‘Halloween’ and what makes a good horror film
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2023
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re entering Halloween weekend, so today we’re bringing you a special episode about why we like to be scared, and what scares us! We are dissecting the 1978 horror classic Halloween, by John Carpenter. This week marks its 45th anniversary. The film follows a masked serial killer, Michael Myers, as he returns to his hometown on a killing spree, and is 19-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis’ debut. It’s become one of the most popular horror franchises in history. But how does it hold up now? We’re joined by FT magazine editor/scary movie aficionado Matt Vella, and executive audio producer/occasional horror fiction writer Manuela Saragosa to talk about the film and what makes a horror film work. They also try to convince Lilah that horror films are, indeed, important and good. Be sure to listen to the intro for a special announcement!
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We love hearing from you. You can email us at [email protected]. We tweet @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.
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Links:
– Manuela’s short story appears in ‘Six Scary Stories selected by Stephen King’ (2016).
– You can find Matt and Manuela on X, formerly Twitter, @mattvella and @manuelasaragosa
– Our film review of Dr Jeckell: https://on.ft.com/3Q9oBBD
– FT’s video interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, ‘A Life in Acting in a Changing Hollywood’ (May): https://on.ft.com/3QdBJWl
– Check out Luke Edward Hall’s column on how to host a pagan Halloween party (2021): https://on.ft.com/3QwpoxI
– This isn't halloween related, but we loved this recent piece on how to cook a six-dish autumn feast (the formatting of the recipes really makes it easy to throw a dinner party): https://on.ft.com/3rXgzE0
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Special FT subscription offers for Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast.
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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Clip courtesy of Sony Pictures.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, FD Weekend listeners, this is Lila. |
| 0:03.6 | You might have noticed that we have been trying out a new format on the show, and I'm here with an exciting announcement, which is that on Monday, November 6th, we are relaunching this show with two episodes a week instead of one. |
| 0:17.2 | It's going to be called Life and Art from FT Weekend. Mondays will be one-on-one conversations where we ask questions about life. |
| 0:25.5 | And Fridays will be group chats with my colleagues, where we have a discussion about art. |
| 0:31.0 | Fridays will sound a lot like what you're about to hear. |
| 0:33.6 | The show will still be in this feed. |
| 0:35.5 | Also, thank you for listening and for all the ways you all contribute to this show. As I'm sure you know, making it for you is a total honor for us. And we're just really thrilled to give you what you asked for, which is more. Okay, here's the episode. |
| 0:54.0 | Welcome to FT Weekend. I'm your host, Lila at Raptopoulos. And welcome to FT. Weekend. I'm your host, Lila Raptopoulos, and we're entering Halloween |
| 0:59.3 | week for all of those who celebrate. So today we're bringing you a special episode about why we like |
| 1:05.5 | to be scared and what scares us. To do that, we are dissecting the 1978 horror classic, the film Halloween |
| 1:13.0 | by John Carpenter, partially because this week marks its 45th anniversary. Joining me from London |
| 1:19.3 | is Manuela Saragosa, the FT's executive producer of audio, and a short storywriter who dabbles in |
| 1:25.3 | horror. One of her stories was in a Stephen King anthology. |
| 1:28.6 | Hi, Manuela. |
| 1:29.3 | Hi, Lila. |
| 1:31.0 | And also, you're going to hate me for this, but it's the boogeyman. |
| 1:35.3 | The boogeyman is outside. |
| 1:37.9 | More importantly, it is FT Weekend magazine editor, Matt Vela. |
| 1:41.7 | Hi, Matt. |
| 1:42.4 | Hi. |
| 1:43.6 | Least threatening boogeyman ever. |
| 1:48.8 | Okay, so just to start, I have to tell you both that I really have always hated horror films. |
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