Halloween is an American independent film set in the fictional suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Halloween was produced from $325,000 yet grossed $47 million in the American box office, and $60 million worldwide; therefore being one of the most profitable independant films made. Critics credit the film as the first film of the slasher films as Halloween originated several cliches found in low budget horror movies from the 80s.The scene opens with a black background with a flickering jack-o-lantern centre left; the sound behind this is a quite fast paced, high pitched, eerie music to set the creepiness of the scene. The jack-o-lantern has a menacing face to associate with pagan rituals, thus conveying the eeriness. As the titles come onto the screen, changing colour from yellow, to amber, to red, the pumpkin is slowly zoomed in on. The colours have been chosen as the connotations of red are danger, blood and therefore death, preparing the audience for the upcoming gore. The zoom continues until all that is left on the screen is the eye of the pumpkin face.
A full black caption screen appears with white text to keep it quite minimalistic and spooky. The text sets the scene back in time, to show the beginning of what resulted in the happenings of the present day - it starts the cult of Michael Meyers. The horror of Michael is that he is an actual human being - he is not a mythical creature such as a vampire, but just an average man therefore it is unexpected for him to be the monster of the film. He is a monster which is within a normal American society, and culture; the movie is set in a suburban area, thus being a realistic place, which frightens audiences.
Behind this caption screen there is non-diagetic sound of children singing. The ending words of their song are 'trick or treat' portraying the spookiness, and setting the mystery of what is next to come; this is juxtaposition as children singing is usually associated with joyous, happy moments - not violence.
There is then a pan into an establishing master shot of a middle class, detached home in an everyday suburban area. This is to make the movie appear more realistic, as it's happening to middle class families - not just lower or higher class. A Sub POV then shows us around the house whilst ambient sounds play in the back such as: crickets, owls, the wind, ect. - these are all very Americanized stereotypical sounds to hear during the night. The jack-o-lantern is spotted, perched on the outside of the house linking back to the title of the movie.
A boy and girl are spotted through the window whilst the protagonist watches them - the male gets suspicious and says he feels asif somebody else is there, watching them. The female comforts him saying it's just her brother. They head upstairs and you see through the Sub POV that the bedroom window light goes off, at the same time a high pitched non-diegetic sound to add suspense.
Whilst the subject walks around the house, it is implied they are an adult due to the eye height of the Sub POV. Throughout his strolling around, an eerie hum plays in the back ground before an old grandfather clock strikes - time is running out.
As he approaches the bedroom of the girl, you hear her humming - showing her happiness. A quick change from Sub POV to over the shoulder happens whilst Michael picks up the mask before you see a POV through his mask. He moves into his sisters bedchamber where the supposed sex scenario is implied by the ruffled bed and her being nude - this makes Michael upset that his sister is acting in this manner, and therefore attacks her. He watches his arm stabbing her, which conveys his lack of control over what he is doing. The first killing being a white, female is what was believed to have being due to the sexual revolution where middle aged men fought against feminists through things such as this as they viewed the sexualisation of younger girls to be unsavory. The sexual revolution gave birth to the pill, as birth control was so easily came by, women were now allowed to have as many sexual partners as they so wish, resulting in the age of their first partner decreasing. This was believed to have made middle aged fathers angry that their daughters would turn out in such ways, thus the first in many deaths in horrors were to be female virgins, to frighten young girls into not performing the act and into not being promiscuous, by making them think that if the do, they will be punished. This ideology is enforced within the film.
As his sister lays naked and dead on her bedroom floor due to being viciously stabbed multiple times, Michael appears to glide down the stairs into the front of the street. His mask is pulled off and his image is revealed as a minor boy, no older than eight years. This shot is a reverse crane shot, moving away from him to show the scene of a middle class American street where something has gone wrong with the home dynamic, before a fade out is used to go into a black screen again.
No comments:
Post a Comment