Task 2.1 Analysis Of a Horror Film (Halloween)

Halloween opens with a hand held pan of the exterior of a house. Outside of the house in the mis-en-scene is a lighted pumpkin, which is in place to provide us with a iconography which we can then associate with the holiday being celebrated and instantly confirms the subject of the film. The camera comes to an abrupt halt as it reaches the window of the house, and peers through at the teenage couple inside. This provides the audience with the realization that the camera is being purposely used to show that they are being watched through a point of view shot. The couple the antagonist is watching are laughing and appear to be relatively relaxed, to lure the audience into a false sense of security.

Point of view shot.

The point of view shot watches the couple until they leave the room and then slowly moves back around to the front of the house. It tilts up to the window and the lights upstairs flash out. As this happens, a high pitched piano key is sounded to unnerve the audience as we did not expect the sudden change of frequency from the subtle ambient sound we were used to. Dramatic music that we can associate with the typical conventions of a horror film begins to play as the camera (and therefore the person holding it) enters the house. Indicating that we as the audience should fear the person holding it. We can infer that this music has been chosen purposely to build tension as it is the old fashioned, typical horror soundtrack that informs us that something particularly 'scary' is going to happen.

The whole of the opening is filmed in a point of view shot and to confirm this, we see a hand reach out from the camera to open a drawer in the kitchen of the house.

As this happens, we see a glimpse of the antagonist's arm, which appears to be covered with a costume of some kind. The hand takes a knife from the drawer (Another typical convention) and he begins to slowly exit the room. At this point, the music gets quieter but does not fade out as having a silent shot would break the tension being built. As the antagonist begins to climb the stairs, a loud grandfather clock chimes and the loud unexpected noise again adds to the growing tension. The camera quickly cuts away and this time part of the lens is covered to infer that whoever's point of view we are seeing is wearing a mask.

As they see the girl we originally saw through the window of the house, the same high pitched piano key is sounded again. Again drawing fear from the audience. As the girl notices she is being watched, she shouts 'Michael' and clearly seems agitated by his presence. This would indicate that she knows the antagonist and it is not entirely unusual that he is in the house. A high frequency noise is sounded to begin the murder and we first hear and then see Michael murder the female. We see the knife being raised up and then plunged down through the eyes of his mask accompanied by the sound of screaming to shock the audience and then see the body fall to the ground. 

As this happens, the music starts again and the antagonist leaves the house. We see the exterior of the house again, still from the eyes of Michael. For a brief moment, we see the street and hear the ambient sound of heavy breathing and a car pulling up outside of the house. The name 'Michael' is said again, this time by an unfamiliar voice and the camera cuts away and reveals the face of the antagonist. The camera does this cleverly to create the image of the mask being taken away from his face. As this happens, we are given the face of our murderer which is supposed to initially shock the viewer as it is a small boy in a clown costume, which  is not what we would expect, as we would not predict a child would be capable of murder. The camera pans out to an extreme long shot to reveal the child stood on the lawn of his house with who we can assume are his parents.