A butcher knife is not long enough to pin someone to a wall and hold them a foot off the ground.
That's one hell of a knife!
shareI agree. The knife wasn't even pushed all the way through his body either.
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MovieChat Forums > Halloween (1978) Discussion > A butcher knife is not long enough to pi...
Michael could have used a sword I guess but it would have been pretty lame....or would it?
shareYeah, it wasn't realistic. Also the body would completely slump over, it wouldn't remain upright and rigid as if the guy were still standing up.
sharethe movie is a cornucopia of flaws.
shareWait, what? A movie didn't conform EXACTLY to the rules of reality? What, is it trying to be FICTION or something???
share^This^
I appreciate these things being pointed out, but do you guys find that these details spoil the effectiveness of the movie?
I find that though the horror factor hinges on the real life feasibility of the situation, this is ultimately more of an expressive movie, and that it works best if you watch it from the pov of a bad dream and just absorb its feelings.
In this scene, JC's direction was for the shape to look at his victim "as though it was a butterfly collection". It seems evident that pinning him up in this contrived way, just like a pinned butterfly, was an expressive move. There are so many things in this movie that are very obviously contorted beyond reality to create an expressive image that it solidly establishes that language and works.
Consider that in actually executing this shot it's going to be very clear how contrived it is - it would have been seen that the knife wouldn't have been able to go all the way through him and still have enough surface area to support his weight, so that they would have had to go to extra lengths to devise a way of supporting him in place. It would have been *easier* to go a more realistic route, and yet that choice was made.
There were many bad choices made in the filming of this movie.
sharePerhaps! I do believe most of them were intentional though.
If you're making your way through the full series and haven't seen any of them before brace thyself for many incoming bad choices, plot holes and discrepancies.
This is also a case where I find the flaws add to the charm.
shareIt does in a way. John Carpenter did a similar thing in his previous film: "Assault on Precinct 13" where [spoiler]the gang members mysteriously multiply out of thin air after the father of the young girl shoots one of their leaders. It adds to the creepy atmosphere.[/spoiler]
shareIt does work when viewed as a supernatural horror film.
shareThat is a ridiculous POV lol. So because it is fiction that means it doesn't need to make sense?
So, if Myers had decapicated someone with a quick swipe of a butter knife, you would have been fine with that too?