Halloween
The opening of Halloween is effective because it keeps the audience very interested and on the edge of their
seats. It does this using many different techniques such as, Point Of View shots and constant music.
The opening credits uses the symbolic Halloween image of a pumpkin whilst the opening titles and credits are playing the font used is regular and uses reds and oranges which are typical Halloween colours representing fire. The famous Halloween theme is played merging into non diagetic tension building music when the film begins. The black screen with the creepy use of children singing is used which plays on peoples minds. The opening shows a house in the dark on a Halloween night within a ‘normal’ neighborhood as the text gives us this information a handheld camera and POV shots are used allowing us the viewer to be in eyes of the character we are yet unknown off, this makes the viewer curious. We are taken round the back of what we assume to be the house of where the action is going to take place, it looks on at a couple because we are in the eyes of the character we presume these are the victims. The non-diagetic sound continues as well as the diagetic sound of light switches and the grandfather clock chimes. When the character enters it focuses on the butchers knife they collect as an audience we know something terrible will happen due to the couple upstairs and the ‘stranger’ which as entered the house now equipped with a knife. The constant music keeps things tense which is effective because the audience are always wondering what is going to happen next, has the male character leave we are taken upstairs picking up a clowns mask which gives connotations of people fears of clowns. Our vision is then restricted to the two eye holes in the mask, the female character recognizes her killer and we are shown the repetition of the stabbing action, we then see the bloody dead body on the floor as the character leaves we see that the killer is a child dressed in a clown suit which already provokes peoples fears of clowns and children. In addition because there are no cuts until the end it makes it feel as though everything is happening in real time which adds the reality that this ‘could’ happen, also the usage of the POV vision makes it seem more like the audience are the one who is killing the girl.
From watching the opening scene we see that using powerful music throughout is important as it can make things appear tenser. We have also seen the effect of using POV shots and how it adds to the suspense and horrific genre.
The opening of Halloween is effective because it keeps the audience very interested and on the edge of their
seats. It does this using many different techniques such as, Point Of View shots and constant music.The opening credits uses the symbolic Halloween image of a pumpkin whilst the opening titles and credits are playing the font used is regular and uses reds and oranges which are typical Halloween colours representing fire. The famous Halloween theme is played merging into non diagetic tension building music when the film begins. The black screen with the creepy use of children singing is used which plays on peoples minds. The opening shows a house in the dark on a Halloween night within a ‘normal’ neighborhood as the text gives us this information a handheld camera and POV shots are used allowing us the viewer to be in eyes of the character we are yet unknown off, this makes the viewer curious. We are taken round the back of what we assume to be the house of where the action is going to take place, it looks on at a couple because we are in the eyes of the character we presume these are the victims. The non-diagetic sound continues as well as the diagetic sound of light switches and the grandfather clock chimes. When the character enters it focuses on the butchers knife they collect as an audience we know something terrible will happen due to the couple upstairs and the ‘stranger’ which as entered the house now equipped with a knife. The constant music keeps things tense which is effective because the audience are always wondering what is going to happen next, has the male character leave we are taken upstairs picking up a clowns mask which gives connotations of people fears of clowns. Our vision is then restricted to the two eye holes in the mask, the female character recognizes her killer and we are shown the repetition of the stabbing action, we then see the bloody dead body on the floor as the character leaves we see that the killer is a child dressed in a clown suit which already provokes peoples fears of clowns and children. In addition because there are no cuts until the end it makes it feel as though everything is happening in real time which adds the reality that this ‘could’ happen, also the usage of the POV vision makes it seem more like the audience are the one who is killing the girl.
From watching the opening scene we see that using powerful music throughout is important as it can make things appear tenser. We have also seen the effect of using POV shots and how it adds to the suspense and horrific genre.
a good analysis, Tasha
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