MovieChat Forums > Scream (1996) Discussion > One line I never understood.

One line I never understood.


In the first scene, Drew Barrymore is talking to the killer and mentions that she likes the movie "Halloween". She then says, "you know, the killer who stalks babysitters." What is she even talking about? Michael Myers doesn't stalk babysitters.

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Of course he does!! Laurie and Annie are both babysitters..

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He wants to kill Laurie because she's his sister, not because she's a babysitter. It's not something that he does. Freddy kills people in his dreams, Michael Myers doesn't kill babysitters.

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Not in the original!! In the first Halloween, it was not written that they were siblings. What part of that are you not understanding??? This isn’t my opinion, this is fact..

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He kills his sister in the beginning. She wasn't a babysitter. He kills 5 people total in the movie. They weren't all babysitters. Finding out at some point that Laurie is his sister further proves that he's not trying to stalk babysitters. I don't think many people would describe Michael Myers as a "babysitter stalker".

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You do know that Halloween was originally titled The Babysitter Murders, don't you?

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No. But maybe they changed it for the fact that he doesn't always kill babysitters.

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By definition Michael's sister fits what a babysitter is, which is just someone who looks after a child or children when the parents are out.

I think five people were killed in the movie total? Three of which were babysitting. Laurie, Annie, and his sister. Not only that, but the main person he stalked was a babysitter. He didn't stalk the other victims like he did Laurie.

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I don't deny that Laurie is a babysitter, but the fact that they are babysitters is incidental. He kills 3 babysitters, but also kills 3 women. Would that not make him a woman killer as much as a babysitter killer? It's not like Michael Myers is going around thinking, "okay, let's see how many babysitters I can kill tonight."

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Michael Myers is a killer. When he kills Annie and attempts to kill Laurie, they're babysitting. He stalks them before he attacks. It's a valid description.

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I still don't see it.

Freddy Krueger originally killed people in his dreams who were related to killing him years before.

Jason Voorhees/his mother originally killed people at Crystal Lake to avenge what they did to Jason.

But what is Michael Myers' reason for killing babysitters? I feel that it's just an incidental aspect. In the first film he kills 3 babysitters and also 3 women. What makes him a babysitter killer and not a woman killer?

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He didn't kill 3 women. He killed two teenage girls.

Sheesh this is a funny troll.

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He killed 3 girls in the 1978 film.

https://halloween-films.fandom.com/wiki/Body_Count

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Judith. My bad. Lol

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Most people remember the babysitters and probably remember the films original title.

They where made to be babysitters as it was seen as something relatable

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The babysitter thing is definitely incidental and he definitely wasn't hunting down babysitters, but he still killed and stalked them. If the line in Scream was "you know, the killer who stalks women" instead of "stalks babysitters" she could pretty much be referring to any slasher film. The babysitter line narrows it down immensely.

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"He wants to kill Laurie because she's his sister"

No, that's not the story of the first movie. Hs went after the girls because he was triggered by what they said to him. While he didn't specifically target babysitters, he did go after girls who happened to be babysitters.

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While he didn't specifically target babysitters, he did go after girls who happened to be babysitters.


That's the problem I had with he line. If you ask anybody to describe the character of Michael Myers, they would say he escaped a mental institution, wears a white mask, carries a knife, and wears a onesie. I don't think anyone would refer to him as killing babysitters.

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He did, though. The babysitters were the persons he specifically stalked and killed, the rest were collateral damage.

It was just a way to clarify, I personally would describe it as the movie where Captain Kirk is a serial killer.

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I actually love this type of dialogue, you know the imperfect dialogue, like Silvio in the Sopranos referring to Don Simpson like the guy who created the Simpsons When the Dialogue is written in that way is more interesting and speak more about the character, than a robotic character who would give you a perfect description of the movie she likes

Drew Barrymore Character remembers the babysitter characters that Michael Myers kill or want to kill, and for that reason, she remembers that movie like the movie with the guy who stalks babysitters, and that's it. Don't overthink it too much.

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+1

This is what I was going for. You said it better. Her description isn't wholly accurate but it's naturalistic

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Its a plot hole

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Her character's comment is just like the majority of comments we hear when people talk about movies, including here on moviechat.

People just don't know what the fuck they're talking about lol

Michael's not a babysitter killer and no fan of the movie series regards him as such.

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Someone above mentioned the original title was The Babysitter Murders. But it doesn't make much sense to me. Them being babysitters was incidental. He wasn't setting out to kill babysitters, they just happened to be them.

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Hmm, oh go figure, I didn't know about that. Guess I'm a shit fan myself lmao.

But still, as you said, it wasn't part of the plot. And it clearly wasn't the final title. I still stand by my position that Drew Berrymore's line was just a casual, throwaway comment. It's like when ppl refer to Frankenstein's monster as Frankenstein. It gets the point across and makes sense in context, but is technically inaccurate.

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The first Halloween is all about Michael Myers punishing babysitters who ditch the children so they can drink, party, and have sex. John Carpenter and the rest of the filmmakers quickly abandoned this motif due to criticism over starting the "sex equals death" trope.

Maybe Michael Myers isn't literally thinking "babysitters, babysitters, must kill babysitters," but he's definitely going after people who remind him of his sister (mostly babysitters), because she was a really bad babysitter.

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