This document provides an analysis of the 1978 horror film Halloween directed by John Carpenter. It summarizes that Halloween was notable as one of the first "babysitter horror" films focusing on teenage babysitters being stalked by an escaped mental patient. The film was commercially successful, helping establish the slasher film genre. An analysis of scenes from the film discusses how the obscured and masked killer Michael Myers creates unease in viewers and how the final girl heroine Laurie is portrayed as more masculine than her victims to explain why she survives. The popularity of slasher films is attributed to appealing to societal fears while requiring minimal deviation from profitable formulaic plotlines.

1. http://www.visualsoc.net/archives/20635
HALLOWEEN NOTESbySam under analysis, films, horror
Halloween (Carpenter 1978, 44:40)
The original Halloween (John Carpenter) came out in 1978 and is known for
being the first big babysitter horror film where the attacker focuses on
babysitters. The main characters in the movie are white female high school
students who live in the suburbs and make their money by babysitting. The
murderer is an escaped mental patient who murdered his older sister when he
was younger, showing his continued stalker/slasher tendencies toward young
white women. The slasher film became popular after Psycho (Hitchcock) was
released in 1960. With this horror films became basically a sure thing to make
money. For example, my film, Halloween (Carpenter 1978) “cost $320,000 to
make and within six years had grossed over $75,000,000” (Clover 1987:191). “In
both of these later films the spectacle of the monster seems to take second
billing to the increasingly numerous victims slashed by the sexually disturbed but
entirely human monsters” (Williams 1991:5). Because films like this are
guaranteed to make money, many times there is little difference in the story lines
and plot points on horror films, which I will discuss below.First, to fully realize the
ways in which the movie fits within the culture, we must look at what was going
on in 1978 when the movie came out in America and look at how that affects the
viewing of the movie. “The stalker formula achieved its greatest success at a
transitional period in American history. After the humiliation, loss, an guilt of
Vietnam, America found itself in an enfeebled world position, faced with a
faltering economy” (Dika 1987:97). The fear and disappointment in society left

2. them ready for the slasher film genre. Also, 1978 was a more overtly sexist time
in American history than today, and this is seen in Halloween (Carpenter 1978)
through the ways in which the women react to the killer. They are still seen as
the damsels in distress. And like most horror films, the man was in charge,
Michael was the killer (Smith 2010). Even though the main characters were in a
position as caretakers (babysitters), they were still seen as helpless and
hopeless as soon as this murderous man came around. Part of Michael‟s
mental disability stems from problems with both women, and with their
sexuality. He murders his sister after she has sex with her boyfriend and also
attacks the couple after they have sex when he comes back. “…although
Michael‟s body has attained maturity, his mind remains frozen in infantile fury”
(Clover 1987:195). He is a boy in a man‟s body, another way in which Michael‟s
disability is unnerving to the viewer.
Halloween (Carpenter 1978, 44:40)
The first still I want to look at is when the parents are leaving Lindsey in charge of
their child and the entire time a very obscured Michael is watching from behind a
tree (Carpenter 1978 44:40). In many slasher films, including Halloween
(Carpenter 1978), the villain is many times seen in snippets, like in Psycho when
the shadow of the hand is shown. The fact that we rarely see all of Michael
paired with the music, the darkness, etc. sets the tone of the movie and puts the
viewer more on edge. When talking about the typical horror villain, “They are
usually large, sometimes overweight, and often masked. In short, they may be
recognizably human, but only marginally so, just as they are only marginally

3. visible…” (Clover 1987:196). Michael is always masked when he is killing, even
as a child killing his older sister, he was in his Halloween costume, that of a
ghost. When he is older he still wears a ghost-like mask when he is attacking the
characters in the movie. This stems from a fear of the unknown.
The second still from the movie I want to examine is when Lindsey is alone in the
house before she gets murdered. She has been seen as much more rebellious
than Laurie, the main character, smoking, having sex, ditching her babysitting
job, etc. And for that reason she is one of the first to go. This image is from
1:01:20 (Carpenter 1978)
Halloween (Carpenter 1978, 1:01:20)
She is caught up in herself and her image, as seen by the fact that she is in this
house by herself and is taking time to fix her hair in the mirror. “[the
victims]…distinguish themselves from the heroine and the killer by their inability
to see and to use violence and ultimately by their inability to generate the flow of
narrative” (Dika 1987:89). Lindsey does not sense any violence coming her way
because she is so caught up in her own little world. This clip starts when Laurie
thinks she sees a strange man behind a bush. When her friend Lindsey goes
and looks, there is no one there, she immediately says “You scared another one
away.” Laurie responds by saying “Boys think I‟m too smart.” Laurie is the
heroine of the movie and is shown as the good girl of the group. “The heroine is
valued…because she displays personal restraint not only in sexual matters but
also in her family or professional relationships” (Dika 1987:98). While the other

4. two girls (who end up dead later in the movie) talk about sex with their
boyfriends, Laurie is the type of girl that freaks out about forgetting her chemistry
book. Because of this, Laurie is seen as a more masculine character, which is
also part of why she is the sole survivor. “Since the heroine shares with the killer
the ability to function as subject she is presenting in a manner that complies with
her more „masculine‟ status” (Dika 1987:91). She is able to react more quickly
than the other girls, making more of an effort to run and to hide, as well as
attempting to actually fight the murderer. This is not the type of thing that a
typical girly-girl would do, which is why Laurie has been shown to be
a responsible tom-boy of sorts throughout the entire movie. The slasher film
has become a standard in horror films, and it is because the storyline sells. As
can be seen through this and other horror films, one does not have to deviate
much from the typical plotline to make money on a horror movie.