The start of the film shows common conventions of the horror genre with the fact that the film is set at Halloween which is typical for horror's because of the concept of Halloween being to scare people and dress up as monsters and mythical creatures. Another common convention is the hidden identity concept where you cannot see who the killer is which makes the genre a mysterious one. The sound at the start of the film is very eerie which the slow piano, with sudden bursts of sound which is typical for the horror genre.
2. How does the setting fit with the horror?
There is a scene in the film where they visit an institution where the patients are all roaming the field and this is a setting that you see a lot in horrors and its where people who are not particularly sane are sent to and it gives you weird vibes because of the people who are locked away for a reason are not out roaming the streets. Horrors typical have a killer who normally has problems with them mentally and in Halloween this is Michael who actually gets sent to the institution when he was young and is now out on probation, so if Michael is acting the way he is when he isn't locked up it creates suspension on what these people who have escaped are capable of.3. What Iconography of "Innocence" do we hear or see early on?
The iconography of innocence is shown a lot throughout Halloween and at the start of the film we see Michael in a clowns costume which for some is terrifying but overs see it as innocent because they are a child's entertainer. Laurie who is the protagonist of the film is shown throughout to be a virgin which portrays this idea of innocence as she has yet to lose her virginity and is still 'innocent'. Towards the start of the film we see children trick or treating which is a common tradition for Halloween and they are innocently having fun and enjoying their Halloween. Also the way that Laurie dresses, she wears cardigans and clothes that do not flaunt her body and because of this we can see that she respects herself and she dresses like a middle aged adult and is shown as smarter than the two or her friends who end up dying.
Halloween cost very little to make compared to other horror films and because of this and the success of the film they made a lot of profit which led to sequels of the Halloween franchise and now there are several films based off this original:
- Halloween II
- Halloween III : Season of the Witch
- Halloween 4 : The Return of Michael Myers
- Halloween 5
- Halloween : The curse of Michael Myers
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
- Halloween: Resurrection
- Halloween (Remake)
- Halloween II (Remake)
The estimated budget for Halloween was $300,000 and the gross profit worldwide was $60,000,000 so as you can see they saw that the film was able to make a lot of profit so they kept making films but the problem is they normally lose their quirky side and because of this the film started to drop in reviews and the films have slowly gotten worse with some sequels bringing the life back but then the follow up killing it.
Here are a few slasher films that followed on from Halloween:
- Friday the 13th
- Graduation 2
- Prom Night
- Terror Train
- The Slayer
6. What are the four plot rules of the "slasher" film sub-genre which Halloween begun?
1. A traumatic event in the past creates a psychopathic killer
2. The killer returns to 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
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 of both sexes, 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
7. Give three ways in which Laurie is androgynous:
Laurie is a female character with heightened masculinity compared to other females in the film who are shown as ditsy. She is the only female who fights back and fighting is normally considered masculine and also her voice is deeper than others in the film which also heightens her masculinity. Laurie also has a strong jawline which is considered masculine and because of this we can tell that she is stronger than the others females and breaks the stereotypes of typical females in the 1970's.
8. What does the extract mean by "a reactionary sexual agenda" ?
The term "a reactionary sexual agenda" refers to way that teens were acting at the time, where there main focus was drinking and having sex and people were worried about the way teens were acting because of aids developing at the time and many people were having unprotected sex. Teen's were distracted by drink, drugs and sex instead of focusing on more important things. In the film what happens to someone depends on their sexual agenda, whether they are active or not is basically whether they survive or die. In the film Halloween all of the teenagers who are focused on drink and sex end up dying because they do not notice their is a killer roaming the street unlike Laurie who notices that mysterious things are happening and actually fights back and realizes that action needs to happen because she is not distracted by other things.
9. How does the director, John Carpenter, counter the suggestion that Halloween had a reactionary sexual agenda?
10. Why does Mike Myers kill his sister?
This question is hard to answer because everyone has different opinions on why Mike Myers killed his sister at the start of the film but John Carpenter said it was because Mike Myers was just generally evil and possessed by evil. My opinion is that Mike Myers killed his sister because of the way that she was acting, she was acting sluttish and because of this she was breaking her families morals and this is why he killed the other teens who were having sex and drinking because their parents weren't home.
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