SlasherEG2: Halloween

Halloween 
(John Carpenter, 1978)

opening credits

The start of the titles for halloween there is tense music. This is created by long notes, these make you hold your breath and ever so often there is faster piano notes. The piano notes speed up your heart beat making it slightly irregualr, by doing this they keep the audience more scared and the opening shots are likely to shock them more. 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.

opening shot

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 i
s a good way of making the point of view shot very steady and giving it a quite ghostly drifting feel.

POV shot of killer

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 diegetic sound of children playing/trick or treating, this helps establish that it is halloween and the sound of childrens laughter can sound quite creepy.

POV shot through mask

The shot is a point of view shot and appears to come from behind a shelter o
r 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.

shot where killer is revealed

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 centred in the frame and the trees framing the shot nicely. There is more exposition and then a 15 year elipses.

closing shot

This opening sequence ends at 7.09

Here is the opening sequence: