SlasherEG4: Halloween

Halloween, John Carpenter, 1978

Directed by: John Carpenter
Budget: $320k
Total Gross: $60m
Run Time: 91mins
A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets.


During the titles for Halloween there is tense music. This is created by long notes, these make you hold your breath. There are also piano notes to speed up your heart beat making it slightly irregular  making the opening shots more likely to shock the audience. There is a black background and orange writing, next to the writing is an image of a pumpkin with the light flickering inside it. The slow zoom is aimed at the pumpkin. 
There is a long drawn out note and the person enters the house. They automatically know where the knife draw is to get a knife which makes the audience think the person knows whoever lives there. After the killing happens and the person goes out side it is revealed that it is a child that is the killer. This shot shows the boy centered in the frame and the trees framing the shot nicely. There is more exposition and then a 15 year ellipses. 


The directors titles are shown as 'directed by ....' 
Exposition is given on screen with the time and place. A steady cam is used in this opening shot. This is a good way of making the point of view shot very steady and giving it a quite ghostly drifting feel. 

The opening shot is an establishing shot of a house. Like Psycho the film starts by showing the environment it is in rather than the people or main characters. Again it creates the idea that this story could happen to anybody and makes it more believable. During this opening shot there is non diagetic sound of children playing/trick or treating, this helps establish that it is Halloween and the sound of childrens laughter can sound quite creepy. The shot is a point of view shot and appears to come from behind a shelter or tree, making it look like they were watching or spying on the house. There is a blue tint on the footage which creates a cod lifeless atmosphere and like something isn't quite right.