Tracing The Shape 17: Bob the Ghost
We've already talked about my favorite shot in Halloween, and how much I love it as an evocative piece of horror and a simply gorgeous piece of filmmaking. It'll probably be my favorite shot from any horror movie until the day I die, but despite my fondness for it, it's not actually the most interesting shot in the movie.
That honor goes to Bob the Ghost.
Ask someone what the most memorable image from Halloween is and they'll probably bring up Michael Myers first. Ask them what they can remember next, and there's a very good chance what they'll immediately conjure is a tall figure draped in a clean white sheet, glasses perched on their nose. It is an unforgettable moment in horror movie history, and it's also the Michael Myers moment I think about more than any other.
Why does Michael do this? Of all the things he could do in this moment, with Bob dead downstairs and Lynda, alone and naked and unaware, upstairs, why does he pick this unexpected bit of whimsy and subterfuge?
Because we're aware that this is a movie, we can certainly consider the utilitarianism of the choice. Yes, Lynda is naked upstairs and has no idea what's happened down below, but she's also young and athletic (she's a cheerleader, remember) and has access to a phone. What's to stop her from calling for help, or even throwing up one of the windows in that bedroom and sliding out onto the roof if she sees a strange man in a mask burst through the door? Michael hasn't thought far enough ahead (or maybe he just didn't have time before Lynda and Bob rolled up) to cut the phone line, but he's at least smart enough to understand that he should try to be stealthy for as long as possible.
Beyond these basic mechanics, it also just looks cool. It's visually interesting in a way that Michael waiting for Lynda to come downstairs wouldn't be. We've seen Michael be himself and sneak up on people twice already, so let's mix things up. Bob donning a sheet and pretending to be a ghost to mess with Lynda is absolutely in character, and as we've seen, as an image it's instantly memorable.
Still, Michael could wait for Lynda to come downstairs, right? He could post up at the bottom of the staircase, down the hall, or even right there in the kitchen, hiding behind the exact same door so that when she discovers Bob's body he can pin them up next to each other, all romantic.
It's a safe bet that Lynda would get impatient and make her way downstairs without assuming the worst, so why does Michael go and find a sheet (from another bedroom or from the laundry room, since he knows where it is now?), poke eye holes in it, then put Bob's glasses on to really seal the effect?
There are a number of valid answers, and a simple because he can is one of them. We've spent enough time here talking about Michael's unchecked power, and the way he just keeps growing more confident, for me to believe that it might have been a simple impulse. But The Shape is not impulsive, not in the way that you or I could be, anyway. He waits. He lurks. He pauses before making his moves. He chose his moment carefully with Annie. With Bob and Lynda he probably could have walked in mid-coitus and cut both of their throats before they even knew what was happening, but he didn't. He waited.
So it's not impulse, or at least not pure impulse. There's also an element of childlike wonder in Michael, a sense that each new things he does is something he's either doing for the first time or never thought he'd get to do again. He has never been in these positions before, never tried to play with his food, if you will. But every kid knows that it's fun to drape a sheet over yourself and play Ghost, right?
While I certainly think the childlike thing is part of Michael's decision-making here, I don't think it's the only part of it, or even the main part of it. He's killed, up to this moment, three human beings in the last 24 hours. The first was a kill of necessity, the second a carefully planned execution, the third a perfect ambush. He can do this, he's good at it, he even enjoys it.
So why not push things just a bit further with number four?
As much as we can possibly understand Michael Myers as a character, I believe this shot, this decision to disguise himself, is the closest thing we have to a Rosetta Stone. It's a moment of whimsy, of humor, from a person who does not speak, who does not show his face, who shows virtually no emotion. It's the clearest evidence we have that he is guided by something other than the need to kill as cleanly and carefully as possible. It's this moment that reveals to us that Michael's drive to kill is far from animalistic. If anything, it's the most human thing about him.
He became Bob the Ghost because he wanted to see what Lynda would do. He wanted to throw her off balance, leave her confused, and work from there.
If you ask me, that's the scariest thing he could possibly do.
Next Time: Laurie knows!
