Michael Myers' Mask, The Teacher in Jennifer's Body, Vampire Lore, The Creepiest Part of Ghostbusters, and Brainwashing
It’s Friday the 13th — this calls for a spooky Friday Five!
Michael Myers Mask
I haven’t been able to look at Michael Myers the same way after I found out how they made the mask. They used the mask of a real-life person and just painted it white and cut the eye holes. Do you know who the person is? I’ll give you a second to guess….
It’s William Schatner. Well, an Admiral James T. Kirk mask, to be exact. How crazy is that!! Michael Myers is skulking around Haddonfield with a “Beam me up, Scotty!”-ass mask.
Speaking of which, how did Michael Myers have the mask when he escaped from the psych ward? Did he stow it away? Or was he wearing it the whole time that he was in the psych ward? It’s a hole in the movie franchise’s plot made of Swiss cheese.
Also, speaking of the Michael Myers mask, it makes me think of the scene in Baby Driver where the one guy was told to get Michael Myers masks and instead he gets them all Mike Meyers masks. Very different. And very groovy.
The Teacher in Jennifer’s Body
Just watched Jennifer’s Body for the first time recently. I thought it was pretty good but part of me wanted it to be better. I love 2000s teen comedies and slashers though, so it was a recipe for success for me. However, one thing that I couldn’t get over was their teacher’s hook hand. Their teacher, played by America’s sweetheart J.K. Simmons, had a hook for a hand. With no explanation. It did not drive the plot in any way. It was not referenced a single time. He just has a hook. I guess that’s a win for disability representation? Totally makes up for the fact that they said the R word like 5 times.
Vampire Lore
I’m obsessed with the show What We Do In The Shadows, and besides it’s silliness, it’s clear that the writers know a lot about vampires and their history. One silly fact is that vampires can’t enter your home unless you welcome them in. This concept is most closely associated with the 1897 novel Dracula, but there seem to be a couple of reasons why people might say this:
-Superstitions about thresholds and doorways, which were believed to be vulnerable to supernatural entities.
-A (strange) metaphor for consent, symbolizing that a person must willingly invite the vampire into their life.
-A narrative device that adds tension and suspense to vampire stories by creating vulnerability for the characters.
Either way, this idea is used in many vampire-related media, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Renfield, and others. Keep an eye out for it. It’s usually a gag with a doormat that says “Come on in!” or something like that. I don’t remember it being mentioned in Twilight at all, but was that series based on any sort of reality?
Speaking of Twilight and lore, listen to this wild chain of events. Ok so 9/11 happens. Gerard Way is so torn up he’s inspired to start My Chemical Romance. Stephanie Myers listens to MCR and is inspired to write Mormonism propaganda Twilight. E.L. James reads Twilight and is inspired to write horny fan fic that ends up turning into 50 Shades of Grey. Crazy. Ok, stay with me — 50 Shades of Grey starred Dakota Johnson, skyrocketing this nepo baby to worldwide fame. She goes on the Ellen show and talks about how Ellen didn’t come to her birthday party even though she was invited. It comes out that Ellen is a bitch to everyone and she is shunned from Hollywood. Everything is connected!
The Creepiest Part of Ghostbusters
Also watched Ghostbusters for the first time. It was campy and weird. But watching it through a 2023 lens made Bill Murray’s character revoltingly creepy. The movie opens with him setting up fake experiments to try to fuck the students at the university that he works at. Then he starts stalking Sigourney Weaver telling her that she is going to fall in love with him, shows up at her work, etc. Then she gets possessed and he saves her. No words are exchanged, but he walks her outside to a crowd of hundreds of onlookers and they kiss? I love Bill Murray, so it took me out of the experience. It left a sour ecto-plasmy taste in my mouth.
Brainwashing
A creator on TikTok has been doing a thought experiment where she only listens to one artist’s music for 30 days and journals about how she feels, thinks, and acts. She said after listening to Dolly Parton for a month, she started feeling more insightful about the female experience and was trying to work through society’s narrative about women and beauty. After listening to Megan Thee Stallion for a month, she was more motivated, got more done, and her skin literally looked better. Her conclusion was that she was basically able to brainwash herself solely through music. And she started musing about how easy it must be to brainwash someone through today’s constant stream of media (she meant Fox News).
It creeped me out, thinking about how easy it is to get into someone’s head. I think we all believe that we will always be able to tell what’s right and wrong, but sometimes, we don’t. And it’s not always our fault. This isn’t to sympathize with hateful people, but I feel like we’re all susceptible to taking at least a sip of some Kool-Aid once in a while.
It also made me think of the Jimmy Neutron movie where all of the parents were abducted by aliens and had those jelly things in their brains that made them all do the chicken dance. That movie gave me nightmares for weeks.
