Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'Halloween' 1978

Director: John Carpenter

Starring: Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis

Opening Sequence

The movie starts with a black screen, we hear non-diegetic creepy, intense music, which implies fear. We then see a red title of Compass International Pictures followed by the titles and cast, all in red, yellow, and orange, the connotations of these colours being of fire and hell. A pumpkin is shown which emphasises the 'Halloween' and horror genre. We then see titles telling us the place of what we are about to see, so that the audience gets a sense of setting.

We then hear a sound bridge between the titles and the point of view shot we then see, the sound bridge is a song being sung by children, possibly to suggest the childish nature of the character whose point of view we are seeing through. The point of view shot tracks forward towards a house, with hand  held movement, which reinstates the fact that it is a person's point of view. We see a pumpkin on the porch, reminding us of the Halloween setting. The camera then tracks horizontally left  around the side of the house, we see a young boy and girl exchanging words and kisses, followed by the camera tracking back to the front of the house and tilting up. A light upstairs ceases to be and a non-diegetic screech is heard, the sound is uncomfortable, perhaps to show the uncomfortable mental state of the character whose point of view we are watching.

The character then goes into the house and picks up a knife from a draw, as they pass from the light of the kitchen into the darkness of the living room, there is a sense of them passing from innocence, into a psychotic state of mind. We hear a clock chime as the boy leaves, putting his shirt on, suggesting the couple have just engaged in passionate acts, the clock chiming suggests time running out for the girl.

The character we are following slowly creeps up the stairs and finds a clown mask, they put it on, this could be a metaphor for them wanting to hide something, possibly a side of them that they don't want people to see, a more demonic personality. We are shown the mask by only being allowed to see through eye holes on the camera, which obscures the scene to the audience, giving it a sense of mystery.

As our character approaches the girl, we see that she is nude (reinforcing the passionate acts between the boy and girl). She spins round and says "Michael!" showing that she knows him well enough to recognise him with a mask on, thus it must be a close relationship, a sister perhaps. Michael then proceeds to stab the girl, possibly angered that she allowed somebody other than him to love her. After she has died, Michael runs back outside to a car pulling up and a man and woman get out, saying his name, these are his and the girl's parents. They are wearing a suit a fur coat, showing that they are quite well off and are a modern family for the time.

As the father pulls the mask off of Michael's face, we cut to a close up of Michael's face which zooms out to a crane shot of the house, with non-diegetic, incidental music gradually building to a crescendo in the background.