Halloween was directed by John Carpenter in 1978 and is considered one of the most iconic slasher films. It follows the story of Michael Myers, who kills his sister at age 6 and is institutionalized, then escapes 15 years later to return to his hometown. The film challenges some classic horror structures by having two disruptive events rather than one. It also uses common horror tropes like the final girl and establishes clear good vs. evil binary oppositions between Michael and the protagonist Laurie. Overall, the film effectively utilizes many classic media theories around narrative, characters, and gender to great success and influence subsequent slasher films.

1. Halloween Film Analysis
Halloween was directed by John Carpenter and was
released in 1978, being considered one of the most
iconic slasher films made, which set the standard for
films to come. The success from Halloween made
producers aware of the profit that could be made
from such a cheap and relatively easy film to make,
which lead to the making of Nightmare on Elm
Street, Friday 13th
and Prom Night. Halloween
follows the story of a young boy (Michael Myers)
who was admitted to an institution after killing his
sister on the night of Halloween at the age of 6. 15
years later the killer breaks out on the eve of
Halloween and returns to his family home in
Haddonfield, where he finds his next target, Laurie.
The Horror film was shot and based in America, with
the target audience consisting of teens aged 15-24.
Todorov came up with a theory surrounding the narrative structure within a film,
claiming that a story begins with an equilibrium, where any opposing forces are in
balance, giving the audience an insight into what life should be/is usually like. An
event then occurs that disrupts the equilibrium which sets off a chain of events
which causes disequilibrium, the characters realise there is a problem and go onto
resolve it, ending the tale with a new equilibrium. This basic theory can be applied to
most films/horror films made, however, Halloween does not follow this classic
structure as the film contains two disrupting events, one at the beginning which
shows Michael killing his sister, followed by the new equilibrium which is 15 years
later. The second disruptive event happens to take place on the eve of Halloween
where the killer escapes from an institution to return to Haddonfield, this causes
disequilibrium as seen in the film. The characters recognise the disequilibrium which
consists of Laurie being targeted by Michael and her friends dying in the process of
Laurie’s attack, followed by an attempted to resolve the problem which is Michael
being shot by his doctor. However, Todorov claims that the story should finish with a
new equilibrium which gives the audience insight into the effects of the events and
how they have tried to restore peace, but Halloween finishes with the scene of
Michael being shot and suddenly disappearing, contradicting Todorov’s classic
structure and therefore challenging the conventions of horror.
Within all horror films are binary oppositions, Levi-Strauss looked at this in terms of
opposite values and discovered the classic ‘good vs evil’ that is included in most
horror films, including Halloween. From the beginning of the film, the audience are

2. able to establish which characters in the film are
good, and which are evil, for example, we see
Michael as the evil character as he kills within
the first scene, which ensures that the binary
oppositions are known. After this, every
character going against the evil are considered
the good, especially Laurie, who is the
protagonist. These binary oppositions make the
audience support the good character(s) while disapproving of the antagonist. In
addition to this, Michael Myers becomes associated with the knife he uses to kill all
of his victims, which is also a common theme within binary oppositions as the
weapon becomes iconic and therefore represents the evil character. In addition to
this, Michael Myers is also always seen with his notorious mask which becomes a
distinct indication of him, making the audience instantly aware of his presence,
although the characters aren’t always as sure due to the unrestricted narrative that
allows the audience to anticipate what is about to happen. We as viewers are able to
discover the good and evil within films due to the concept being apparent in nearly
every story, causing us to side with and support certain character or group. However,
some stories are not so clear and straight forward in terms of which side the
audience should support, with films challenging the classic binary oppositions in
which the viewers may feel sympathy/remorse towards the evil character, often
causing an uncertain perspective of which character is good and which is not. Films
that follow the classic narrative structure tend to be more successful in keeping the
audience interested until the end, in a hope that their favourite character(s) will
survive.
In regards to the character types included in Halloween, they follow the typical
structure as proposed by Vladimir Propp. Propp claimed that there are 8 character
roles often taken on in a story, including the villain, the hero and the helper etc. In
terms of Halloween, Michael Myers is the villain, the character that causes disruption
to the equilibrium and kills several characters throughout the film, these characters
that find themselves targeted by the killer happen to be ‘rebellious’ teens who
smoke and have sex, meaning that their death is inevitable eventually. However,
Laurie differs from the teenage stereotype, being the hero throughout the film and
surviving until the end, despite Michael’s attempts to kill her. Other typical character
types used in horror films are children, the first scene in the film consists of the main
character as a young child killing his sister, showing that evil can not only be
possessed by older characters but (thought to be) innocent children.
Other theories that can be applied to Halloween include the Male Gaze and Final
Girl, two ideas that focus on the gender stereotypes within films. The Male Gaze was

3. coined by Laura Mulvey in 1975 that
claims everything that happens in a story
represents the world and women from a
masculine point of view, and that women
are purely included for the pleasure of
males. Halloween can be used to
exemplify this theory, using young
attractive teenage girls throughout the
film to engage with the male audience in
an attempt to make the film more successful. The Male Gaze can be used to explain
the Final Girl theory, claiming that in most horror films the surviving character that
kills the villain is always female. However, it is thought that the Final Girl has to
follow particular ‘rules’ in order to survive and escape the typical teenage
stereotype, avoiding sexual relationships and generally be a well behaved citizen
while representing the middle class. Laurie is a perfect Final Girl in the story as she is
shown as a hard-working, relatable character, who avoids male attention. In addition
to this, her unisex name helps her be seen as less feminine which convinces the
audience that she has the ability to survive until the end of the film. Laurie shows her
worthy characteristics over the course of the film, which supports Bordwell and
Thompson’s theory which defined narrative as ‘a chain of events in a cause-effect
relationship, occurring in time and space’, allowing them to identify 3 distinctions of
time within a film. These 3 distinctions include the screen duration, plot duration and
story duration. When applying this theory to Halloween, the screen duration is
around 91 minutes while the plot duration is only around 2-3 days, although the
story duration is around 15 years.
In conclusion, the film Halloween supports nearly all aspects of media theory as
proposed by Todorov, Levi-Strauss, Propp and Bordwell and Thompson. By following
these typical structures the film was very successful and pathed the way for slasher
films, making it a classic of its time and genre. I think the storyline and use of
characters makes the film very effective while following the media conventions
which gave the slasher genre an adequate basis to produce further films.