I want you to go down the staris and out the front door. And I want you to go down the
street to the Makenzies' house. I want you to tell them to call the police. And tell
them to send them over here. Now do you understand me? -Yes. -Go do as I say.
[scream]
[static]
[laughing] Hello there. My name is Dr. Anton Jessup, year-round celebrant of All Hallow’s
Eve and curator of Monster Studies here at the university. Have you acquired your Halloween
mask yet? Because I have mine right here… Perhaps you recognize 'the shape' of it. Yes,
today we continue our study of the North American slasher, with Michael Myers...
Isn’t it always the same? You finally turn the tables on your masked psychopathic pursuer,
fell them with a seemingly lethal blow and then… you sit down to catch your breath.
That’s when the slasher sits up behind you and turns his head towards the camera. Then…
oh… so much slashing… and stabbing… and relentlessly inventive killing. We see
this curious behavior in any number of slashers, from Jason Vorhees to Hannibal Lector – and
we see it so often in the North American slasher because this subset of homo sapiens depends
on it as both a survival and hunting tactic.
None are more famous for it, however, than Homo myers.
Just as the mask itself here deceives the victim, so too does this curious behavior.
And in the natural world, we have a name for it: thanatosis.
Thanatosis and tonic immobility, collectively known as apparent death, are common enough
traits in natural world organisms such as opossums, ducks, sharks and other various
invertebrates. Some insects may go ridged to avoid being swallowed whole, but essentially
it’s all a matter of playing dead, either as a conscious or involuntary act. The goal
is simple: Make the predator lose interest in your delicious flesh. A 1975 study published
in American Midland Naturalist observed 50 ducks attacked and grabbed by foxes. All of
the ducks entered a death-like state of tonic immobility. Foxes are of course famous for
storing their kills for later consumption and researchers observed that 29 of the 50
ducks survived their initial capture and handling, thus opening the door – ever so slightly
– for possible escape later on. Opossums take this act to the next level. They drool,
excrete droppings and emit a foul odor, all while curled into a deathlike, catatonic state.
Thanatosis is generally a last-ditch defensive measure, and certainly slashers like Michael
Myers partially implement this state of apparent death in order to halt an aggressor’s attacks,
but the ruse is ultimately about gaining the upper hand over an intended victim. In this,
Myers’ thanatosis has more in common with the sleeper cichlids, an African freshwater
fish. This mottled, corpse-colored killer will lie motionlessly on a muddy lake bottom
and then spring into action when smaller scavenger fish move in for a meal. So beware… keep
stabbing... because that monster’s not nearly as dead as you think.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to make preparations for trick-or-treaters – or
at least the sort of tricksters who are bound to show up here in the university basement
on nights such as this. It’s simply too dangerous down here among all these nasty
specimens and ancient artifacts. A lesson that Marketta Vorel learned that the hard
way, and the last thing that anyone wants is another incident. End transmission.
[static]