halloween deconstruction

Halloween Deconstruction

This scene from John Carpenter's Halloween offers a rare instance of extremely effective use of a first-person camera to show the brutal murder of the main character's sister. Now a cliché of Hollywood slasher films, the shaky, hand-held POV was accentuated by masking around the image that was supposed to depict the mask worn by the killer. Whereas first person POV is ordinarily thought to distance spectators from the action on screen, Halloween places its audience in the uncomfortable subject position of both voyeur and murderer. This shot is quite similar to the shot in Psycho when the audience are taken through the hole in the wall to see Janet Leigh undressing, this creates intertextuality within the film and not only shows Hitchcock’s influence on Carpenter but also his influence on the slasher genre.
(insert picture of eye camera)
The camera is also at eye level which shows it's a actual human observing the scene. This builds suspense because it is quite unusual; usually we are shown through the eyes of the victim, therefore it makes the audience feels slightly unnerved.
The main type of shot used in this opening is a long shot. These are typically used in horror, as it means that the audience has more than one thing to focus on, and knows that the killer can appear from any angle, thus making them in edge. These type of shots mean that we do not emotionally connect to the characters. The only close-up used in this opening is on the knife that the killer picks up, and this is to show that the knife is significant. When the child is revealed as the killer, there is more lighting, and this suggests exposure, and creates a sense of enlightenment in the audience.
Very low lighting is used in the opening, meaning that we don’t get to see much. This builds suspense as we can’t see what is going on, which makes us think that something bad will happen. This is a convention of horror as we are meant to be left questioning as to what will happen. It leaves teh audience free to imagine what might be happening in the places they can’t see.
The people that are being watched without their knowledge are an example of a typical device used in horror films. This is used to attract the audiences attention and make them feel on edge.
The clown costume that the child is wearing is very typical of horror films, as the fear of clowns is something very common and is generally used with evil beings in horror films.