1. Halloween (1978, John Carpenter) – Opening Scene
Analysis
The intro to Halloween uses a point of view all the way through the scene this makes
you feel a part of the scene and puts you into the shoes of the character, which is a
good effect. The POV follows the character ‘Michael’ around the house as he kills his
older sister. The shot uses a deep focus only putting the things in the background in
focus and keeping Michael out of focus. The effect of this is it dehumanizes the
character of Michael. The director does this so he acts more like a mindless killer
and not a human. The camera work throughout the scene is very uneven, which I
think is used to show that the world is not right.
2. At the end of this opening scene, you see Michael get unmasked and the camera
switches from a pov shot to a dolly shot dollying out looking on at Michael holding a
bloody knife. This is effective because it acts as a transition as it is the last time we
see Michael as a child as after this scene it cuts to him as an adult for the rest of the
film. The shot also represents that Michael is realizing what he has done and what
he has become we can see this from the look on his face.
The lighting in the scene is very low-key due to it being set at night, a common
element in horror films. It is dark to show that there is something wrong as
generally things like this happen at night. The dark lighting also gives it a sinister
affect, which is also a genre convention of the horror genre, which is what this film is.
The shot is done in one scene, which gives it an uneven but effective look to the
scene, and it looks as though it is done through the Steadicam technique, rather than
the dolly technique to give it a 'home film' look to it. At the very start of the scene
there is an establishing shot, of the front of the house, to show the audience where
the action is going to take place. An establishing shot is very effective and common
in the world of cinema, as it establishes the setting, which helps put the scene into
context to the watcher and therefore connect to the film in a more in-depth level.
The camera then moves from left to right to the side door of the house.
3. The costume used was a clown costume, this is very important because it showed
that it was a child, in a costume who was doing the killing and this is surprising to
the audience. The fact the child’s costume was a clown costume, is a key element.
Clowns are a representation of fear as a lot of people are scared of them, and using
them was good. The setting was a normal house to show, that things like this can
happen in an ordinary house, which will scare the watcher.
4. At the start of the scene we saw a jack-o-lantern this will indicate to the watcher
that the setting of the film is Halloween, and it is also a reference to the title of the
film. This opening scene gives the film context to the rest of the film, as this opening
scene is the back-story to the character Michael, as it explains how he is a murderer.
In the scene we see Michael take a knife and then stab his older sister to death, from
the opening scene you do not discover the motive of the murder but it is assumed it
is something to do with her boyfriend as you see Michael watching them in
displeasure. You see Michael kill his sister with a knife, a key element that links it to
the sub-genre of horror that is slasher. Later in the film you see a number of people
get stabbed in a similar fashion, so from this scene we can see that it is a foreshadow
of what is going to happen later on in the film.
5. At one point in the scene we see Michael put on a mask this is foreshadowing for the
rest of the franchise because a signature visual motif of Michael is that he is always
seen with a mask on. We know he is wearing a mask in the scene because the
camera turns all black and we can only see what is going on through two eyeholes
on the screen. This is a very effective and unique visual element, as it again
emphasizes the fact that the director wants us to feel like we are Michael, which
gives it an eerie feel to the scene.
The music used in this scene is a high-pitched whistle; this is incidental music and is
used to create atmosphere and intensity in the scene. The music is very effective and
fits with the type of music that is usually used in horror movies. Other sounds in the
scene are crickets chirping, which was put there to show that it is night time and
also to show that it is a quiet normal day which fits in the genre conventions of
horror films. It also proves the point that the killer works when it is quiet therefore
it is effective. Screaming is also used in the scene, which is a genre convention of
horror as well, screaming represents fear and this ties well with the genre and also
the clown costume Michael is wearing in this scene.
There are no credits in this scene this is strange as it is the opening scene to the film.
I think this was done to avoid ruining the atmosphere of the scene, as it is a very
intense scene right of the bat, they are removed so that the audiences attention
would be on the action and what is going on in the scene rather than the credits. The
credits would normally include: the name of the director, the actors of the film, who
composed it etc. so the audience has to wait to the very end to find out who is in the
film, this could be a marketing plot to keep the audience involved with the film to
the very end.
