Introduction Attention-Getter: Have you ever felt a sense of curiosity bubbling within you eager to uncover the secrets that unfold behind the camera lens of a film? Thesis: Today I would like to share with you the behind-the-scenes of the 1978 film, Halloween, and the challenges faced during the production. Main Point Preview: I will begin by providing information about the film’s backstory, followed by the constraints on budgets and supply limitations. Finally, I will discuss the film’s release and the audience’s reaction. Body Main Point: To start, I will give a synopsis of the independent horror film, along with details of the film crew. Subpoint I: This horror film is set in the small town of Haddon Field, Illinois in 1963. The killer, …show more content…
Subpoint II: John Carpenter was the writer and director of this horror film, along with the other writer, Debra Hill, who was also the producer. Carpenter was a college student when he was experimenting with films before he wrote Halloween. Presentation Aid: I will show a picture of the movie cover, director, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Sub-subpoint I: From director to casting agents, they play important roles in the filmmaking process. Jamie Lee Curtis, who played Laurie Strode, was brought into this film as a rising actor in the film industry. Required Source: According to Gale Literature, Jamie Lee Curtis was nicknamed the “Scream Queen” for her role as the teenage victim in the 1978 Halloween. Sub-subpoint II: The brainstorming included many ideas that didn’t make the final cut. For example, this movie was originally going to be titled The Babysitter Murders. Another fact is that Michael Myers was known as the “shape” throughout the script before he was given his …show more content…
Main Point II: Next, I will explore how the film revolved around the budget and supply limitations through the crew’s utilization of equipment and resources. Subpoint I: The film’s budget was $325,000, where $70,000 went towards the Panavision Panaflex camera. This camera heightened the visuality, as well as providing more flexibility and greater range of movement. Required Source II: According to Katie Bird, the Steadicam and Panaglide attach the operator to a vest which reduces friction to the shot and leaves the operator free to move around the set. Required Source III: According to the documentary, The Movies That Made Us, the camera had smaller film magazines that could only record for 4 minutes and 26 seconds. Presentation Aid II: This slide shows pictures of the Panavision Panaflex camera, so I can easily describe how it looks and works. Subpoint II: While keeping the budget in mind, the director produced the song of Halloween by playing with the keys of a piano that repeated a simple rift to add a menacing mood to the movie.
Too many horror films provide scares and screams throughout their respective cinemas. Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers. However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s novel, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s. The model is a female is featured as a primary character and that females tend to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film.
In the film, “Halloween”, directed by John Carpenter, an outstanding work of art has been created with respect to the ‘on the edge of your seat’ thriller that has been conveyed in the film. Mise-en- scene is incorporated in many different facets throughout the film and has creatively developed the scenes that makeup the thriller and deliver an objective of tone, mood, and scary elements. Mise-en- scene sets up the setting in the film as the director has an objective to deliver a scary, dark scene that keeps the audience on their feet. Initially in the film, there is a unique introduction of a quiet town that leads up to believe there is no horror involved in the area. This unique set up by the director gives us the preamble that the
Analysis of Halloween by John Carpenter and Evil Dead by Sam Raimi The horror genre is characterized by the attempt to make the viewer experience dread, fear and terror. Some of the most common elements include vampires, zombies and werewolves. One of the films which I am going to analyze is “Halloween” by John Carpenter which starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. This film was made in 1978; this was considered the film which started the “slasher film” genre. This genre was continued in dozens of violent movies throughout the 1980s.
Halloween is rife with psychological scares that affect its audience greatly. “Symbolism, dreamlike imagery, emotional rather than rational logic” are present in Psychoanalytic criticism. Siskel and Ebert talked about how the movie makes you feel as if you are the protagonist, scared for your life and feeling every bit of suspense (Siskel and Ebert). The movie is purely fueled by emotional responses to what is happening to the characters and focuses itself purely on how the audience will respond. In the clip shown, the main protagonist talks about how she killed the killer but he is shown alive. The movie is not concerned with the logic; otherwise, the killer would have at least been slowed down by the injuries he sustained. Siskel and Ebert laud the movie on its set up of scenes, score, character development, and use of lighting to make the audience feel the terror the characters undergo.
In slasher films, suspense is a big factor to what makes the movie intriguing and keeps the audience watching. Suspense causes people to be on the edge of their seat with anxiety and tension with being unsure of what will happen next. It’s the feeling of not knowing what’s in a room in a haunted house when you hear strange sounds coming from it. I feel the best-known film director for his suspenseful movies is Alfred Hitchcock. To create these movies there are many techniques used to create the suspenseful feeling in the movie. In the slasher movie Halloween I reviewed, many techniques were used that made the movie suspenseful to watch, such as the use of music, back lighting, hand held camera movement and point of view shots.
Until 1996, American horror films had become disgustingly sad, desperately looking for a kick-start, yawn-filled predictability was the best we could expect. Then finally, we were able to leap out of our seats and gawp at Scream. It’s witty, clever, dangerous and fresh. With that giving hope to the horror movie genre, it was adhered by an amazing sequel.
“Poor decisions and bad luck are contingencies of most horror films” (Wesley Morris). The 1960’s thriller, Psycho, is no exception. It has been acclaimed as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films because of its use of psychopathic elements to create what has come to be known as a “slasher films”, a subcategory of horror films. It evolved the horror genre from monsters and the supernatural to the human condition and the monster living inside. The motion picture Psycho tells the story of a Marion Crane, a secretary who flees Phoenix, Arizona with $40,000 she steals from her boss. Days later she arrives to the Bates Motel in Oregon. At the isolated, vacant motel, she meets the owner Norman Bates who shows her hospitality. Later, however, we find
Another typical factor of this horror movie is where it is set; there is one big house in the middle of nowhere, trees surrounding the house which blocks some vision of the victim, no noise which makes viewers feel edgy and make them believe something is about to happen, these two factors makes it mysterious and also makes the viewer nervous. Then comes action, there is a lot of action In the opening scene of this movie and some of the material they use is clever. For example the phone rings and she is having a conversation on the phone with an unknown person which of course is the killer, at the same time she is having the conversation she is cooking some popcorn, as the conversation becomes more revealing the popcorn bag is becoming larger , this is showing that the tension is building and makes the viewer feel as if something is about to happen. Also while she is on the phone she looks outside and the swing is moving, this shows that someone has been there and maybe still are. The light outside is very dim and natural for example the moonlight outside is very soft
When I learned that I would have to do my ethnographic report on what I did during Halloween, I was worried because I live in Turnpike and the most excitement that happens in turnpike is the sound of the garbage truck when it comes to pick up the Wednesday trash. Fortunately something did happen to me and I realized I would not have to write a boring paper of how I woke up and just stayed in my room the whole day. Well the day started off with me waking up and walking to the bathroom to take a shower, as soon as the turned the water on I realized I had left my shower and rather than turning off my shower I stayed in because the warmth of the hot water was too seductive for me to get out and get my towel. In the shower I had my usual thoughts about life, death, and comebacks to old arguments. Afterword I got out of my shower and reached for my toothbrush, which was located in a cupboard behind the toilet, but I grabbed at it too quickly and it fell in the toilet. I stood over my toilet for about five minutes just staring at my toothbrush in the toilet not believing what just happened, after that I started blaming myself for being too impatient. When I was done feeling sorry for myself I went into my room in search of another toothbrush but unluckily I couldn’t find one, so I had to go walk to the local store at around 7:30 in search of a toothbrush. While searching for a replacement toothbrush I realized that not that many people were in the store, I had always thought that stores were busiest in the morning and evening but apparently that’s not true. Once I got my new toothbrush I finished brushing, got dressed and went to catch the 11 to the Transit Center.
For this paper I chose to explore Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho because it has remained the only horror movie I’ve seen to date. I went into a couple others but immediately left; let’s just say horror is not my favorite genre of film. People may or may not always call Psycho a horror film, it may be more of a thriller to people nowadays, but I still believe the correct genre analysis is horror because it should always refer to the genre at the time the film was created and released. I chose Psycho because I spent multiple weeks in high school studying Hitchcock, and Psycho specifically, so I feel comfortable writing on it. I also thoroughly enjoy the film, its backstory, and the character development. Plus, it’s been roughly adapted into one of my favorite shows: Bates Motel, which I will also briefly explore.
People have been looking behind their shower curtain when they enter the bathroom ever since Psycho swirled its way into movie theaters in 1960. This irrational fear of lurkers in the bath and scary psyches began with the first ever slasher film: Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. Throughout the years, Psycho never lost its potency as the movie that created the horror genre as we know it. The low-budget “just for fun” film project that Hitchcock had originally intended as his last “kick” in his career as a director changed the entire business and ended up being Hitchcock’s defining piece. Pre-Psycho scary movies had been slow in pace and conservative in content. Psycho’s director, Alfred Hitchcock, knew what the ‘norm’ was for filming because he had in the business for more than twenty years, but he wanted to break them. Psycho has been completely unforgettable since the 1960’s because of Hitchcock’s disregard of Hollywood’s rules of cinematography, revolutionary scoring, and never-before-seen yet realistic and creative filming techniques; Hitchcock did not create only a ‘scary’ movie, he created a new genre of fear that has had an effect on the film industry ever since.
Whilst this is happening the Halloween theme music is playing in the background, this music is very high pitched and uses string instruments to create horror and suspense for the viewers. Once the credits have been shown there is a 'vls' (very long shot) of the house this is used to set the scene, this is a subjective point of view from the killer .This can be related to the German expressionism where they would use bumpy camera movement to seize the audiences concentration .They use a handheld camera to do this scene as it emphasises the killers movements to the audience. As the Killer begins to make his way around the house be looks up to see the light go off. When this happens there is a sharp shrill sound which enforces the killer's actions.
In 1960 one black and white movie shocked us all. This movie attacked our minds and our hearts in one of the most vulnerable places in what is considered to be one of the greatest and most epic scenes of all time. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho made women and even some men afraid take a shower. This movie was the first of its kind and gave birth to a whole new genre of movies, the slasher film. Without this movie Freddie Kruger, Jason, Michael, Leatherface, and all of the other psycho killers would cease to exist. All these killers, even Ghost Face from Scream owe Norman Bates a huge debt of gratitude. If it wasn’t for him these killers would not exist Norman Bates was the first of the masked psycho killers.
People flock to horror movies each year. Usually to be scared. Another is to solve the question of Who done it? Unfortunately, a lot of these horror movies fail to scare people or make the killer so obvious the audience gets bored. Occasionally, there are a few horror movies that stick out. Scream, directed by Wes Craven, is one of them. Wes Craven is always toying with the viewer's fears. Always finding ways to scare the audience at every turn. He also plays with the viewer's head, and has them second guessing themselves. How does he do it? Well, as one of the characters in the movie exclaims, "There's a formula to it. A very simple formula. Everybody's a suspect!" This paper will discuss how Craven uses sound, camera shots, and mise en scene