Halloween Opening Scene Analysis
Halloween is 1978 horror slasher movie directed by John Carpenter.
Michael Myers
Michael Myers is introduced to the audience in the opening scene and is is shocking to the audience that a child could do something so sinister and cruel. In 1978, the image shown to the left would have been truly shocking the viewing public because the idea of a child, being a serial killer is truly frightening. As it is halloween, Myers is dressed in a clown costume, making the scene even more sinister as clowns have connotations of being stereotypically scary and cruel. The weapon he is holding is a large bloody kitchen knife, which again is frightening for the audience because a kitchen knife is something in most households and brings a sense of realism to the scene. Home is somewhere that is supposed to be safe, so it creates tension that the murder happens in what looks like a very typical realistic household.
Camera Movement, Angles and Framing
The first scene opens with a pan from the titles screen too a regular, white house. There is a forward tracking shot which is getting closer too the house, creating suspense for the audience. This forward tracking shot looks like it is created by a handheld camera giving the illusion that someone is walking towards the house.
The camera then moves around the side of the house passing a symbolic Pumpkin to show it's Halloween time, and therefore making the audience feel tense, as halloween time is typically associated with horror, the paranormal and gore.
Eventually the camera pans around to show inside the house, however seeing the kissing teenagers through a window is quite similar, as they seem happy and normal people in a realistic world, so the idea of someone being outside the window watching is scary to the audience. This type of handheld filming continues to till after the murder, so leaves the audience anticipating who it is holding the camera. Once the audience are aware that the point of view is from Michael Myers, the murderer, it creates a sense of horror because we were looking through a murderers eyes, and the idea of this is very intrusive and intimate.
When the person/camera moves out off the house, there is a medium close up of a boy as he takes the mask off and where there is a zoom out which is created by using a crane shot.
Michael Myers is introduced to the audience in the opening scene and is is shocking to the audience that a child could do something so sinister and cruel. In 1978, the image shown to the left would have been truly shocking the viewing public because the idea of a child, being a serial killer is truly frightening. As it is halloween, Myers is dressed in a clown costume, making the scene even more sinister as clowns have connotations of being stereotypically scary and cruel. The weapon he is holding is a large bloody kitchen knife, which again is frightening for the audience because a kitchen knife is something in most households and brings a sense of realism to the scene. Home is somewhere that is supposed to be safe, so it creates tension that the murder happens in what looks like a very typical realistic household.
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