Not a question I ask lightly, seeing as the answer’s fairly straightforward, but what is your ideal head tilt? There’re many variations on Myers tilting his head, but I wanna know what comes off to you as the most… True head tilt you can muster?
For me, I personally think it’s tilting your head in such a way that it’s like a curious child: the way your chin moves, how your body’s still, and your head doesn’t go too far to one side.
The head-tilt itself isn’t really that crucial, it’s what leads up to the head-tilt that really sells it. It’s the only time in the film we see any sort of mind behind the mask. Before and after we see the tilt Michael is just a mindless, emotionless monster.
THE ONLY TIME we see the gears of this monster’s mind turning, signaling to us that there is in fact some kind of intelligence at work here, is immediately after he pins a man to a wall with a 12" knife. It’s horribly effective in conveying the kind of person Michael is.
Think about this… when is the last time you’ve seen an adult tilt their head from one side to the next like that for any reason at all? Never? It’s not something children do very often, either. Do you know what does tilt their head like that?
A dog.
Michael’s psyche is so rudimentary and animalistic that the only time he shows any sort of emotion or cognitive presence he displays the mental acuity of a canine.
This is why I ABSOLUTELY LOVE James Mangrum’s choice to call his mask the ID. It’s not “I”.“D”. as some people think it is. It’s literally id, the term coined by Sigmund Freud to explain the most basic beast-like qualities that exist within a human mind – the oldest and most animal parts of our brain that govern our most instinctual tendencies.
But, in the spirit of the question I’ll add this:
In order for it to be effective, the head-tilt has to look DELIBERATE. It has to be slow and methodical as to represent a contemplative quality. Too fast and it completely loses the sense of horrid fascination. Also, the head has to move in one fluid motion from one side to the other, there can be no pause in the middle. Maybe a slight acceleration as you finish the tilt, like a dog.
Best way to sum it up, watch how Stewie Griffin does it in Family Guy after Brian says “Upside Down face” and also watching how Arnold turns his head in Terminator when he’s in the police car
Best head tilt is after Bob gets pinned to the wall, and in 2018 after sartain gets his head stomped in. Watch those two scenes and replicate , you’ll get the best head tilt
This is actually a very interesting explanation. I always saw Michael’s behaviour like a curious child looking at an art project. But this nails it on the head pretty well. Michael’s mannerisms were always very predatory, but the head tilt lending itself more to a dog than a kid? That makes more sense, actually.
I’ve always thought the moment in H2 when Laurie says “Michael” as he slowly walks towards her, stops, slowly lowers his knife, tilts his head, slowly raises the knife back up, then continues walking towards her, was particularly creepy.
I don’t know. Warlock’s mannerisms always seemed too slow and robotic. The moment’s creepy for sure, but it doesn’t have the same kind of energy that brings The Shape as an entity to life.
I prefer Nick Castle and his smooth movements, but I find Dick Warlock’s often called “robotic” performance to be unsettling in it’s own way. I’ve always justified it as Michael in H2 essentially being a dead body driven by pure evil, with Loomis’ 6 shots and subsequent fall off the balcony ultimately killing what little humanity Myers had to begin with.
Warlocks movements remind me of someone being on autopilot basically, and I mean that in a good way, cause it can creep people out
It’s scary when it’s in isolation. Warlock’s movements as The Shape are effective when he’s allowed to just creep around and leave a hospital full of dead people. The best scenes for Warlocks movements in my opinion come down to how he materialized from the shadows in the syringe scene; every motion he made was deliberate and outright unsettling with how he prepared the needle and just smoothly put it in. Same with the scenes where we just see Michael… walking in the halls. Openly, in view of the cameras. It’s unsettling. But when in chase, Michael’s movements are underwhelming. Michael in H1 still moved in a way that made the chases nail-biting. He was taking his time, going with the flow, and knowing that he’d planned everything out. In H2, Michael moves with the motivation of slow molasses. Even as pure evil, I don’t find Warlock’s Michael scary unless it’s in isolation, or in a way that plays to the strengths of Michael as a stealthy killer.
Such an iconic scene with the head tilt and the scariest kill IMO. Michael was like a great white shark ambushing its prey. I remember as a kid thinking the knife is nowhere near long enough to pin Bob to the wall, lol. But it’s such a great moment, it just doesn’t matter.
Even in chase in H2, him being slow isn’t bad, I like it, cause when Laurie was trying to get the elevator to shut in time, Michael was creeping in for the kill
The chase in H2 pales in comparison, however, to the chase in H1. While there is some tension, I never feel at the edge of my seat unlike the 1st chase. Michael’s movements in the original hit me a far different way and, by extension, the head tilt always feels a little more… unsettling. In particular, I remember on a recent rewatch I saw Michael tilting his head at Annie after he’d locked her in the laundry room.
I love that this is a topic… priceless