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onHalloweenBy Alex RegneryMaster Pancake Theater has become a staple at the Alamo Drafthouse, headed up by former Sinus Show member John Erler. Incorporating live comedy with movies, the formula has been a big hit with local film buffs. Just in time for Halloween, Master Pancake Theater has decided to screen “Halloween,” John Carpenter’s horror classic, throughout October. The DT Weekend sat down with Erler and fellow member and comedian Jo Beth Pehl (from “Mystery Science Theater 3000”) to discuss scary movies and a fear of “The Little House on the Praire.DT Weekend: What made you choose “Halloween,” which is heralded as a horror classic? What made you choose that instead of an easier target like a “Friday the 13th Part 3?”John Erler: It was pure laziness because the title itself is “Halloween” and I thought how could we go wrong for Halloween doing a movie actually called “Halloween.” But you’re nght, the sequels to that and all of the slasher series’ probably are worse movies but there’s something that I like about a tight movie. You can debate “Halloween,” whether it’s a great movie or some people don’t find it that scary anymore. But when you think of it, it’s fairly tightly constructed and it’s definitely one of the most influential horror movies of all time. It set the standard for years to come. And watching it over and over again, I’ve noticed how tight the plot is. As ridiculous as some of the things seem now, it’s a very austere horror classic. The suspense is pretty good. The suspense, now, has dissipated because there are so many movies like it. A lot of the stuff you see is cliche. But at the time I’m sure it was super scary.Jo Beth Pehl: Oh, I was scared to death when I first saw it. I’m also thinking, and I have no way to prove this, but I wonder if a gorier movie would be harder to do. I think that can be, as generic as gore has become, it can still be disconcerting and I wonder if it wouldn’t be difficult to make fun of someone getting their head cut off for the third time. I think when the audience is that preoccupied with that kind of pornography taking place it might be harder to arrest theattention with a comment.JE: Also with a good suspenseful and scary movie there’s something about, without getting too philosophical, when people get scared they get wound up and get tense, and it’s easier to make them laugh. It's easier to poke that tension bubble and make them laugh. Whether it be scary tense emotion you get from watching a slasher movie or whether its an emotional movie that really tugs at your heartstrings like “The Karate Kid” or any of these cheesy movies that you’re afraid to admit you’re tearing up secretly. So those are movies that are great, cause they wind the audience up and we get to poke them. It’s like a piriata of laughs.DTW: In the theme of the Halloween season, what was a favorite horror movie for yourself when you were younger or even today?JBP: I love “The Birds.” I still think it’s eerie and creepy and really ambiguous. “The Descent” I’ve seen twice and I knew exactly what was going to happen and it still scared theshit out of me.JE: What’s “The Descent?”JBP: This movie about five or six women that go spelunking into a cave and the dynamic is really interesting between the women.DTW: And it’s scary enough that they’re in a cave, it gets really claustrophobic.JE: That kind of stuff creeps me out.DTW: The entire movie could have just been that and I would have been terrified. But then evil subterranean bat goblins...JBP: These creatures, and they’re good creatures.DTW: They just start ripping the ladies to shreds. So it ratchets the tension up even more.JBP: And there’s interpersonal dynamics. What I likedCourtesy of Alamo DrafthouseAustin comedians John Erler and Joe Parsons oversee the Alamo Drafthouse's Master Pancake Theater, mixing movies with live comedy. Master Pancake Theater takes on the John Carpenter classic Halloween all through October.about it is that the women are smart and savvy and they lor out for each other, and there is some back stabbing, it was a really interesting dimension to me in a horror movie. How about you?JE: Wow, now I want to see “The Descent.”JBP: When I heard about the college students getting caught in the cave, I just had this visceral reaction. Even thinking about it now the hair on my neck stands up.JE: I was scared by everything as a kid. I remember episodes of “Little House On The Praire” that scared the hell out of me, just cause life was so tough there on the frontier. And Nellie, damn, I hated Nellie. I don’t know if you remember her. She was the original bitch. I don’t know if it was so much scared, but my blood would boil every time Nellie would come on screen cause I knew something bad was going to happen to Laura Ingles Wilder.JBP: Oh, and she had a face. That actress had a face.JE: I was a very tender child.
Newspaper Details
Austin Daily Texan
Austin, Texas, US
Thu, Oct 25, 2007
Page 25
Full Page
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USA 22 Dec 2021
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