Analysis of the Opening Sequences of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and Wes Craven’s Scream (1996)

Analysis of the Opening Sequences of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and Wes Craven’s Scream (1996)

I’ am going to analyse the opening sequence of Halloween (1978) and

Scream (1996). I will be accounting for the differences and

similarities between the two films. To do this successfully, I will be

looking at the films’ characters, narratives, film language,

organization and ideology and target audience.

In the opening of ‘Halloween’ Michael Myer’s sister was represented

as passive because she didn’t put a fight whereas in ‘Scream’, Drew

Barrymore character isn’t represented as passive and puts up a good

fight and defends her self, nearly getting away from the killer. Both

of the characters in the films are also represented as sexually

active.

In opening of ‘Scream’ the rising of the popcorn connotes the tension

slowly. At the start you don’t expect it to be something to be scared

of, but it slowly rises and the audience’s attention catches on. Then

the audience starts to realise something is going to happen, and you

start to feel sad for the character and hope that she can get away

from the masked killer and survive. When she first answers phone you

think nothing of it, and for second time but when she answers the

third time and it is the same person the audience become aware of some

kind of danger. Also the camera zooms in on Barrymore’s face to also

show tension, and danger.

In ‘Halloween’ at the start, the camera starts of with a POV shot of

the house then carry on for the rest of the scene weakening the

audience, making you think, who is this person? Why are you here? Etc.

Also there are LS and MS showing the mise-en-...

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...te teens and young adults.

It is more unlikely suitable for young teenagers because it has

swearing and visual effects that are quite horrifying. The cast of the

actors in both films are in their late teens and young adults.

The Director of ‘Halloween’ wasn’t really well known, and had only

made a one film before making this one, until he made this spectacular

film, on such a low budget and most of it went to the one semi-famous

actor, which was John Pleasance. It got its publicity from word of

mouth, by teenagers. On the other hand ‘Scream’ was predicted to be a

hit, and was. The director was well known from making the horror film

‘Nightmare On Elm Street’, and ‘Scream’ had well known actors such as:

Neve Campbell and Drew Barrymore. It had a big budget and was spent on

the film and the publicity, and made millions.