When deciding to review the Halloween movie, I was just going to talk about what I liked and disliked about it. However, while watching I had this random mini conversation with myself in my head. In the film, the characters explore the topic of what it means to be considered a human.
To give some background if you’re unfamiliar with the story, Michael Meyers is a serial killer who suffers greatly from mental disorders, being hospitalized since age six for murdering his sister. He is portrayed as having zero conscience, killing practically anyone who he comes in contact with.
There was a specific part of the film that I found interesting, though. Meyers was going on his killing spree during Halloween, going into any house he could. At one point, he kills this mother and goes upstairs to see if anyone else is there. The entire audience gets nervous when they start to hear a baby cry. We think, “Please don’t kill an innocent baby”, and to our surprise…he doesn’t. The morality of it is very strange to me. He acknowledges the child, but does not hurt it.
To me, this brings up the question: what makes up a human?
Is it someone with feelings or a conscious awareness between what’s right and wrong? If that were the case, Meyers is slightly in the grey. He kills innocent adults, but will not hurt a child.
This just subtly touches on the mindset of a serial killer. Despite the fact that he is a fictional character, we can see the parallels it has with real serial killers. In talking about this I am not trying to excuse his behavior, or try to make anyone have sympathy for him. However, I find that there is more to the consciousness of a serial killer than what we may be lead to believe on the surface. Their perception of morality is confusing, and at the same time – interesting.
