Opening Sequence of Halloween

Opening Sequence of Halloween (1978)

Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film set in the fictional suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA on the October holiday Halloween. A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while doctor chases him through the streets.

The sequence starts of with a pitch black screen with the fade of Compass International Pictures and non-diegetic music to imply the fear and panic of the film. The titles fades through three main colours of Orange, Yellow and Red, this is an implication of fire, these editing ideas all imply thoughts of death (from the black background) and hell (from the 'fire' like titles) create the horror genre that the director, John Carpenter originally wanted. Within the next few slides their are titles of the cast and workers behind the film with the same fire effects to link in with the genre, to the left of the screen was a lit up face of a pumpkin and the titles were to the right. It starts to then forward track/ zoom in onto the pumpkin, the pumpkin could of been used to implicate the holiday.

    From this point, a sound bridge is used to create tension into the start of the film. The sound bridge consisted of a children's Halloween Song, this has been used to kick start the scary theme of the film. From the pitch- black screen we open up to a head-on view on the house, forward tracking is used towards the house and the hand held camera movement is used to create the point of view of the psychopath going to look through a window, to see a man and a woman. As the psychopath returns to the front of the house a bedroom light turns off, whilst that happened a non-diegetic screech is used to imply a sense of suspense as if something was going to happen. The psychopath then walks into the house and grabs a sharp knife from a draw. He stalks his way up the stairs and whilst walking the clock chimes and the light changes from light to dark, this could of been used to signify that the woman's time has come to an end and that the psychopath has become a monster from an innocent man. Before entering the bedroom this mysterious man picks up a clown mask this is used to indicate the thought of a devil in human skin, also the camera is filmed at a high angle to give the connotation of a full-grown man. From this point before the killing the victim shouts out the psychopaths name this could suggest the murderer is the woman's brother, and to make matters worse the bed was messy after the man left the home this indicates a sense of passion between the two characters which the psycho may not of liked, which leads to connotation of a strong bond within the family and he feels that she has betrayed that love an trust.
    Next scene we see the psycho walks outside into the front garden where a car pulls up in front of him with two people inside, the people then get out and repeat the name this indicates they may be family members, parents?? Then they remove the mask of the psycho which shows the 'transformation' of a devil into a innocent man. The director then uses a crane shot to establish the scene and also it reveals the psycho's true figure, the figure of a young child.