Michael Myers' Senseless Halloween Canine Kill Took Just One Simple Maneuver
Warning: Seeing as some readers are sensitive to this point, this post will discuss dogs that are killed in movies.
In John Carpenter's 1978 slasher film "Halloween," the masked serial killer Michael Myers — in addition to murdering five people — kills two dogs. The first kill is not shown, and is only alluded to in a grisly dialogue exchange. When Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) and Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers) investigate Michael Myers' childhood home, they see a dead dog left on the floor, kept tastefully off-camera. "He must have gotten hungry," Dr. Loomis notes. Yes, Michael Myers ate a dog.
Later in the film, a more shocking scene of animal violence occurs. At the home of Linsday Wallace (Kyle Richards), the family dog barks at Michael who approaches the home from the shadows, targeting Linsday's babysitter Annie (Nancy Loomis). The dog, Lester, does not meet a pleasant fate, as Michael kills the poor pooch before entering. Disturbingly, there is a low shot of Michael's feet and Lester's back legs collapsing, accompanied by a loud musical sting.
It might be easy to assume, judging by the movements of the dog's legs, that the on-camera canine had to be specially trained to look like it was dying. John Carpenter, always a plain-spoken filmmaker, has been very open about how he achieved the shot, and he can assure readers that nothing dramatic or difficult was done to shoot the scene. On the DVD commentary track for "Halloween," included in the 35th anniversary edition, Carpenter explains to actor Jamie Lee Curtis that the dog in question was merely picked up gently and filmed in slow-motion.
Rest assured, the dog is fine
The shot in question is hard to see in the final cut of "Halloween," as it was filmed in shadow. A screengrab wouldn't do the scene justice. Jamie Lee Curtis, on the commentary track, asked point blank how John Carpenter achieved the shot. He was straightforward in his answer, saying: "The guy was holding him and we shot it in slow motion. The guy just picked him up."
"The guy" is the dog's trainer, a man whose name has seemingly been lost to time. The trainer played the legs of Michael Myers, and Lester was played by a friendly German Shepard whose name has also been lost to time. When Curtis asked why the dog's legs went slack when it was picked up, Carpenter, again plain as possible, said, "Because that's what a dog does when you hold him up like that."
He continued:
"He just let his paws go down. The trainer had that all figured out. [...] We just added a little slow motion because what he's doing is really kicking like crazy."
The scene may have been dark and grim, but in actuality, it seems that a good boy was merely getting a hug from an attentive trainer. One can credit Carpenter's use of lighting, editing, and music to the fact that the scene is so disturbing.
Michael also killed a dog named Sunday in "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" and a parrot in "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers." In Rob Zombie's 2007 "Halloween" remake, Michael was very rough on the animal kingdom, killing a rat in one scene and 13 additional animals off camera. He also killed and ate a dog in Zombie's "Halloween II."
No animals were harmed in the making of the 13 "Halloween" movies.