to Loomis and his sheriff, Leigh Brackett, who we also saw in the first movie, who has been involved in the search. He knows, he knows about Michael Myers. And Doctor Loomis is in a total panic, which I really appreciate about. Like he’s no longer cool, calm, collected. He’s screaming at the sheriff. I shot him six times. I shot him in the heart and he screams and you can tell he’s just improvising. He goes, this guy this man he’s not human. And the way he says this guy is like, oh, he’s like, he would actually say he’s like, no, no. My character wouldn’t say, this guy, this man, he’s not—
Alison Leiby: This man.
Halle Kiefer: But this guy is like you—
Alison Leiby: I’m a man of science. I’ll say he’s a man. Um, unfortunately, of course, um, Michael is still on his nighttime walk, and we he comes up to the back of a house with a jack-o’-lantern to see a, uh oh, an older woman making ham sandwiches for herself and her husband, Harold. And, um, she’s calling to him in the living room. He’s watching, uh, Night of the Living Dead. Again. A lovely little homage, uh, to another phenomenal movie that we have done on the podcast. Please go listen to The Living Dead, a classic for a reason. When she goes into the living room to ask her husband if he wants mayo and mustard. He’s of course, asleep. Uh. Michael enters the kitchen and grabs her knife off the cutting board, and as the woman stands in the doorway of the TV room, a news bulletin cuts in about three dead bodies being found. All of Michael’s victims in Haddonfield. So now news of his killings have started is starting to spread. This woman is like, oh, my God, the movie sort of. We see, uh, also we see Night of the Living Dead. So we hear the classic line in Night of Living Dead.
[clip from Night of the Living Dead]: They’re coming to get you Barbara.
Halle Kiefer: When they. When they see the man in the cemetery. Before they realize he’s a zombie. And he’s sort of teasing, Barbara. And of course, then they immediately are attacked by zombies. Unfortunately, the homeowner walks back to her cutting board to finish making her sandwiches, and the knife is gone and there is blood next to her sandwiches, so she starts screaming. Also, this is just a town where everyone’s doors are just unlocked, like their back doors. And I like it. That’s how I grew up. Like the door in your home. It didn’t. The door wasn’t necessarily locked. Like you’re going in and out your door—
Alison Leiby: Yeah, I would say that, like growing up. Doors weren’t necessarily locked. I know my parents now. I think, um, lock their doors much more. Frequently or regularly.
Halle Kiefer: Yes yeah.
Alison Leiby: But growing up in the burbs, like, it was regularly like. Oh, like. The like. The screen door is closed, but it’s not locked and you can just walk out.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, my parents always be like, lock the door when we’re not home. Because if we’re home.
Alison Leiby: Yes, yes.
Halle Kiefer: It’s fine. Somebody’s home. Their more concerned like somebody is coming in and stealing something. Not Michael Myers showing up.
Alison Leiby: Yes same. Right, right right right right right right, right.
Halle Kiefer: Understandably. Um, unfortunately, uh, the homeowner is screaming. And so the next, next door, there’s a teenage girl, Alice. She comes to the back of her house and tries to yell, Mr. and Mrs. Elrod, are you okay? You know but they don’t. They’re not replying. She runs back inside and calls. Not 911, but her friend. And she says, oh, I heard screaming from the Elrod’s. His wife’s always picking on him. He’s probably just snapped and started to beat her. Anyways, my parents are gone for the night.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: It’s like, well, the the 80s, early 80s man.
Alison Leiby: Different time.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And her friend on the phone says, didn’t you hear? Teens were found murdered on Orange Grove? It’s on the radio. Alice turns on the radio, says, Sally, I can hear the sirens that’s right down the street. And you see sort of Alice start to put together. Like that’s like two blocks away.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately, within her home, she hears something heavy and metal hitting the ground. She whips around, looks sort of through the living room to the front door. There’s nothing there. But she does see that the door is open. She puts the phone down and her friend on the phone is like Alice? Alice? Unfortunately, she goes to walk towards the front door to shut it, only to have Michael Myers jump vertically into frame and stab her. Um, murdering her.
Alison Leiby: A jump stab.
Halle Kiefer: And what’s interesting is like the way it’s shot, it’s like it looks like he was just crouched on the ground, and she would have seen him like he’s looking. She walked past him. It wasn’t like he was at her table.
Alison Leiby: Right. Where is he allegedly coming from?
Halle Kiefer: He’s coming from everywhere. And that’s the thing about Michael Myers. He’s got you dead, to rights, no matter where you’re at. Um, so, obviously, uh, the sheriff has called all of his police officers to the house where Laurie was babysitting. So that’s where the murder victims are. They’ve cordoned off the house, and unfortunately, by the time they get there, there’s already press and media starting to swarm because it would be a huge deal in a small town. That’s—
Alison Leiby: 100%. Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And Laurie is only just now getting wheeled out on a stretcher. So Laurie Laurie has been stabbed at least once and so is is okay, but is not doing well and has to be taken to a hospital and as they load her into the ambulance. She says, please, whatever you do, don’t put me to sleep. Like she doesn’t want to be put under and she’s sort of panicking about it, they’re like, don’t worry. And one of the paramedics is a young guy, I think, where he’s supposed to be like 18 or 19, like he’s just out of high school, recognizes Laurie as someone who goes to school with his younger brother Ziggy and tells the driver like, oh, I know her. Her dad’s on Strode Realty. And it’s like, oh shit, you know, uh, who cares? Like, so they drive to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and we sort of see again, like little moments that I love in John Carpenter movies. Uh, in the first Halloween, you see, um, Annie and Laurie smoking a joint and driving, and then they see the sheriff who’s Annie’s dad. They’re like, oh, God, and they freak out? Like, I just love that.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: We see a mom taking her kid who looks like he’s been hit in the mouth with a baseball or something, or, like, fell. So his mouth is gushing blood, and he has ice in his mouth and a towel, but it just looks like a normal. It’s like, so gruesome, but it’s just a normal household accident. But like when you’re a kid, it’s so scary.
Alison Leiby: Yes. Just blood at all is terrifying.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And gushing out of a child’s mouth. You hate to see it.
Alison Leiby: You do.
Halle Kiefer: And so they take her, take them inside. And the nurse, uh, we see. Okay, we called in the doctor on call. We weren’t really expecting anything. Um, but now Laurie Strode is coming in, and we need the doctor here. His name is Doctor Mixter, and we find out that he was in the country club all night. And even though he was on call, he’s drunk. So when he arrives, they just start putting cups of coffee in his hand. And I was like, man, you got to think how often did that happen in the past? I feel like that—
Alison Leiby: I think that that was. Yeah. Now it’s but I think, I think 25, 30 years ago. That’s happening all the time.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So they put Laurie in a hospital bed, and Doctor Mixter says, like, when when’s the last time you got a tetanus shot? Like, we have to type your blood. Laurie, of course, is just like, uh, Michael Myers, you know, like, panicking and so, like, well, we need to did give her a blood transfusion because of all the bleeding, because of her stab wound. So we’re going to sedate you. And she’s like, please don’t put me to sleep, please don’t put me to sleep.
Alison Leiby: I’d be scared.
Halle Kiefer: And she says, please. But like the doctor injects, uh, you know, some sort of sedative into her, um, arm, and we see a lot of needles going into the flesh, um, in this film. So that’s what you’re squeamish about. And I get it. There’s a lot of that, uh, right up top. Um, meanwhile, the sheriff and Loomis are driving around the neighborhood, and Loomis is, like, has a gun in his hand and is shining a flashlight out the out the window, like. And everyone he sees, he’s like, turn right, that’s him. And it’s just a tree. You know, it’s like, look at that. It’s like a dog.
Alison Leiby: Imagine being like on the street and a car drives by with like a flashlight and a gun pointed out the window. [laughs]
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And the sheriff’s like, you have to calm down. And, uh, he’s like ordering the the sheriff around, he’s like, Doctor Loomis, I hate to point this out here. You let him out like you’re his own goddamn doctor. Because, remember, he escaped when they were transferring him. But it’s like, what was the point? Did you. You knew this guy was like this? You should’ve taken more precautions.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And he says to Loomis, look, you couldn’t have shot him six times and have to live. You must have shot at him six times and missed him. I mean, that happens. That’s no judgment.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: No man could be shot six times and keep going. And Loomis says.
Alison Leiby: No.
Halle Kiefer: This is no man. Well, that’s not good. Alison. They spot what essentially looks like a Michael Myers in the distance and pull over. And there’s all these, like, sort of teens on the sidewalk, like drunk or trick or treating, like, all in costumes. And so Loomis pulls out his gun and runs out of the car screaming, Michael.
Alison Leiby: Cool.
Halle Kiefer: And the sheriff grabs his hand like you cannot gesture wildly with a gun when there are teenagers in front of you. Also, we don’t know if that’s Michael Myers or a guy with a mask.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, it is Halloween after all. The holiday. Not the film.
Halle Kiefer: Exactly this, they just think it’s regular Halloween. They don’t know we’re watching them. Alison, this Michael Myers wanders into the street and and is immediately run down by a police cruiser who not only hits this person, but slams the guy into a parked van and the whole thing explodes into flames. So this is why we’re seeing this Michael Myers mask melt under this motherfucker’s head. And Loomis, the sheriff, runs over. The sheriff goes. Was it him? Was it him? Loomis. And of course, Loomis is like, I don’t know. He’s on fire. I, uh, I didn’t think, uh, sorry, I didn’t know—
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: But they don’t have time to answer, because one of the deputies arriving, Deputy Gary, he is here to tell them that one of their ID, the three bodies. And one of them is the sheriff’s daughter, Annie. We saw earlier. It was, uh, she was also babysitting in the last movie. She and Laurie smoked a joint they’re friends from high school. She has been murdered by Michael Myers. Obviously, the sheriff is devastated by this. And he and Loomis get into the deputy’s cruiser so he could go identify the body. Back at the hospital, we see the mom and the kid with the bloody mouth. They leave the hospital and we see sort of. We see several nurses whose names will be revealed in time. And the two paramedics, uh, Jimmy and Bud, they’re all watching the news, listening to news, because now everyone in town knows this is happening. So we get this, uh.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Reporter, uh, Robert Mundy and, uh, Robert Mundy is on the scene, just trying to get every graphic detail, you know, try to figure out what’s going on. And everyone now knows it was an escaped murderer named Michael Myers in the town. The paramedic Jimmy has sort of like, I don’t know what you will [?] sort of like a white knight. Like he wants to be the hero. So now he wants to go visit Laurie in her bed. So she’s in a hospital room now. She’s unconscious, and he walks in to her room while she’s asleep, and he runs his finger over her hand. Jimmy, I’m going to stop you right there. I’m going to stop you right there, bud. And Laurie wakes up and he says hi. And they kind of chat, sort of like, well, how are you doing with, you know, everything that’s been happening? You know, uh, that guy’s killing people. And we get, uh, the head nurse, Virginia Alves. Her name is pronounced. It is spelled Alves. But they all keep saying Alves. So I’m just going to say Alves. So she a head nurse. She’s no fucking nonsense. She’s also a woman of color who I believe is the only person of color. Not again. That’s a not that I have to call it every time, but I just nice to see in the 80s. Like, okay—
Alison Leiby: 1981. I mean, all right.
Halle Kiefer: All white people. Um, and she’s also, uh, a wonderful, uh, character. Everyone in this is like a great character actor. It’s like, oh, you need me to be a strict nurse.
Alison Leiby: I love that.
Halle Kiefer: Guess what I’m going to be a nurse.
Alison Leiby: Got it strictest, nurse.
Halle Kiefer: And so she, reasonably enough, was like, Jimmy, get the fuck out of my patients. Like she knows him. He’s obviously like one of the few paramedics in town, like, get the fuck out of here. What are you doing? And he’s like, oh, sorry. I was just visiting her and I saving her in my mind. And I’ll be the hero. And I’m sure I won’t be murdered by Michael Myers anyways. I just want involve myself in the plotline, um, as much as I could. So she kicks him out and she’s says, sorry about that, Laurie. And letting her know. So you have a stab wound, but you also a fracture in your leg, but it’s not a full break. So the doctor wants to wait in the morning. We’re going to do X-rays and set it. So right now it’s just bandaged. So you cannot get up and walk or it’s going to be really painful. But we’re going to give you a ton of medication. And you know you should be set. And she sets out and Jimmy stops in again to see Laurie. And he’s like do you want a Coke? Which I did think was nice. I am sure if I was attacked by a serial killer I would like a delicious cold—
Alison Leiby: Oh my god, a cold regular. I know I say I’d prefer a diet at this point, but like, yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Oh yeah, I probably would too. Um, but again, she kicks him out and the other paramedic, bud says we have another call. So they leave. We see Robert Mundy, the reporter on the scene, uh, where again, the alleged murderer Michael Myers has killed three people. He’s now saying that they believe he may have been just killed and burned to death in a car accident. It’s unconfirmed. They have to confirm the identity of the body, but his legacy lives on in the deaths of these three teenagers who have been sliced and diced in this Haddonfield home. And another reporter, we sort of see them like they’re instructing, like, okay, get like you have to get sign outs if you’re getting a quote, unless it’s a teenager you have to get the parents. But honestly, just get the teenager to sign it themselves. We could argue that in court later. Like they’re trying to get into this as as much as they can, right?
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately Alison. They bring the sheriff to identify his daughter Annie’s body while the body is on a stretcher outside the house in front of everybody, including the press.
Alison Leiby: Like, no.
Halle Kiefer: And I think that was probably just the they—
Alison Leiby: They needed it to. Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And of course he pulls down the sheet. It’s Annie and she dead.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And the sheriff is in shock and says, I have to go home. And I have to tell my wife, I can’t let her find out from the news. And they say, go ahead. And in the meantime, uh, Deputy Gary is going to sort of take over. The sheriff turns on Loomis and screams, you let him out. This is your fault. And it obviously wasn’t Loomis’s intention. But if you know that he’s like this and Loomis keeps saying that he knows he’s not a man, well, then why do you like [both speaking] why did you give him the opportunity? What were you what was the plan here?
Alison Leiby: Right, right. You knew this was a possibility.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: So the sheriff storms away to go tell his poor wife and their child has been murdered. And the deputy is like, oh, so, Doctor Loomis, anything else we could do for you? Uh, they. Haddonfield really appreciates everything you’ve done for the town. And Loomis says, well, we have to make sure. Sure. That guy who burst in flames actually is Michael Myers. And the deputy was like, of course it’s him. Like he was wearing the outfit. What was with this guy? But Loomis points. Loomis says, I worked with Michael for 15 years.
[clip of Donald Pleasence]: There was nothing within him. Neither conscience, nor reason that wasn’t even remotely human. An hour ago, I stood up and fired six shots into him. He just got up and walked away. I am talking about the real possibility that he is still out there.
Halle Kiefer: He says, get a dentist. I’ll be in the coroner’s office in half an hour.
Alison Leiby: Get a dentist.
Halle Kiefer: Sounds like my kind of Saturday night.
Alison Leiby: Also is that what dentists do like, identifies like.
Halle Kiefer: I think so.
Alison Leiby: Are there dentists where it’s like.
Halle Kiefer: Like a forensic dentist.
Alison Leiby: I guess forensic, not just like any dentist.
Halle Kiefer: I think maybe a lot of dentists could do that because basically, like.
Alison Leiby: Any dentist could. But, like, isn’t there somebody who. That’s their job.
Halle Kiefer: I gotta imagine, but maybe if you’re a small town. Maybe you would use a local dentist because.
Alison Leiby: Sure. I guess. [both speaking] They should be calling in the feds at this point.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Oh for sure. I mean, considering how this is going, which is not well, you want to get some people there, but it’s like.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, you need some manpower. But yeah, I guess it’s like anybody who can help, like, let’s get them on the case.
Halle Kiefer: And I guess if the body is so badly burned, you can’t tell what they look like. The dental records is the only way to ID. Yeah. So it’s like, get a dentist. At least they can see if the X-rays look the same. Um, we’re not dentists here. I was like, no, no, we are not. Meanwhile, we see Nurse Karen. Um, she’s leaving a holiday party or a Halloween party with her friend Darcy. Darcy’s. Like, can you drive me home? And Karen’s like I’m going to be late. Nurse Alves is gonna be so fucking pissed at me. I’m always late. It’s like, okay, I’ll drop you off. So she’s headed over to the, um, hospital. They’re walking towards her car. And we see a kid with a boombox, uh, playing a another radio report that says Laurie Strode in the radio report. Alison, they say Laurie Strode has been taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. Don’t put that on the radio when there’s a.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Active serial killer on the loose.
Alison Leiby: That just seems like we don’t need to know what hospital anyone is going to. Ever.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Um, the kid then runs into someone, it’s the actual Michael Myers, of course, who just bumps into him and keeps walking. And we see Karen, the nurse, pull into the hospital parking lot and rush in late for her shift. Not noticing that in her back seat is Michael Myers. So now Michael Myers is at the hospital. Okay, so from here on out, it’s going to be hospital mayhem for the most part.
Alison Leiby: Got it. Great.
Halle Kiefer: We meet the security guard, Mr. Garrett, who is, of course, not looking at the security cameras. He is reading a magazine and he is watching whatever, like the late night horror movie is. He doesn’t give a fuck. He is not doing his job. He could give a shit. And also on the movie, there are sounds of like screams and broken glass. So it’s like even if you heard that in the hospital, you would just assume it’s the movie.
Alison Leiby: Like, oh, the movie’s on.
Halle Kiefer: This guy stinks at his job, but he.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, bad. Can’t do that.
Halle Kiefer: So Karen’s coming in like the employee entrance, and Mr. Garrett buzzes her in. So she comes in, you know, puts on her fabulous c-nty little white nurse’s outfit. And I feel like I have this tension where it’s like, it is not good that as a nurse, you had to dress really hot. But also.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: It is a fabulous. It looks like just like a white dress with like the little nurses hat and a pink belt. I’m like, I’m sorry, I love it.
Alison Leiby: It’s chic as hell. And like, for the sake of for the sake of cinema, I’m so happy. But, like, when I think back, I’m like, I want my medical professionals to be as comfortable as possible. [laughs]
Halle Kiefer: Right. And that’s why we’ve invented scrubs, where it’s like, no one should have to, like.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Wear a girdle to go like, you know, drain someone’s abscess or something, you know? Uh, but she looks great. She looks dynamite. Um, in the cafeteria, we see another nurse. Janet is talking to Jimmy and Bud. The paramedics, she’s like, you know, my friend Julie saw Michael Myers yesterday. She saw him in town they’re like you’re a liar. He didn’t escape until last night. Your friend’s just trying to get attention, and she basically. Bud says your friend’s a liar and a moron. And she’s like, well, you don’t have to be so mean. She just thought she saw him. So Bud’s an asshole, so we know that he will die. Um.
Alison Leiby: I’d rather somebody be thinking they see him, then denying that he’s around.
Halle Kiefer: Also if he’s not even human like, you don’t know what you fucking saw you know what I mean?
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Um, so, Karen, the nurse who just arrived comes and flirts with Bud, so they have, like, a little something going on, and he she walks away. He sings much like in My Bloody Valentine, where they sing a song about the waitress being a virgin. He sings the song, the lyrics which we’ll put it here, is, Amazing Grace. Come sit on my face. Don’t make me cry I need your pie. And to Jimmy’s credit, Jimmy’s like, Could you shut up?
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: What are you doing?
Alison Leiby: Stop.
Halle Kiefer: And he’s like, watching the news, you know? And he’s like, that could have been your brother, Mark. It could have been Ziggy. Like, what is it like? This is a horrible day. Like, why are you being like this? But he’s like, listen, let’s cut the shit. I know what you’re mad is that you’re interested in Laurie. I saw how you looked at her. Let me tell you. You could. You could date the nurses, but do not date the patients. It never ends well. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Alison Leiby: What? [laughs]
Halle Kiefer: It’s like. Oh my God. Clearly, Jimmy is interested. That’s like, what’s going on?
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And so, um, uh, Nurse Alves does yell at Karen and says, you’re late. You’re late again. 15 minutes could be between life and death for one of the patients. Also, they have a nursery in there. So it’s like they have other patients in the hospital. It’s not there doesn’t seem like there’s that many, but it’s not like it’s just Laurie, you know. And so Nurse Alves just goes rips into Karen. Karen is like I’m really sorry I really apologize. She’s like okay, fine. So Nurse Alice starts walking Karen through the list of patients. Unfortunately, as they go through, we see Michael Myers is walking, sauntering down the hallway of the hospital, leisurely going from one room to the other, which are mostly empty.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: So he’s always got a million places to hide.
Alison Leiby: He’s just hanging out.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Um, Jimmy also stops in again to see Laurie, and he sits down he says, wow, you look really should have kept a better eye on that Michael Myers guy. Alison. Laurie doesn’t know the guy was Michael Myers until right now. Like, she just knew that some guy attacked her and she’s like, wait.
Alison Leiby: Oh.
Halle Kiefer: Michael Myers, the guy who killed his sister as a kid who lived in the weird, like, haunted house in our town. Like, everyone only knows this, like, old Myers place where this murder happened. You know, when Michael was a child, he’s like.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: I thought he was in some sort of, like, mental hospital somewhere. That was him. He showed up and Jimmy’s like, yeah, the radio was saying he escaped last night and came to town and murdered those people and Laurie’s like, why? Why me? Like, why was I involved? Like, that’s so bizarre. And again, Nurse Alice comes in. Is like, Jimmy, if I see you in here again Jimmy, I’m going to freak out and kicks him out. And he he says as she says to Laurie, Hey, we’re trying to find your parents. Um, they were at the country club party that Doctor Mixter was at, but they aren’t there now and they’re not at home. So, like, do you know where they are? And Laurie’s like, I was just attacked by a serial killer. You figure it out, I don’t know.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, I can’t yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Alison, Nurse Alice says, okay, I’ll. I’ll call back. Over there. She picks up the phone to find out. Of course, the phone lines are dead in the entire hospital. No, and she Nurse Alice calls Nurse Janet to go tell Mr. Gary, the security guard, the phone lines are down. Can you go take a look at the breaker telephone?
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Electricity.
Alison Leiby: Phone room?
Halle Kiefer: He says all the phones are down tell him to do it quickly. Laurie says. Wait, sorry. What’s going on with the phones and her cell says, don’t worry about it. I’ll let you know as soon as we find your parents. I’ll be right back.
Alison Leiby: No.
Halle Kiefer: Alison, at this point in the movie, what would you do?
[voice over]: What would you do?
Alison Leiby: I’m leaving.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: I’m going to go. I’m going to get in my car. I don’t think that that becomes an option because I know there’s some tires that get slashed.
Halle Kiefer: Absolutely.
Alison Leiby: Um, but I would just get the living fuck out of there. I don’t care. I’m. I’m going to find a phone to call the police and be like, just go to the hospital. I won’t be there, but, like, clearly, you’ll see something’s up.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Just sort of doing anything. I think it’s crucial.
Alison Leiby: Anything.
Halle Kiefer: Throwing a brick through the window, like crawling out. Um, you know, just.
Alison Leiby: Whatever you need to do.
Halle Kiefer: Whatever. Something to put a little space or a little obstacle between you and Mike Myers showing up, whatever that looks like.
Alison Leiby: Whatever that is. Something.
Halle Kiefer: Get creative, get creative.
[AD BREAK]
Halle Kiefer: Absolutely. You’re dead right. Um speaking of dead. Uh, Mr. Garrett, the security guard gives Nurse Janet his other walkie talkie and says, I’m going to go, um, check out the telephone poles or outside or some sort of telephone structure outside the hospital. Um, it’s it’s behind the hospital, and it’s extremely poorly lit alley. So just go ahead and take this walkie talkie that you don’t know how to use. And she even says, I don’t know how to use this. He says, don’t worry about it. I’ll be right back. Alison.
Alison Leiby: Uh oh.
Halle Kiefer: He, of course, goes into the alley and, um, hears the sound of the dumpster, and a braver man than I opens the lid, only to have a cat leap at him and knock him to the ground before scampering away. Alison would Rizz, your cat. Would he work in cahoots with Michael Myers?
Alison Leiby: I don’t think he works with anyone.
Halle Kiefer: Okay. Great—
Alison Leiby: He’s kind of a loner. He’s not smart. And for that, I love him.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: But I don’t think that, like, he would cooperate with someone.
Halle Kiefer: Yes. That makes sense.
Alison Leiby: And, like, do their bidding, especially if there’s, like, there would have to be, like, a lot of treats and a lot of chicken and cucumbers in it for him.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Which sounds delicious.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Um, Mr. Garrett finds the door of the maintenance office, which is sort of like the storage. It’s like there’s a desk in there for the maintenance man, but then it’s like storage of a lot of tools, a lot of, uh, giant, um, sort of scissors and pliers and wrenches, like—
Alison Leiby: Oh, good. Good good. You want those around?
Halle Kiefer: And then within it there is a, um, another door that says keep out the door. Of course, the lock is undone and the door is open. So Mr. Garrett does go continue in to the storage area. He has a flashlight. It might as well just be dark. Like this is the worst flashlight. It’s not doing shit. The, um. And he calls. Luckily, at least he calls in to Nurse Janet. He says I think someone broke into the store room. Uh, leave and go find a phone and call the police. Like, just leave the hospital.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Alison. She can’t use a fucking walkie talkie. And I’m sure I’d be in the same predicament. So she’s, like, getting individual words, and she’s like, Mr. Garrett, I don’t know how to use this. And he’s trying to tell her somebody has to drive to the sheriff’s office, because he’s not entirely stupid. Unfortunately, Alison, Mr. Garrett is still half stupid because he hears a noise deeper into the store room, and he follows it in. And it’s like, Mr. Garrett, you do enough to say someone has to go drive to the sheriff’s office, and you’re going to go in and take on Michael Myers.
Alison Leiby: Right. Like, what are you like? You know what’s happening.
Halle Kiefer: There’s also a couple of moments where, like, he continues, like he opens a closet door in a bunch of boxes, fall on him. It’s very like sitcom, like 90s sitcom. Do you remember that episode of Friends where they finally open the closet door in Monica’s apartment, and it turns out she’s a neat freak, but they open the door and all this shit—
Alison Leiby: Everything’s in there. Yeah, I think so.
Halle Kiefer: Basically, that’s what happens when he opens the closet.
Alison Leiby: Great.
Halle Kiefer: Um, unfortunately, he goes to shut the door. He turns only to have Michael Myers bury a hammer in Mr. Garrett’s skull. Over at the coroner’s office, the deputy and Doctor Loomis arrive to work with the coroner to ID the body that was burned. So sort of. Is this Michael Myers, or is this just some poor bastard who died? Um, and they find out the the the unfortunately, the body has no fillings, so it’s a young person, but Michael Myers is only 21 and also doesn’t have fillings. So it’s like, well, shit. And the coroner says—
Alison Leiby: I’ve had fillings since I was young.
Halle Kiefer: I’ve had fillings since I was a kid. I guess those are children—
Alison Leiby: Yeah soft teeth.
Halle Kiefer: Those are also kids teeth.
Alison Leiby: They got fillings in baby teeth? No.
Halle Kiefer: I don’t know.
Alison Leiby: No you didn’t. I don’t think.
Halle Kiefer: I might have.
Alison Leiby: You only have them for a few years.
Halle Kiefer: You have them for a little bit. Regardless, Michael Myers didn’t have them. And the corner says, well, we could do a full workup like we could do point by point analysis, but it’s going to take a couple hours. Like, I can’t it’s not like something I can just look at I have to like—
Alison Leiby: Yeah. Eyeballing it.
Halle Kiefer: And, uh, Doctor Loomis, like, we don’t have a couple hours. It’s like, okay, well, whose fucking fault is that?
Alison Leiby: You figure something out, then?
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, bitch.
Alison Leiby: It’s not the dentists fault.
Halle Kiefer: The sheriff arrives. But, like, the way it seems like the deputy Gary has been put formally in charge of the investigation. So now he’s telling the sheriff what to do, and so he makes the call. Everyone’s going back out. We cannot assume Michael Myers is dead. We have to assume he’s still in the town. And the sheriff says, absolutely. You got it. So that was the right call. It’s like we can’t assume this guy is Michael Myers. Let’s just keep.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, right.
Halle Kiefer: Meanwhile, uh, they drive back to the old Myers house to see did Michael Myers go back there? Which they also did the Halloween movie. Like, is he living in the old Myers house? Did he return there? Is that like his home base?
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: They arrive there and all the townspeople are gathering, throwing rocks and sort of taking their fear and aggression over these murders out on the house itself. And Loomis.
Alison Leiby: I mean, there are worse things to do, but.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And Loomis says, of course, the tribe, one of their numbers was butchered. This is a wake. It’s like, okay.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: Of course, when they arrive, the sheriff checks it out. There’s nobody in there. And they’re outside Loomis house. Outside the Myers house, everyone sort of yelling and throwing rocks. And the deputy says, go search it again. I was like, oh, can you say that to your superior?
Alison Leiby: Excuse me.
Halle Kiefer: I don’t know how being a sheriff works.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Um, so the sheriff goes back in, they’re going to do a search. And Loomis explains the story of Michael as a child murdering his sister. Um, and then when he was brought into the hospital where she’s been there for 15 years. So he mu—
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: —sister when he was six, he became very, um, like, he was very static. He didn’t talk. He didn’t move. He was silent and stationary. And then he thinks that kind of lulled the staff into complacency, like, okay, so you mean you, like you were.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: When, like, you’re in control.
Alison Leiby: You were his. Caretaker. You were his medical. Like what? Um, a question.
Halle Kiefer: Yes.
Alison Leiby: That maybe I forget if it was addressed in the first movie. When did the mask come to play?
Halle Kiefer: The mask seems like it was, I believe, from the from jump. I believe he had the mask from the beginning.
Alison Leiby: Like. Was he wearing it as a child?
Halle Kiefer: Let’s see. In my mind yes, but I realize I might be, um. Uh, I might be making that up. Let’s see. Um, no. It looks like he got the mask. Yes. Okay, so he—
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: Didn’t have the mask when he got to Haddonfield. He got it from Smith’s, uh, from Nichols hardware store. Okay, so that’s that’s right. Okay. So when he arrives in town, he goes to the hardware store, you know.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: To pick up a little sundries. And.
Alison Leiby: Sure.
Halle Kiefer: Then because it was Halloween, they had a display of Halloween stuff, including a couple masks.
Alison Leiby: Got it.
Halle Kiefer: So that’s that’s what it was.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: Um, I was gonna say Kat, take out my being stupid, but then you’d have to take out the whole.
Alison Leiby: Leave it in.
Halle Kiefer: Fucking, uh, podcast. So, uh, we did find it, so. Yeah. So it’s a newer acquisition, um, associated also with the town. The town has a lot of meetings. And in this case, the town also gave him his classic mask, which I also makes sense, like why someone else would have it. So it’s like, oh, the person who was wearing it. If that’s not Michael Myers, which, you know, it isn’t, cause we’ve seen him in the hospital.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: That guy probably also bought it at the hardware store. So there are multiple masks that it is the same—
Alison Leiby: Out there.
Halle Kiefer: —out for sale. Yeah.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Um, so, uh, so they’re standing inside. Loomis is explaining Michael murdering his sister and how everyone assumed they didn’t know what Michael really was. And the deputy said, did you? And Loomis just says Loomis says, yeah, it’s like, okay, well, then.
Alison Leiby: Well, then what the hell are we doing here? Like, if you knew this is on you.
Halle Kiefer: Let me just say this. It reminds me of in every Batman movie. And this is an observation from bi friend of the pod, uh, Dave Schilling, my ex. And he said he’s like, the thing about every Batman movie is it relies on Batman being a really bad detective. Because if he did figure it out, it would stop the Joker. Like, in fact, he has to be bad at it or the the Batman, like, you know, trying to stop like a villain, because if he did stop it, there wouldn’t be a movie. So I think it’s like, well, Loomis, it’s nice for you to say this, but also we don’t think because we still ended up here, like all that.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: Information didn’t lead to us not having Michael Myers murdering people in our town. Right?
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: Alison. Two boys right up to them and say our friend Bennett Tramer. So by boys, I mean, like 15, but like, our friend Bennett didn’t arrive home. He was drunk, and he was wearing the same kind of mask that the guy was wearing. And so Loomis is like, uh oh. Um, so, so maybe we should get that kid’s dental records because, uh, maybe that was the guy that, uh, blew up.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Spoiler alert. Of course it was this kid Bennett. This poor bastard.
Alison Leiby: Oy.
Halle Kiefer: Just then the sheriff runs over. He has new news. There’s been a break in at the elementary school, and they’re pretty sure it’s Mike Myers. We’re going to the elementary school, so they rush over there back of the hospital. Uh, Karen sees there’s a patient call light. So when the patient hits the button, a light turns on over their room, their door, and then it buzzes. So it’s kind of hard to miss. So she walks into the darkened room, leans over the figure in the bed, and a man grabs her head. But of course it’s just Bud, the gross paramedic I hope dies.
Alison Leiby: Oh, good. Well, closer to death, I hope.
Halle Kiefer: And Karen sort of pries herself out of her arms and he says, oh, you’re the biggest jerk I ever met. He says, yeah, but you love it. She says, and I’m an idiot for it. It’s like, Karen, I guess he’s like the only guy you meet who’s like, at your age, appropriate living in a small town, even though you’re an asshole.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: I guess I’m going to fuck you in the hospital. And so he starts, Bud, cause he’s horny, he’s like we should go to the therapy room, but they’re not. They’re saying therapy room as if that’s something we should know what that is I’m like what are you going to go therapy room for?
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: But Karen says I can’t leave the kids. And we saw the nursery. Like, it’s like we, uh. Like, I can’t just leave the patients. And she says the kids specifically, like, I can’t, but she’s like, well, maybe I can go in for a little bit, but let me just.
Alison Leiby: No.
Halle Kiefer: Do some rounds. I’ll check on everybody first. I was like, you know, there’s a serial killer loose in the town. Don’t leave—
Alison Leiby: Don’t leave your kids alone.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, but she’s like, let me check in and I’ll meet you in the therapy room, Alison. Meanwhile, we see Laurie’s dreaming. So we’re in her dream state, and we see her as a child talking to her mother and her mother. She says to her mother, why don’t you tell me anything? And her mother says, I told you, I’m not your mother. It’s like, okay, well.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: Clearly you’re my mother figure. Why are you yelling at me?
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Alison in her dream. She sees a boy sitting in a chair looking out the window. A boy a few years older than her. And he turns. He looks at her, and she wakes up. And when she looks down, she sees blood dripping onto the floor, not hers, but she sees and hears blood dripping.
Alison Leiby: Oh, no.
Halle Kiefer: And she goes back to sleep because she’s sedated like she’s in and out of sedation.
Alison Leiby: Right? You’re just kind of like what’s real? What’s not like, even if something’s happening, you’re kind of like, hmm.
Halle Kiefer: Alison, Karen and Bud go into the therapy room, which is a room with it. And thank God, because it’s been a while since we had this. There’s a therapeutic hot tub. We have not had a proper hot tub scene.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: I want to say since Mad Men.
Alison Leiby: Since Thanksgiving camp. Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Now I was shocked to see a hot tub in a hospital, but I’m glad—
Alison Leiby: I can’t think of any time I’ve ever seen one. But. Perhaps.
Halle Kiefer: I do you think you would have as someone with—
Alison Leiby: Perhaps.
Halle Kiefer: —like spinal stuff. You think water therapy would be good? Like you don’t have to put pressure on your spine. You should if anything, you should get therapeutic hot tub time.
Alison Leiby: I. All I want to do is be in a hot tub. I love hot tubs.
Halle Kiefer: Just watching this I’m like oh I know they’re gonna get murdered here, but anything good.
Alison Leiby: I like I have a terrace, and I’m like, I could fit, like, it’s like.
Halle Kiefer: Girl.
Alison Leiby: I couldn’t, but, like, it’s like.
Halle Kiefer: I have a one bedroom. I was like, could I put a hot tub?
Alison Leiby: Could I put a hot tub in here? Like, all I want is a hot tub.
Halle Kiefer: Are there like? I want to go to a hotel room. I guess you can find a hotel with a hot tub. God, that’s probably expensive.
Alison Leiby: It’s like jacuzzi baths, but, like, not quite a hot, like I want.
Halle Kiefer: Hot. Yeah.
Alison Leiby: A hot tub. My parents had one when we were growing up, and it was the fucking best.
Halle Kiefer: It was very cool in the 90s. Like 80s and 90s—
Alison Leiby: We used it all the time.
Halle Kiefer: That sounds like heaven.
Alison Leiby: When it was snowing. Get out of here.
Halle Kiefer: Oh. Okay, now we’re talking. So they’re going to go in there and fuck, obviously. And I.
Alison Leiby: As they should.
Halle Kiefer: I mean, it feels like 1981, I’m sure—
Alison Leiby: Fuck in the hospital hot tub. Who gives a shit?
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So they start. They get in, they start canoodling. Karen’s like, wow. It’s, um, it’s actually really hot in here. And Bud says [laughs] that’s just me. It’s like, okay.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: Alison of course. We see Michael Myers turning up the temperature on the hot tub and they’re making out and eventually she says, Bud, it’s obviously too hot here. I have to get out.
Alison Leiby: Oh, no.
Halle Kiefer: And he says, no, don’t get out. It’s too cold out there. And she glares at him and says, it can get cold in here, aka I’m getting out or I’m not going to fuck you. So he says, that’s fine. So he gets out first and he goes in, essentially behind a glass partition. So we see him through this opaque glass. He starts to get changed while she’s still sitting on the edge of the tub, putting her towel on, uh, behind her, we see a pantomime of Michael Myers murdering Bud, strangling him while in the nude and dropping his body to the ground.
Alison Leiby: I hope to God I don’t die naked.
Halle Kiefer: All I want in the world is to die—
Alison Leiby: —die with clothes on.
Halle Kiefer: —with clothes on. I know, uh, yeah, absolutely. And so, of course, Karen’s back is still turned, and Michael comes in the room and puts his hand on her shoulder. She says, forget it, Bud I have to go back to work. But do I get breakfast later? Michael Myers doesn’t, doesn’t answer. Alison. She starts to suck on Michael Myers fingers, but I’m like, I’m sorry. You would recognize even if a guy you’re casually hooking up with you would recognize that’s not his hand.
Alison Leiby: Like hands are pretty.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: Like if you never like seeing someone’s hands.
Halle Kiefer: Sure.
Alison Leiby: And never touched them. Yeah, sure. Like, you see, there’s a hand involved, and you just assume it’s. There’s like, I could see, but like, you were just in a hot tub with this person.
Halle Kiefer: Also you know that motherfucker’s got blood under his fingernails. Like he doesn’t seem like he’s taking care of his skin.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah, he’s not, like, constantly, like washing and moisturizing.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Um, so she starts sucking on his fingers, and Michael Myers jerks his hands away. I thought that was funny. He’s like. Oh.
Alison Leiby: Oh. [laughs]
Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately. She then turns Michael Myers, grabs her by the back of the head and dunks her head in the water. He pulls her out, she’s screaming and we see the water’s getting hotter and hotter. So he’s dunking her in. This is genuinely horrifying. Dunking her in the water.
Alison Leiby: To drown and like basically boiling water in a hot tub in a hospital.
Halle Kiefer: And you see the little meter and it moves over to scalding. There’s like a red warning, like scalding hot. And as he’s dunking her over and over again.
Alison Leiby: It doesn’t even get that hot.
Halle Kiefer: It shouldn’t. And finally he holds her down long enough to drown her. And when he pulls her body back out her face, um, and her titties are just absolutely falling off. They’re they’re falling off the bone. And he takes her. He just kind of drops her on the ground.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: One of the worst ways to go.
Alison Leiby: Absolutely.
Halle Kiefer: Not simply drowned but drowned while boiling alive.
Alison Leiby: Boiling and dr— Like either one of those on their own. A horrific death together.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Over at the elementary school, they find a broken window, some blood and a children’s drawing on the teacher’s desk with a knife buried in it, in case Michael was just like, in case I’m not explaining what’s going on. Let me just do this.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And we see a drawing of a family, a mother, a father, a son and Alison a daughter.
Alison Leiby: Uh oh.
Halle Kiefer: And Loomis see’s and says, a sister. On the wall and blood. It’s written the word Samhain. And they’re like, what the fuck is this? Who’s Samhain?
Alison Leiby: Who’s Samhain?
Halle Kiefer: Loomis says it’s a Celtic word. The Lord of the dead. Festival of the end of summer, 19 or October 31st. It’s Halloween. Suddenly a woman appears. Turns out her name is Marion Chambers. And which, oh, is that then it’s name from? Um, is it from Psycho? Is it Marion Chambers or is that.
Alison Leiby: It’s familiar.
Halle Kiefer: Let’s see.
Alison Leiby: But then I was like, did I just hear this in this episode? It’s like, I guess not. [laughs]
Halle Kiefer: I’m thinking of Marion Crane. Yes. So Marion Crane in Psycho Marion Chase—
Alison Leiby: They’re similar.
Halle Kiefer: An homage. Much like in, uh, we just did, It’s a Wonderful Knife, did an homage to, uh, Gail Prescott in Scream. Um, I love horror. Uh, but. So Marion shows up and says, hey, um, so, uh, you’re going to have to come back to the institute where Michael escaped from. The governor called and was basically like, why the fuck is a serial killer? You know? What the fuck happened? What do you mean? You were transferring him? What do you mean, you let him escape? It’s embarrassing for us. It’s about the governor. It’s like you have to get out of there. The name of the place is Smith’s Grove, and she says you have to come back. He’s like, I have to find Michael. He’s like, oh, no, there’s a cop outside.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: You could potentially be prosecuted for this. I’m going to try to find you liable. So and also you’re not finding him. So you’re you get in the car with me and we’re going to drive back. And she does say I’m I apologize because she was one of the people who thought it was fine to transfer him. She’s like, I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you when you said there’s something on Michael that’s not right. Like there’s something more wrong with him. And Loomis says, I can’t leave now. But Marion says, you don’t have a choice. There’s a marshal outside. We are going right now. So they leave. They get in the car, the marshals drive them back to Smith’s Grove. Meanwhile, Jimmy goes to stop by Laurie’s hostel room again and he says to her, I promise not to let anything happen to you. Alison. Laurie is staring with her eyes wide open. And he. Jimmy tries to like, you know, wake her. He can’t do it. He runs to get a nurse because essentially she is, like, passed out with her eyes open.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: Nurse Janet runs to get Doctor Mixter because she I she’s like, if this is what I think it is, she’s having a bad reaction to the medication. So she goes to get the actual doctor is like, this is out of our purview. Get Doctor Mixter. She runs to his office, which has a, um, its own shower running, which is just a fake out. It’s just like his shower’s running, and then she goes in his office, and she. He’s sitting facing his aquarium, and she says Laurie’s have a reaction.
Alison Leiby: Enjoying the fish.
Halle Kiefer: Alison. She reaches out and puts her hand on his shoulder. He kind of. He swivels around in his chair, only to see that he has a hypodermic needle essentially rammed into his orbital socket. So not in the middle of the eye, but sort of like the flesh, uh, into the skull of the orbital socket.
Alison Leiby: Mhm.
Halle Kiefer: Well, wouldn’t you believe it? Michael Myers grabs Nurse Janet from behind and he does the same goddamn thing to her.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And she of course collapses a lot of needle work in this movie.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Meanwhile Jimmy has wherewithal to go find, um, Nurse Alves. Well, unfortunately he does find her. And, uh, also, the lights are basically off. It’s one of those things where, like, the lights are on, but it is dark as fuck.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Halle Kiefer: There’s, like, emergency lights and stuff. Um, we see the patient call alarm go off, and we see, um, a nurse, another nurse rushed past and, um, hang on one second. What was that nurses name there’s so many goddamn nurses.
Alison Leiby: Yeah lot of nurses.
Halle Kiefer: I was like, wait, which one is that one? Um, so one of our remaining nurses, uh, and her. Jill. Okay, so we see Jill. She’s rushing past. So all the everyone’s doing the right thing. Like, everyone’s trying to be like, okay, someone get nurse Alves, someone go get the doctor. Someone go find Mr. Garrett. You know, um, we see, uh, Nurse Jill rushed past to the patient call alarm. Um, unfortunately, because everyone’s scattered, we see the P.O.V. of Michael Myers approaching Laurie’s room. And we see him standing over her bed and raising a scalpel. And Michael Myers brings it down into Laurie’s body.
Alison Leiby: No.
Halle Kiefer: Alison. He pulls back the sheet. She’s already gone. It’s just a bunch of pillows. Classic move. Laurie.
Alison Leiby: Classic.
Halle Kiefer: And we see that she. She’s no fucking dummy. She’s up and about. She has a fractured leg, but she is hobbling down the hallway to try to hide, to try to get out of there because she knows what’s going on. She knows that Michael Myers is going to come for. Um. Nurse Jill returns to find Laurie gone and is like, oh, God damn it, you know, like now she’s loose. In the hospital. We see Laurie kind of like hobbling in her gown down the hallway on the security camera. We see her stumbling to a room and sort of try to grab the phone, which is still out. It wouldn’t matter, but she sort of collapses and she’s in the fetal position and she passes out. Um, meanwhile, um, Loomis, uh, they’re about to get in the car to leave and, um, drive back to Smith’s Grove, and the deputy, Gary, stops him and says, we’re going to find him, I promise you. And Loomis says, where? And the deputy says, um, I don’t know which I thought I was funny was like, um, I, I don’t, you know, I don’t know. And so Loomis and Marion and the marshal leave. Jill, uh, the nurse says, fuck, everything’s going to shit. I have to go find Mr. Garrett. Only, of course, to find out his post is empty. We already know Mr. Garrett’s dead. She doesn’t know that.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: On the screen. She’s sort of looking in the security room we see on the screen. Michael Myers walking down the hallway. Nurse Jill walks back in that same direction that we see her walking in the hallway. Well, what do you know Alison, they’re about to, uh, meet in the middle. And right as she’s about to open the door where Michael Myers we just saw him go in, Jimmy puts his hand on her shoulder and scares her.
Alison Leiby: Mhm.
Halle Kiefer: And he says, everyone’s fucking gone. We have to find Laurie. I don’t know what’s going on. We. I need your help finding her. He says. You look in the east wing and if you don’t find anyone, Nurse Jill, get in your car and drive to the sheriff’s office. You look for her. If you can’t, somebody has to leave and go find the sheriff. Like it just is what it is.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Which is a great advice that no one everybody keeps saying and nobody’s taking. Everybody who says that just stays in the hospital. Right? And on the wall behind them is the shadow cast by the window, and we see that Michael Myers is standing in the room behind them and we see the shadow, but in such a way that we can see it in they can’t and they leave, not knowing that he is inches behind them. Jimmy, um also starts to look as he starts to look for Laurie. He finds Nurse Alves dead. She’s tied to a gurney and she has an IV inserted in her arm, and it’s her blood that was dripping all over the floor.
Alison Leiby: Not great.
Halle Kiefer: So when Laurie Laurie woke and saw it, it was. She’s probably on the gurney. And then Mike Michael Myers put her in this room and there was a huge flow of blood on the floor. Jimmy turns to leave, and as he does, he slips on the pool of blood, falls to the ground and knocks himself unconscious. Alison, I gotta ask at this point, who will survive?
[voice over]: Who will survive?
Alison Leiby: All right, who we got left?
Halle Kiefer: Okay, so we got Laurie.
Alison Leiby: Yeah, that’s Jamie Lee Curtis. Yes. Um, I think that she survives.
Halle Kiefer: Okay, great. That’s stands to—
Alison Leiby: I know she’s on. She’s in some of the other movies.
Halle Kiefer: Uh, we’ve got Jimmy the paramedic.
Alison Leiby: I think he’s going to die.
Halle Kiefer: Um, we’ve got Jill, the nurse, who’s been very helpful, but she is just one of many nurses. We got to keep that in mind.
Alison Leiby: Okay. She’s probably going to die.
Halle Kiefer: Uh, Doctor Loomis.
Alison Leiby: I think. Doctor, I think this is the end. I think he will make a discovery or, like, leave information behind. But he is. This is the end of him.
Halle Kiefer: Um, and then, uh, I would say the sheriff and deputy Gary.
Alison Leiby: Um. A lot. There’s just so many of these movies that I know are coming that I know we need some carry over, so I’m going to assume that they survive.
Halle Kiefer: Okay, great.
Alison Leiby: Um, and Michael survives.
Halle Kiefer: In as much as someone who is not a man can survive.
[AD BREAK]
Halle Kiefer: So we see the blonde nurse Jill. She, uh, has the wherewithal to say. I’m getting the fuck out of here. Runs to her car, Alison. Not only will it not start.
Alison Leiby: Oh God.
Halle Kiefer: The tires have been slashed.
Alison Leiby: Yes, yes.
Halle Kiefer: As have the tires of Nurse Karen’s car next to her. So Jill runs back inside. I think that’s the wrong move. I think she was afraid that Michael Myers was right there. Like in the parking lot, which I get.
Alison Leiby: Which I understand, like.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: You see the tires slashed. There is an idea in your mind that, like, this just happened or that he’s, like, waiting for you to come out and see that and jump and get you, but, like, I’m just running.
Halle Kiefer: Exactly.
Alison Leiby: Away.
Halle Kiefer: Just try it. Just hoof it.
Alison Leiby: Run.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Um, meanwhile, Laurie literally can’t even walk at this point because she’s in such pain. So she’s crawling out of the room she was hiding in, broken but unbowed. And Nurse Jill runs in right as Laurie’s in the hallway, and Nurse Jill runs and calls to Laurie, who turns just in time to see Mike Myers stab Nurse Jill in the back and lift her into the air with his freak strength. And then drop her.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: Laurie wisely decides to get up and haul ass. And so she’s able to make it into the the stairwell ahead of, uh. Michael Myers, and she eventually makes it into, you guessed it, the Boiler Room.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Um, and where she finds Mr. Garrett’s dead ass body hanging from the ceiling.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Michael advances on her with a scalpel, but she’s able to open a little cellar window and squeeze through it, not to the outside, but to the next room. And she falls on the boxes of medical supplies. So there’s, like, shattered glass—
Alison Leiby: Glass and needles and yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And she’s, like, rolling over, trying to get away from the glass.
Alison Leiby: Oy. Yuck.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. It reminds me, in the original Suspiria, there’s an excellent sequence where somebody squeezes through a tiny window. I won’t spoil it, uh, here, but it’s it’s incredibly scary when you see what she falls into on the other side. Um, but fortunately, she’s again put a little distance between them, and she’s able to get to the elevator up from the basement level, only to see Michael advancing on her with his scalpel, and he reaches out, and for a second, it looks like his scalpel is going to stop the elevator door, but the door closes anyway. As a result, Laurie is able to get out into the parking lot and is able to find a door and this beautiful fat. Like, they don’t make 50s cars, but it’s like. And like they do, but it’s like it’s in a kind of car the Big Bopper would drive.
Alison Leiby: Sure. Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: Like it’s like baby yellow—
Alison Leiby: Huge, gorgeous.
Halle Kiefer: And she’s able to hide sort of in the footwell of the passenger seat because she can’t really run. So it’s like, okay, well, at least you’re hiding outside of the hospital.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Uh, as the marshal drives around town, Marion Chambers finally turns to Loomis. Shit that she should have said before they left the hospital.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And she says, you know, there’s something else I need to tell you. And he’s sort of deep in thought. He’s like—
[clip of Donald Pleasence]: The druid priests held fire rituals. Prisoners of war criminals. They insane, were burned alive in baskets. 2000 years later. We’ve come no further.
Halle Kiefer: And Marion’s like. Well, anyways. Um. The governor ordered the court to unseal a secret file on Michael Myers. Which, of course, Loomis replies. Impossible I knew everything about him. Well, it turns out.
Alison Leiby: Well. Maybe not everything.
Halle Kiefer: Alison. They unseal the secret file. What did they find in the secret file? Alison. What facts about Michael Myers. Has just been revealed do you want to guess?
Alison Leiby: Maybe he, um, like, saw his own death and dead.
Halle Kiefer: Okay.
Alison Leiby: I don’t know. I don’t know why it would have to do with the druids, so.
Halle Kiefer: Right. Well, it turns out that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers sister. But I like where you were going with this.
Alison Leiby: Okay. Wow. So that’s why he’s.
Halle Kiefer: Yes.
Alison Leiby: After her.
Halle Kiefer: So it turns out. Yes. She was the younger sister. Two years younger than him. And when he committed the crime, she was adopted into her family. So she doesn’t even know that she’s Michael Myers sister.
Alison Leiby: Oh, I wonder, do you think that that was, um, a known thing when they were making the first movie? Or do you think that this was like, what a success. We’re going to do a sequel. Okay. Now, what’s the sequel about? Like, do you think that that or was it like, this is a franchise and we’ll reveal this later?
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, that’s an excellent question. Um, I kind of assume, uh, that this was they just made Halloween not knowing if they would get a second one. And this is a way to tie them together.
Alison Leiby: I mean, I like it.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: Uh, it seems thought out, but.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, yeah, I’m reading Wikipedia and it seems like they had sort of. They didn’t even have the hope of doing a sequel. Like, they kind of were like, we’re gonna make this movie. There’s not really a chance of us getting a sequel. Um, and then when they did, it was kind of exciting. And then when they were making the sequel, they thought, well, the sequel will be the last one. So we want to give you a satisfying ending.
Alison Leiby: Like an ending.
Halle Kiefer: Yes. Um, and that’s why Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which we’ll see eventually had a totally different plot that had nothing to do with the—
Alison Leiby: Oh, okay. Great.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And, um, then it turns out they were going to try and make it sort of like The Twilight Zone or make it an anthology, which I love. I think that’s super fun.
Alison Leiby: Love an anthology, um, loving Fargo anyway.
Halle Kiefer: Oh, yeah, I need to check that out. Um, yeah. But but basically, um, you know, uh, when asked in a 1982 interview, uh, what happened to Myers and Loomis? Um, basically he said, uh, he’s basically like, uh, you saw the movie. You saw what happened to them. That’s what. That’s what we’re gonna.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: I’m gonna leave it at that.
Alison Leiby: Got it.
Halle Kiefer: Um, so they were not anticipating it would go beyond that. Um, wanted to give you something a little satisfying. And, uh, so that’s why Michael Myers, having killed his first sister, uh, wanted to kill that second, I guess, is just for symmetry sake. Um, and Loomis says, Well, we have to go back, like, then he’s going to kill her. He killed the first one. He’s not human in a traditional way. We gotta fucking turn this goddamn car around. What are we doing?
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And Loomis says, please, we have to go back. The driver says, I can’t do that. I’m under orders. And Loomis says you’re a marshal, right? What do you fellows do? Fire a warning shot. And then Loomis takes out his gun and shoots out the passenger side window.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: So basically, like, if you don’t turn the car around, I’m going to shoot to the back of the head. And so the marshal whips that car back around. They drive back to Haddonfield. Um, in the hospital parking lot. We see Jimmy finally escape, and he gets into the driver’s seat of the yellow car, only to find Laurie crouching there.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: And he says, Laurie, I think we’re going to be okay. We just need to. And then he passes out, face down on the wheel, honking the horn, alerting Michael Myers that there is someone in the parking lot.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: So she’s looking in the front door like, oh, God, but there’s no Michael yet, so she’s able to open the passenger side door. She kind of throws Jimmy off the wheel, and she falls out and is crawling across the parking lot just as Loomis, Marion Chambers and the marshal arrive. But she’s so weak she tries to cry out, but it’s too late. They’ve gone inside before she could get a scream out.
Alison Leiby: No.
Halle Kiefer: With that, Laurie is. She has to go. She returns to the fray because she turns around to see fucking Michael Myers, walking out of the darkness across the parking lot of her, and she has to get up and run to the front door.
Alison Leiby: Oh my God.
Halle Kiefer: Alison, you know when she gets there, it’s locked. So she’s screaming.
Alison Leiby: Of course it is.
Halle Kiefer: For help as Michael Myers approaches. And finally, Doctor Loomis sees her and runs and lets her in just in time. Unfortunately, Michael Myers also enters and Loomis shoots him again. And Michael takes that shot. He does collapse to his knees and then finally to the ground. Now Doctor Loomis knows this is not going to kill him. It’s just going to temporarily stun him. So the marshal goes to approach Michael, and Loomis says, do not touch him. He’s not dead. And [?] like you just shot him. Of course he’s dead. What are you talking about? Like we already went through this. And he tells Marion, go outside and use the radio in the his cop car and call for help. The marshal’s like we don’t need help. You just murdered him. And Loomis apologizes for leaving Laurie and Laurie looks at them and Michael Myers is still on the ground. It’s like, why won’t he die? And Loomis turns to see the marshal crouching over Mike Myers body and says.
Alison Leiby: Nope. Huge mistake.
Halle Kiefer: Get the fuck away from him and the marshal says, But he stopped breathing. No, my friend, that’s you.
Alison Leiby: Was he ever breathing?
Halle Kiefer: Michael Myers sits up and slits the driver’s throat with his trusty scalpel, leaving Loomis and Laurie to run for their lives back into the hospital so they now can’t go out the front door. They have to go. They’re forced back into the hospital. There are also other patients here, like.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: While this is all going on. Um, he’s able to cornered and finally gets them both into a room, and he punches out the little window in the door to get to them, and then essentially just starts pulling the door to pieces like the wood of the door is splintering, and Loomis goes to fire on him again. Alison, his gun clicks. He has no more bullets.
Alison Leiby: Oh, no.
Halle Kiefer: Michael comes in and just immediately stabs Doctor Loomis, who collapses and it doesn’t look good for him, which leaves just Laurie. And before Loomis collapsed and presumably dies, he had the marshals the driver’s gun, and he tried to give it to Laurie. She’s like, I can’t take it, I can’t take it. And so he kind of puts it on the ground near her. So in this moment, she is forced again to become the final girl. And she advances. And in that moment, Laurie says, tries to appeal to him like Michael, stop. And he just had this one where he sort of hears her and he cocks his head, and then she lifts up the gun and shoots him. She shoots him in both eyes. So then blood is streaming out of the eye holes of his mask.
Alison Leiby: Can we not?
Halle Kiefer: And he’s sort of swinging blindly on her and making these, like, pathetic animal noises. And we see Doctor Loomis get up, obviously dying, and he turns on a nearby tank of gas. And so does Laurie. I don’t know what kind of flammable gases they have in a hospital or whatever it is. That’s the one.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And, um, it’s sort of like, um, Thanksgiving, you know, it’s like, oh, a tank of gas. Well, let’s turn it on. And Loomis yells at Laurie, get out now. And she’s able to get past Michael because he can’t see and he sort of, like, sort of whimpering and like an animal and swiping. And Loomis says to him, it’s time. Michael. And Loomis takes out a lighter and flicks it on and the room explodes.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And Laurie is barely down the hallway like it shoots her down the hallway, but luckily she’s just thrown to the ground. She’s not killed or.
Alison Leiby: Okay.
Halle Kiefer: You know, she’s able to hide behind a drinking fountain. And as she’s crouched there, we see. And this this is one of the standout horror images of all time, which is Michael Myers walking out of the fire.
Alison Leiby: Yes yes.
Halle Kiefer: Which is consuming the hallway completely in flames towards her until he collapses and we see his mask start to melt and burn. Dawn breaks and the fire department and the police have arrived, and the sheriff comes over to the deputy and says there’s ten dead inside so far, so I don’t know who could have lived. If you’re anywhere near that, the patients are dead. And obviously the security guard, and all the nurses and the paramedics.
Alison Leiby: Yes. Yes.
Halle Kiefer: And the smoke is still floating out of the hospital. The fire is out, but it’s still smoking. And we see Robert Mundy and the other reporters flock as Laurie is being taken into another ambulance. And she says, can I ride in the front? They say, no, sorry, we can’t let you do that. And as the ambulance drives away, we see the people of Haddonfield arrive to see the destruction. Another wake. And as they drive in the ambulance, we see Laurie staring and thinking, imagining Michael’s mask burning and melting, and we hear the dulcet tones of Mr. Sandman. Bring me a dream. Doo doo doo doo. The end.
Alison Leiby: Wow.
Halle Kiefer: Iconic.
Alison Leiby: Yeah. That image of him in the fire, on fire is like. Like has made its way to me.
Halle Kiefer: Yes.
Alison Leiby: Like I’ve seen it.
Halle Kiefer: I’m so glad. It’s like having seen it before. I’m still like, yep, absolutely.
Alison Leiby: Yep. It hits.
Halle Kiefer: John Carpenter has done it again. But you also see like how that makes sense as an ending to two movies.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: But I think like I mean like every movie now, you know, um, like we had the, the three most recent Halloween’s the only reason there were three of them is because they wanted to pay for them, you know.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: And now we’re going to have a apparently the Exorcist Believer.
Alison Leiby: Right. It’s like, just spend that money on new things.
Halle Kiefer: There’s a million incredible new horror ideas every year. That is what’s so great about the genre to have to go. And.
Alison Leiby: Back to this well that’s dry.
Halle Kiefer: And I believe it’s like I believe in great remix remakes. Um, I think the Suspiria remake, it’s not better than the original, but it’s really good.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: But to what end, I just don’t I just feel like and that’s true of every show. That’s true for every genre.
Alison Leiby: Right. Yeah. It’s like I mean, even, you know, comedies do it too.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: And and TV appropriates film like, it’s like there’s just so much.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: Franchising and repeating of of ideas when there are also tons of new ideas. That would be exciting to watch so.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: We’ll see. But what? What a great one.
Halle Kiefer: Absolutely, Alison. What are some fatal mistakes you think may have been made in Halloween II?
[voice over]: Fatal mistakes.
Alison Leiby: Every single time anyone didn’t run away.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah, yeah.
Alison Leiby: A big one for me. There was a lot of just like. Why didn’t you go back in? Why didn’t you just sprint away into, like, the, you know, so that’s, um. And and. And just like Michael being out in the world in general and them not be like, I feel like a lot of this was avoidable.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: From the original.
Halle Kiefer: And I it’s hard, I don’t, listen. Doctor Loomis gave his life to stop Michael Myers and we give him credit for that.
Alison Leiby: Yes, yes.
Halle Kiefer: But if you think this person is not human, you have to take some inhuman precautions.
Alison Leiby: Yes. It’s not just like a guy. Like you have to bring in more people. And I know that it’s like immediately after. There’s not a lot of time.
Halle Kiefer: Yes.
Alison Leiby: It’s pre-internet, all that stuff. But, like, we need manpower, we need answers. We need more than what was provided.
Halle Kiefer: And I love, um, I loved that it was. It is it picks up immediately after. I think that’s—
Alison Leiby: Yeah that’s really fun.
Halle Kiefer: So smart. And then you get to see people finding out about it, and it puts people at a disadvantage in a way that is really satisfying. We are we are in on it in a way that’s really enjoyable. Um.
Alison Leiby: Yes.
Halle Kiefer: Oh yeah. I’ve try to remember like, why were they moving him again? Michael had a court hearing. So I suppose the court system. That’s good. He should have a court hearing. He should be able to plead his case. Unfortunately, in this situation, he is not human.
Alison Leiby: Yeah. So it’s just the system.
Halle Kiefer: So it’s tough. You know, it’s really tough.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: But in in real life that is good. They should do that.
Alison Leiby: Yes absolutely.
Halle Kiefer: Other than that again, uh, Laurie certainly did her best, I feel like.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: People just didn’t have enough information and even if they had.
Alison Leiby: Yeah. What do you do?
Halle Kiefer: What do you do? If he’s un stoppable. If he’s un. If you can’t shoot him.
Alison Leiby: Right then, like I don’t really. Not like, I don’t really know what the answer is.
Halle Kiefer: And I feel like that to me. Um, I really it really works with this movie, I think. But there are certain movies where you find out that there was nothing they could do. Then to me, it undermines the scariness of it. It’s like, oh, so if this was just inevitable, then [both speaking] wheel of just trying to see like, how are they going to get out of it, you know, how are they going to see how will I want the tension of survival? Uh, most of all, you know, but a phenomenal film and, um, a great way to kick off sequels month.
Alison Leiby: Sequels month.
Halle Kiefer: Alison, where would you put this on the spooky scale?
[voice over]: A spooky scale.
Alison Leiby: I think this is a seven. Like, the Halloween movies are scary. The boiling drowning is scary. His face is scary. Him with the fire, like it’s a scary movie.
Halle Kiefer: Um yeah I agree. Wait what are you giving it, sorry?
Alison Leiby: Seven.
Halle Kiefer: Seven.
Alison Leiby: How about you?
Halle Kiefer: I’m gonna give it a seven, too.
Alison Leiby: Yeah.
Halle Kiefer: It packs a punch. Even knowing there are sequels, even knowing where the franchise ends up going.
Alison Leiby: Right.
Halle Kiefer: It is good. And if I had seen this when I was younger, and if I’d seen in theaters. Oh.
Alison Leiby: Oh, boy.
Halle Kiefer: A popcorn movie, I would’ve been choking on that popcorn. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, uh. Yeah, an excellent one.
Alison Leiby: Um, a great one.
Halle Kiefer: Yeah.
Alison Leiby: Um, yeah. And guys, if, uh, this is the first episode of the New Year, uh. We have a Patreon. It is out there. It is a great thing for both. Original. I mean, not a lot of the originals are not in the Patreon they’re in our regular feed, but there’s plenty of great movies in our Patreon that you can go, um, either listen to or watch, um, depending on what you would like to pay for. And, you know, live show tickets are included at certain tiers. And it’s just, I mean, maybe your resolution should be listened to more of us, in which case we have a solution. And that’s joining our Patreon. So, uh, that’s out there. Please go, um, subscribe if you would like.
Halle Kiefer: Um, in the meantime, um.
Alison Leiby: Please.
Halle Kiefer: Please keep it spooky.
Alison Leiby: Don’t forget to follow us at Ruined podcasts and Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for show updates. And if you’re as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review. Ruined is a Radio Point and Crooked Media production, we’re your writers and hosts Halle Kiefer and Alison Leiby. The show is executive produced by Alex Bach, Sabrina Fonfeder and Houston Snyder, and recorded and edited by Kat Iossa. From Crooked Media our executive producer is Kendra James with production and promotional support from Ari Schwartz, Kyle Seglin, Julia Beach, Caroline Dunphy, and Ewa Okulate.