Halloween Questions

The start of the film exemplifies common technical code conventions of the
genre as it uses dark, eerie ambient lighting to connote senses of fear and evil. It
also opens with a long POV shot from the perspective of a young Michael Myers.
This restricts the view of the audience to what the character can see. There is
also a filter placed on the screen, to make it tougher to see what is going. This is
also realistic, as the Michael Myers character was wearing a mask at the time.
Its also in this scene where the iconic music written by John Carpenter is heard
for the first time. This places more fear and a slight bit of intrigue on the
audience.
The setting perfectly fits the horror genre as the majority of the film takes place
in an empty home on a dark night. The fact that it happens to be October 31 st
only increases the fear and the anxiety of the characters. It is set in a suburban
area of the USA too, in this case, the fictional town of Haddonfield, IL. This makes
it a bit closer to home as the audience is made to believe that this could happen
to them due to this particular setting. The idea of the empty house in this
suburban town is to create an innocent setting with a sense of isolation.
The iconography of innocence is used on a couple of occasions. The most
obvious usage being the Laurie Strode character, played by Jamie Lee Curtis. She
is a teenage girl but unlike her friends, she is a virgin. She is also seen as scared
or worried, which her friends werent. Both of these connote innocence. Another

use of innocence was in the opening scene. After killing his sister, Michael was
seen wearing a clown mask. Clowns often appeal to children due to the colourful
and comedic nature of them. On the other hand though, coulrophobia (fear of
clowns) is common. It is a horror movie, and therefore, they could be playing on
this fear. It could be representing both fear and innocence and it depends on
which way the audience look at it. A third idea of innocence is the children seen
trick or treating. This is seen as just a silly game or superstition but in the
context of the film, it plays on peoples fears.
The industry was massively impacted by Halloween. In particular, the film kicked
off a rise in the slasher genre and influenced many films of the genre. It is also
considered to be a very genre defining film. Because of this, the idea has been
copied numerous times, to varying degrees of success.
Some slasher films which followed from Halloween included Friday the 13 th, The
Slayer and Prom Night.
The four plot rules of the slasher sub-genre, as described in Horror Films by
James Marriott are:
1. A traumatic event in the past creates a psycho killer
2. The killer returns the the site of the event, usually on a specific date in the
present that allows the makers to use a calendar motif in the title.
3. The killer stalks and graphically kills a group of obnoxious and stupid
teens, usually with some kind of blade, often a garden or farm implement.
4. A final girl survives, usually boyish and often virginal, to thwart the killer,
although he is never entirely vanquished
Laurie is seen as an androgynous character by many.
One reason for this is that she is fearless. This is
seen as a male trait, as they are considered to be
tough protectors. In the film, Laurie has to defend
herself against Michael and does a good job of that,
without needing a man to protect her, putting herself
into that role. Another reason is because of her
strong masculine jawline. The masculine jawline
connotes, strength, leadership and protection, which
are all male qualities. Another reason she is
androgynous is that her voice is considerably deeper
than the other girls. A deeper voice is a sign of masculinity, as men tend to have
deeper voices than women in most cultures.
A reactionary sexual agenda is the opposite of the norm and is a reaction to
sexualisation in films. It means in this case that whatever happens to a character
depends on their sexual agenda. In this case, Laurie, the virginal girl survives
while all of the characters portrayed as sex addicts die.
John Carpenter responds to the suggestion that Halloween followed this agenda
by claiming it was unintentional, and that the characters died because they
werent paying attention to the threat of Michael Myers, rather than the fact that
they were too busy focused on sex.
The question Why does Mike Myers kill his sister is open to debate. I have a
few ideas though. The first idea is that it was Halloween night and Michael took it

too far, without fully knowing any better. Another idea is that he was jealous of
his sisters boyfriend as he is very perhaps possessive but again took it too far.
One final idea is that the idea of killing women makes him feel aroused. This is
perhaps a reason why it didnt stop with his sister as he went after Laurie. All of
these ideas are logical, but we of course do not know for sure.