Halloween 1978 Opening Analysis

The reason I am analyzing the opening scene of Halloween is because it is a horror movie, like the one we are making, and it came out around the 1980’s, which is when our movie is set to take place.

Halloween Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg3E8NhyJ74

Looking at the opening, one part I would like to incorporate is he perspective. Most of the opening is shot from the killer’s perspective, which keeps the monster hidden but lets us know its there. Given that we are going to not show the monster in our opening, using this technique would be useful to help us build suspense. Another aspect I liked was the relative lack of dialog. The scene was carried by the music and atmosphere. Seeing as we don’t have professional voice actors, limiting dialog will help keep people grounded in the reality of our movie. However, while this opening had a few good parts to take inspiration from, it had quite a few bits I’d like to avoid. The death scene itself, for example, was a big no for me. I mean, it was SO BAD. I know it is an old movie, but that shouldn’t excuse such awful acting, cinematography, and overall quality. The acting of the girl dying was terrible. It sounded like she was having sex, not LITERALLY BEING MURDERED. Her reaction in general was so unrealistic, she just sat there and died. Additionally, they show the girl being stabbed to death, so where is the blood? This whole sequence really took me out of the scene because of how unconvincing it was. Very anticlimactic, especially considering how much build up the perspective and music gave the scene. On top of that, while the girl was being murdered, the killer looked to the side at their knife, and the motion was so unconvincing. The knife just moved up and down, and it was so far to the side there was NO way it got even remotely close to hitting the girl. Also, the killer only held the knife in one hand, so what was the other one doing? I’m left to assume it is just hanging at the killers side, and that makes the scene feel very robotic. The camera doesn’t move that much, which really seals the deal on the robotic feeling. To show you what I mean, stand up. Now look straight ahead and slightly down, and do a stabbing motion using your right hand and only moving your elbow, keeping your shoulder still. Make sure to keep your left hand at your side. Now you should see how robotic this moment feels, and that is the image the scene paints in my head. All of these alone might not be that bad if the others were done well, however all of them together really take me out of the scene. This is a big no-no, and really reassures me that we should not show the death, and only imply it. I’m not confident we could do a death scene that is good, and I’d rather leave the audience in suspense than ruin the scene by trying something we can’t do. Overall, I am glad I analyzed this clip, as it has given me a really good idea of showing the monsters POV, and shown me what NOT to do with a death scene.