Opening sequence analysis of Halloween - Miss Georgiou

Opening sequence analysis of Halloween (1978)

The purpose of an opening sequence is to set a visual mood of the character at the beginning of the film. It also introduces the elements of; Characters, Locations, Narrative, Plot, Themes and Visual Style. An opening scene is designed to grab the attention of the audience and make them intrigued by what they see so they can not wait to see what is going to happen in the rest of the film. Therefore, some sort of enigma is used in the opening scene to make the audience engaged into the film and want to watch it more by making them stay on the edge of their seats. 

Cinematography such as; Point of view is used in the opening sequence. This is seen in the part were they see the killer walking into the house. This technique was used to show the audience the killers point of view. It creates tension and suspense to the audience making them feel more engaged in what is happening and making them want to find out what is going to happen in the rest of the film more. This builds a relationship between the audience and characters as it engages them to getting to see what's happening from the killers point of view. This is conventional to a thriller as it keeps the killer unknown and keeps the audience in suspense from not knowing but wanting to find out who the identity of the killer is. 


Another type of cinematography used was; zoom out to high angle. This can be seen in the part where mask gets pulled of the killers face. This technique was used to show how vulnerable the house and location while zooming out to focus more on the surroundings. This creates a sense of relief when the audience are firstly shocked of who the killer is but as it zooms out it makes them feel relieved as they understand the story more and everything makes sense to them, plus it shows them that all the danger is finished as they can see the surroundings and they can see there is no more hazards or danger that will occur. This builds a relationship between the audience and the characters as the audience feel more sympathy and bad for the murdered girl as they see the rest of the settings and makes them feel as the girl was more innocent and should not of been murdered as she was minding her own business in her own home on halloween night. This is conventional to a thriller as it shows the house and the killer inferior. 

Editing styles such as; slow editing was also used in the opening sequence. This is seen when the killer is walking around the house before murdering the girl. This builds a bond between the character and the audience as they are engaged because they know the killer can strike when they least expect it which creatures a thrill. It also creates suspense and makes the audience feel on edge. This is conventional to a thriller because it builds up suspension as you do not know when the killer is going to attack the young, poor, innocent girl.
Furthermore, the editing technique; linking of section, was also used in the opening sequence. This is seen in the part when the camera looks at the victim then to the rest of the surroundings in the bedroom. This makes the audience feel more engaged and sorry for the victim because they can see she about to die. It also creates some enigma as it foreshadows the death and makes the audience think and wonder when a death will occur and how the victim will die. This is conventional because it shows when the killer is ready to strike and makes the audience more aware that something bad is going to happen to the innocent girl. This occurs in the minutes of 2:50-3:00.
Reaction shot was another editing technique used. This is seen when the girl see's the killer and screams. This shot engages the audience because they want to know what happens next as they can see how the girl is feeling from her facial expressions. This shot builds tension and then suspense to the audience when they see how much the girl is scared through her facial and body language. This is conventional to a thriller because it shows the victim did not expect it and is extremely surprised, shocked and scared to what is going to happen next. This occurs in the minutes of 3:00-3:05.

Soundtracks such as; non- diegetic sound was used in the opening sequence. This was seen when the kids are chanting Halloween rhymes. This is a non-diegetic sound as it has been added on after because we can see in the photo it starts off with a door to show the settings and there are no chanting children which we can hear in the shot. This is the first thing that happens in the film which shows that it is Halloween and sets the time of year for the audience for the rest of the film. This builds up tension and makes the audience feel more close with the innocent characters because Halloween is a scary night which is also conventional to a thriller as it is realistic so relates to the audience and they feel more scared and understand it more. This occurs in the minutes of 0:00-0:13.

The second non-diegetic sound used was dramatic piano sounds. This was used when the killer picks up the knife. The music creates tension and signifies something sinister about to happen which makes the audience feel intrigued and scared for the innocent characters. This is conventional to a thriller as it sets suspense for the audience as to wanting to know what is going to happen next as they can probably guess already but are not sure about. This occurs in the minutes of 1:05-1:35.
The last non-diegetic sound used was when the clock "chimed" as the killer is walking up the stairs. This makes the audience feel sorry for the girl as they feel like something bad is going to happen to her as the sound signifies death and happened just before the victim is stabbed to death. This is conventional to a thriller as it engages the audience and starts making them feel more nervous for the innocent character as they have built a relationship with her and feel sympathy for her as they know she is about to have an agonising death. This occurs in the minutes of 2:15-2:35.
A  diegetic sound was also used and this was when the owl was making a 'hooting' sound. This sound shows the audience that it is late at night as that is usually when owls come out. This diegetic sound makes the audience feel more frightened for the characters as it helps them realise it is late at night. This is conventional to the thriller genre as this noise engages the audience more and makes them feel on edge as it is a spooky noise so sets them out a spooky scene to be expected. 

Codes and conventions of a thriller such as; low key lighting was used in the opening scene of Halloween. We see this as the killer is at the staircase getting ready to go up and kill the innocent girl. This is used to set the scary mood as you can't really see anything else other than the focus of the staircase leading the killer to the girl. This makes the audience build a relationship with the characters as the lighting builds up a mood that something bad is going to happen so the audience feel sympathy and terrified for the girl upstairs who doesn't know a murderer is downstairs and is plotting to kill her. This is conventional to a thriller as it engages the audience into feeling the same mood given off by the lighting in the scene. 
Iconography was used in the opening scene as well as a code and convention. The iconography used in this scene was a knife. We see this when the killer walks into the kitchen and picks up the knife from the drawer to kill the girl. This iconography represents death and builds a relationship with the audience and the innocent character as they know that the weapon the killer has picked up will be used to kill the girl so they have sympathy towards her losing her life. This is conventional to the thriller genre as this iconography is used in many of them and is known for being used by antagonists to kill innocent victims that the audience build a bond with and want to be safe. This was in the minutes of 1:17.
Another codes and convention used in the opening sequence of this thriller was suspenseful music. This was used in the most parts of the opening scene when the thriller was trying to make his way through to the house. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it builds a relationship with the innocent character and the audience as the suspenseful music engages the audience and builds up tension so they feel sympathy and want the innocent girl to stay safe. This was used at different times throughout the whole of the opening sequence.
The last code and convention of a thriller used in the opening scene is a female victim. The person the killer is watching throughout the scene is the innocent female victim. This convention was used to show the audience she is a weak victim. This is conventional to a thriller as it builds a relationship with the female victim and audience as they feel sorry for her and scared for her because she is weak and unaware that the killer is plotting to murder her.

Different representation of characters was used in the opening sequence such as; the girl wearing white. This was seen when the killer was looking through the window to see the boyfriend and the innocent girl in white. The white clothing represents purity and innocence. The fact that this shows that the victim is pure builds tension as the audience do not understand what she has done wrong to be put into that position if dying. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it builds a relationship with the audience and innocent character before the film even starts as the white makes the audience feel as the girl is sweet and innocent so they feel sympathy towards her when she is in danger as she does not deserve to die.

Finally, the next code and convention used in the opening sequence was when the audience portrayed the killer as a man from the height of the shots but turn's out to be a young boy in the end of the scene. This is called an enigma and confuses the audience which makes them more engaged for the rest of the film. This makes the audience feel shocked as when they notice the killer is a young boy it confuses them and makes them feel surprised as they did not expect that at all. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it makes the relationship between the innocent character and audience stronger as they feel confused but more engaged so feel sorry and sympathy for the character.

To conclude, analysing the opening sequence of the thriller Halloween informed the audience of the conventions of a thriller by a variation of cinematography techniques, variation of editing techniques, different soundtracks used, codes and conventions and representation of characters. This analysis helped me for my own thriller by making me think about cinematography, editing techniques, soundtrack, codes and convention and representation of characters that I will need to include in my own thriller sequence. I will use may different sound affects to create more tension and build more suspense to scare the audience more. I will also use a variety of cinematography to not bore the audience and show them the story from different angles to shock them more when something happens as they will be more intrigued and engaged into the film. These are very important in a thriller because they make the film better for the audience as they are the main feartures of a film that engage the audience to make them decide whether or not to carry on watching it.