Analysing the Opening Sequence of Halloween by Sarah Campbell

Halloween (1978, John Carpenter)

The opening scenes of Halloween help to set the mood for the movie. the camera work, sounds, lighting techniques and characters all work together to help build tension and prepare the audience for the rest of the movie. The genre of this film is horror/thriller. This piece of text conforms to the normal stereotypes of two young lovers home alone, but also challenges the stereotype of a young naive looking boy, being a cold hearted murderer.

Mise-en-scene conveys a lot of meaning in this sequence. Firstly, it is set at night, so everything is in the dark with shadows. A large, creepy, old isolated house is used which is the classic sort of location in a horror film like this one. There are pumpkins that scary faces have been carved into, with a candle inside creating a flickering light and shadows. All these things help to convey a creepy, tense atmosphere, ready for the rest of the film. Handy cam is used throughout the whole of this first opening sequence. It is shown as if we are looking through the eyes of the killer, so it shows us walking up to the house in the dark, watching two lovers through the window, climbing in the house, finding the girl etc. The use of handy cam makes the camera jumpy and jolty and it makes it hard to see what is going on, and as we can see it through the killers eyes, we only have one view on the situation, meaning anyone could be round a corner or behind and the audience doesn’t know. Tension is added to the film by using this technique. Near to the end of the introduction, before the killer makes his first kill, he places a mask over his eyes, meaning that half of the screen is black with only a strip across the middle where one can see what is going on. The fact that the audience can only see through this small amount makes one quite edgy and unsure of the situation, almost as if there is something going on that they don’t know about. There is no sound, it is silent with the occasional shrill high pitched squeaks when something significant, or something that should be noted happens, again adding tension and a sense of thrill.

The audience are positioned as a part of the narrative, as what they see is supposedly what the killer child is seeing. The narrative organised as first the killer watching his target through the window, coming into the house, taking out a knife, watching as the boyfriend leaves the house, climbing up the stairs and then killing his sister. The major themes are obviously death, possession maybe, although it doesn’t actually state that the boy is possessed, but from the look on his face at the end of the opening sequence, it becomes apparent that he is. I feel that the purpose of this introduction, is mainly to build tension and fear for the rest of the film. It clearly sets the scene in this creepy old house, which maybe has some sort of curse over those who live in it, and due to the camera techniques used (handycam) and the silence, with occasional unexpected shrill sounds, tension is built and maintained throughout.

This opening ends in a confusing and unexpected way. Throughout the beginning you do not know who the killer is as you are seeing things through their eyes, but at the end the camera zooms out from a close up to a longshot of the killer, and it is a young boy about the age of 5, holding a knife covered in blood. This is unexpected and prepares the audience for twists of events. This young, innocent looking child seems to be possessed, which is a connotation of any horror film, using young vulnerable children and also the idea of possession and supernatural bad spirits. Another connotation of a horror film is using a young attractive girl that gets killed. The use of the young boy as a killer is ironic, and also challenges the stereotype of a small, sweet looking child.

I would say that the main target audience for this film are males between the ages of 18 and 45. This is because the film is an 18, so therefore can’t be aimed at any younger, and also some of the scenes are quite horrific, which the older ages could find make them feel uneasy and genuinely scared. Also it is normally the younger generations that seek the sort of thrills that horror films bring. I think that people could criticize this film as if a young child saw it then it might put ideas into their head, as it shows them getting out the knife and killing his sister. But this is most likely one of the reasons they have rated it as an 18, so that young naive children don’t get the wrong idea when watching it.

By using a young child, it challenges the stereotype that we have of a child being young, innocent and who wouldn't hurt anyone. This again helps to make the film more scary as it makes the audience think that the child must be possesed, and therefore brings the idea of the supernatural into the film.

The film had a budget of $325,000 and made $47,000,000. Jamie Lee Curtis is a main character in this film, however was not famous when this film first came out, so carpenter didn’t chose stars to be in his film, most likely to keep the budget low. Trailers and posters were used to market the film. The trailer for Halloween is very dark and full of shadows, with high pitched shrieking in the background of a low over voice who is roughly telling the story. It has red fonts symbolizing blood and death and also has flashing images of violent, scary scenes, but still keeps mystery of what is going to happen, leaving the audience without an ending, encouraging them to see the film and find out for themselves what happens.