HORROR - Analysis

Halloween:
Halloween is a 1978 independent horror film directed by John Carpenter. The film stars Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle.

The film became notoriously popular and has gone down in history as one of the most terrifying horror films of all time. Rather than relying on computer generated special effects (which could be argued are overused in recent films), the creators of Halloween came up with a realistic way of scaring audiences - by playing upon every man, woman and childs basic fear of an unstoppable force of evil. The film has inspired many of todays horror cliches and the basic formula is widely popular and recogniseable in the modern horror genre. Halloween established a significant convention that is still evident in horror films over 30 years after its release- Myers victims are all sexually promiscuous, while the lone heroine (Jamie Lee Curtis) is depicted as innocent thus making the audience want her to defeat him. Since Halloween was released, the direct link between a character's moral strengths and their likelihood of surviving the films conclusion has become a standard convention of slasher horror films.

The credits of the film fade from orange to red, a connotation of good versus evil. Similarly, it could show the conflict between life and death. The background of the credits is black, an indication of an evil presence in the film. The other prominent feature in the opening credits is the pumpkin. The candle that is inside the pumpkin is violently flickering but fails to go out. This suggests that the killer in the film is unstoppable. There is a slow zoom into the pumpkin, suggesting that the film will build up. When the audience get to see the pumpkin close up, it is noticeable that the shapes are cut out roughly, almost as if done by a child. The camera gets so close to the pumpkin that part of it's 'face' is hidden, this could be a hint for a theme of the rest of the film.

The opening of Halloween is famous for being filmed in a single take (with one seamless cut towards the end). It also uses a subjective point of view to produce vulnerable, unsteady feelings withiun the audience. The setting of the film is the small, quiet town of Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963. It is Halloween night and the children in the neighbourhood are celebrating. The establishing shot of the sequence provides the audience with the knowledge that the area is quiet and somewhat cut off from help. The house that is shown is white, indicating innocence. There is an unidentified figure watching from the outside as a couple of teenagers are in the living room together. The audience are instantly trying to work out who the person behind the camera is. The girl mentions that her brother "Michael is around some place". The girl and her boyfriend go upstairs and the person who is watching tham notices that the light has been turned off- signifying that they are having sex. After we see the boyfriend leave, the subjective camera follows the mysterious figure to the back entrance of the house and into the kitchen. He takes a large knife from the drawer. At this point, through the use of mise-en-scene, the audience start to become aware of the fact that this character will be the evil aspect/character in the film. The character then proceeds through the house as if he knows his way around. The figure picks up a clown mask and clearly puts it on, restricting the audiences point of view to that of the charcters- through the eye holes of the clown mask. The character than creeps upstairs, he enters the room where the girl is brushing her hair. When she recognises that someone is there, she says "Michael", it is at this point that we know that they are brother and sister as she had mentioned him earlier. Although she tries to defend herself, he furiously stabs her to death and she tumbles to the floor. As with another classic horror scene - Norman Bates stabbing Marion Crane in the shower (Psycho-1960) - there is only the implication that the knife penetrates the skin of the victim. Michael then leaves the rooms and goes outside of the house. Whilst standing on the front lawn, Michael is unmasked by his shocked parents. As he stands motionless on the grass, the audience do not see any emotion or remorse in his face. A crane shot slowly rises from him and widens the view, placing him within a quiet, suburban neighbourhood. The first thing that the audience notice is that Michael is a young boy, but they had been expecting an older character. It also poses the question - what will he be capable of when he is older?? Also, the boy is wearing a clown costume. On one hand there is the clown mask, and on the other hand there is a large kitchen knife - this shows the conflict between good and evil, and also the irony of the situation as clowns are meant to be happy and make people laugh instead of the image that Michael is portraying. Regarding the characters in the scene, the audience are not familiarized with one character in depth, however we are shown the situation/world through Michael's eyes, this suggests that we wont find much else out about him, which constantly adds to the audience's curiosity of him and his reasons for doing what he does. A lot of the time, Michael Myers is credited as 'The Shape'.

The opening of Halloween is set at night time which gives the impression that people who could be potential help for the victims are asleep or not available. The house is in darkness, which hides Michael in the shadows. It also adds to the suspense of the scene as the audience are curious as to what is going on. Also, the sisters room is lit up and she wouldn't be able to see Michael in the dark hallway, and the audience automatically empathise with her.

The sound and music in the sequence also contribute to building the tension within the audience. The sound/music is very sharp and harsh and this type of soundtrack ie- violins/strings has become very popular in modern horror films. It could be argued that without the soundtrack/scor, the film would be nowhere near as scary/frightening. The music carries on from the credits to the first bit of the film thorugh the use of a sound bridge. It continues the theme that was discussed in the credits (sinister background). This sound is non-diegetic as it is not in the scene, and the characters cannot hear it, it gives the audience the advantage of being warned when something is happening. There is ambient sound at the beginning of the sequence as we hear the sound of crickets outside - this indicates how still the surrounding area is, and on the surface it appears that nothing strange is happening.

Scream:

Scream is a 1996 film directed by Wes Craven. The film revitalised and re-defined the slasher genre in the 90's, similar to the impact that Halloween had on the late 70's films, by using a standard concept with a tounge-in-cheek approach that combined straightforward scares with dialogue that followed slasher film conventions with a twist. The film featured many teen idols of the time including: Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard and Courteney Cox Arquette.

When the title of the film appears, there is a loud bang. The writing is white which connotes innocence. The title then flashes to red and the audience can hear screams in the background. It is as if someone is dying as the elements on the screen alter. Just before the sequence begins, we can hear a phone ringing, this suggests that the phone may play a prominent role in the sequence. Through the use of a sound bridge, the ringing continues when the film starts. The camera follows the phone as it picked up by a young blonde haired girl. The voice on the other end of the phone is that of an older male. It also seems that the girl doesn't know who the caller is. The audience cannot make any judgement on the character yet, as we do not know who he is or what he looks like. When Drew Barrymore starts to walk away, the audience can see in the background and it is visible that her family is wealthy as they live in a large spacious house.

The phone rings for a second time, she turns around and a reaction shot shows that she is as curious about the caller as the audience is. When she picks up the phone, there is a canted frame, which makes the audience feel uneasy and off-balance. We can tell that she is confused, and the camera gets closer to her face to shows this. As she is about to hang up, the caller says "wait, wait", and the camera moves quickly to reflect that the caller is anxious to keep her talking on the phone.

The camera then cuts to an exterior shot, to show the audience that although the house is lit up inside, it is very dark outside, giving someone the opportunity to hide. There is then a tilt down to a shot of the house. This shot could be considered as an establishing shot. It also gives the impression that there is someone spying on the girl from outside, making it a point of view shot. The only sound in this shot is the noise of the crickets outside, this makes the area more still and isolated. The large house is typical of what you would expect in suburbia. The swing that is hanging from the tree is swaying to and fro, this is a possible indication of someone's presence.

There is then a cut to an insert of the hob being lit inside the house. The phone rings for a third time and the girls sigh indicates that she is getting slightly annoyed by the caller. He refuses to tell her his name which adds to the increasing tension throughout the scene. She tells him that she is making popcorn and going to watch a scary film, which is ironic as it is what the audience are doing. It makes us feel empathetic towards her. When she refers to Halloween as one of her favourite films, she picks up a large kitchen knife, this is an intertextual reference to the iconic 1978 horror film. The popcorn acts as a timer in the opening, as the events unravel, the popcorn gets louder and louder. It shows the suspense building up. Drew Barrymore starts to walk around the kitchen, and the camera follows her. This gives the impression that someone is stalking her. She starts to walk into the living room, and an over the shoulder shot suggests that metaphorically, there is some standing over her shoulder as she walks around. There are a lot of shadows in the room, and it is hard to distinguish where the shadows are coming from.

Later on, the caller mentions that he wants to know who he is looking at, Drew Barrymore's reaction mirrors that of the audience. We start to wonder where the caller is and whether he really can see her or not. A dog barks outside, which is commonly a sign that something out of the ordinary is happening. She looks around whilst still talking, and starts to think that something bad is happening. She turns on the patio light to try and see something outside, there is a point of view shot so the audience are put in the position of the girl. Also, we see that the family have a pool, which is a sign of their wealth.

When she hangs up, there is an insert of the popcorn, which has started to smoke, this is an indication of the uncontrollable situation she has found herself in. As the scene progresses, the lighting gets subsequently darker to reflect the tone. Also, when she is in the phone to him, she is cut off from sources of help as she is talking to him. It is noticeable that as the sequence unfolds, the camera angle gets wider, and the movement becomes more unstable. This allows the audience to see more of what is going on in the background. The next time the phone rings, the girl appears to be scared, and we start to develop negative associations of the phone ringing. When the caller threatens her, there is a zoom into her reaction. The sinister voice on the phone lets the girl know that he can see her as he referes to her as 'blondie'. The music builds builds up and gathers pace as she frantically runs around locking all the doors. The camera following her is unsteady to reflect the scene. He reinforces to her that no one can help her as they are in the middle of nowhere.

Drew Barrymore is shown as weak and helpless, she is sobbing uncontrollably and seems unsure of herself. She is on edge and jumps when the doorbell rings. She walks backwards into the living room, this is symbolic of her being forced to go somewhere that she doesn't want to go, or into the unknown. There is apoint of view shot as she backs away from the door, this shows her getting further and further away from her escape/exit. Whilst the girl is very frantic on the phone, the caller is calm and relaxed.

The caller lets her know that she knows her boyfriend's name, through the reacton shot of the girl, we realise at the same time that she does that the caller must be someone she knows. Later in the scene, we see her boyfriend, Steve, tied up outside on the patio and he is wearing a football jacket, this is a typical convention of horror films- the victims being teenagers. When the girl asks the caller "Where are you?", Steve looks to either side of him, this is a hint that maybe there are two people involved and they are tricking her. Her boyfriend holds his hand up and much as he can as if to tell her to stop. Steve knows something but he cant tell her.

When Casey is hiding behind the television, the caller asks her some horror film trivia. There is non-diegetic sound being played very faintly in the background, this is the music from Halloween, a film which had a big influence on Scream. As she answered a question wrong, Steve gets killed. This, however, happens off screen, and the audience only hear the sounds of the knife and Steve screaming. When she refuses to answer the next question, the killer throws a chair through the window right next to her.

She runs through the kitchen, which by now is filled with smoke and beginning to start a fire, and grabs the large kitchen knife she picked up earlier. The pace of the scene changes and is a lot more rushed as we now know for definite that the killer is intending to get her, whereas before it could have been a prank.

We briefly see someone, obviously the killer, run past the corridor, and the burst of music intends to shock the audience. Even though we saw Casey lock all of the doors, the killer has managed to get into the house. He glides through the house and appears to be experienced at what he is doing.

In one hand, Casey has the phone to symbolise that although he is not right next to her, the killer is always close. In the other hand, she has the knife to show her will to survive. We wouldn't normally expect a young blonde teenage girl (in horror films) to be able to stand up for herself as Casey does. The two props show that whilst she is in a vulnerable situation, she is still determined to escape. They also balanc each other out. Casey creeps outside and hides under the window in hopes of escaping the ordeal. The audience believe that she has 'out-smarted' the killer at this point as the killer is still inside.

There is a cut to an extreme long shot of car lights in the distance driving up to the house. The shot is also from the point of view of Casey to make the audience feel her desperation. She starts to crawl away,believing she is safe. However, when she looks back into the house, there is a crash of music as the killer turns around and faces her. For the first time, the audience see the killer close up. Casey's reaction, once again is reflective of what the audience would do - scream!! The killer smashes through the glass, and although she seemed helpless at first, Casey uses the phone that had terrorized her earlier to hit him in the face.

At this point, the car is getting closer to the house, which makes us think she will almost cartainly escape. Once again, the killer smashes through the glass. There is a long shot of the girl running away from the killer. This is done in slow motion to show how her chance of survival is slowly slipping away. It is also a way of showing what both of the characters are wearing. Drew Barrymore is dressed in light colours with blonde hair - a sign of her innocence. Also, at this stage, we have not seen the killers face and the audience are left to imagine who or what is under the mask. The killer is wearing a black cloak with a white mask. One connotation of his costume could be a reminder of the Grim Reaper. It could show that although he is almost completely dark, there is still a different side to the character. It also introduces the potential theme of good versus evil.

When the killer stabs Casey, there is no music and only diegetic sound, this automatically puts the audience into the scene. As she collapses onto the floor, we see her white top stained with blood, and the audience are starting to believe that she has no chance of survival. Her heavy breathing and sobbing shows that she is slowly losing her life. When he goes to stab her for a second time, she manages to knock the knife out of the killer's hand, which is an indication of her strength. At the top of the frame, we see that she is still holding onto the phone. She kicks him away from her and, considering how she has just been stabbed, the audience wonder how powerful the killer actually is. There is then a shot from Casey's point of view lying on the floor, trying desperately to get her parents attention. As she manages to get to her feet, there is an over the shoulder shot as he walks behind her with the intention of killing her.

When Casey finally realises that she has no chance of living, she reaches up to reveal the killers identity. The audience, however, are not shown/told who it is. The shocked expression on Casey's face is an indication that she knows who it is. There is a freeze frame of the knife that the killer has raised above his head. It is against a dark background, which draws our focus to the knife.

Inside the house, the fire alarm starts to go off, this is a symbol of Casey dying at the same time. Also, the popcorn is put into the sink by her Mom. This signifies the end of Casey's night- and her life.

There are cuts between shots of the parents and shots of the killer stabbing Casey. When her Mom tries to ring the police, Casey is still on the phone so even they cant help her. When the killer puts down the phone, it is a sign that Casey is dead and cant get any help. There is a medium close up (which is also a two shot) of the parents, so the audience can see their emotions. We also feel sorry for the parents because we know more than they do about what has happened. The man tells the woman to "drive up to the Mackenzies", the fact that they have to drive to their nearest neighbours shows how they are isolated they are.

When the Mom gets outside she screams, the audience are curious as to what she has seen. She falls to the floor and out of the shot, and the Dad goes to look. The slight zoom in to his reaction indicates that he has seen something terrible. There is an extreme long shot of Casey hanging dead from the tree. The camera quickly zooms into Casey. It is so quick that the audience hardly have a chance to process what is happening. There is a flash and the screen goes black, showing the end of the sequence.

The sound in the opening of the film is typical of a horror film. It builds up and down through the scene and is parallel to the action in the sequence. The string instruments manipulate the audience into believing that something is going to happen.

There are a lot of red herrings, even in the opening 10 minutes of the film. The audience are built up to expect something and when nothing happens, they relax again - this is when they get the shocks. The knife that the killer uses is a common of weapon in horror films and often symbolises a gory death.

The opening of Scream kills off arguably the biggest star of the film - Drew Barrymore - so early. This creates an alientation effect by killing the apparent centre of the film and makes us thinks that anything could (and probably will) happen. Scream is famous for its intertextuality, a lot of which is evident in the opening scene. The victims later on in the film are quite self aware. They each make clear their knowledge of, and poke fun at, teen slasher films. The references in the opening include:

- When A Stranger Calls: Victim being taunted over the phone

- Nightmare On Elm Street: Conversation about the film

- Friday the 13th: Conversation about the film

- Halloween: Casey picking up the knife (Michael Myers)

: Costume (Michael Myers' face being hidden by a white mask)

: "Drive down to the Mackenzies" (Quote from Halloween)

: Casey stumbling forward, unable to speak, towards her parents (Halloween II - Laurie running towards Dr. Loomis), the killer close behind ready to attack

The shots of a bloody knife in the air before stabbing Casey is a horror film cliché. In almost all Halloween and Friday the 13th movies, before the killers knife comes down killing the helpless victim, they always show it pausing in the air.