Halloween (1978)

Halloween is an independent slasher film and was directed by John Carpenter in 1978.  Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and some other slasher films owe some of their success or inspiration to Halloween, while Halloween got inspiration from the film Black Christmas (1974). The doctor in Halloween's last name is 'Loomis' which is the same surname as Billy the killer in Scream (1996) and Marion's lover in Psycho (1960), the nurse is called Marion Chambers which is similar to Marion from Psycho. These names make links to Psycho which was one of the most successful horror films before Halloween. On Halloween, Micheal Myers stabs to death his older sister. He ends up in a psychiatric hospital and is monitored for 15 years but he managed to escape. Jamie Lee Curtis got cast as the main lead Laurie Strode as her mother in real life was Janet Leigh who played Marion Crane, this launched Jamie Lee's career as a 'scream queen' and has made her appear in several horror films.

In Halloween Judith Myers gets stabbed 9 times, Christoper Hastings was knifed in the chest, Lester was strangled, Annie Brackett was strangled with her throat slit, Lyna Van Der Klok was strangled and Bob Simms was pinned to the door with a kitchen knife through the chest. These murders occurred with little blood being seen in the scenes and little revealing of the actual killings taken place. This was similarly done in Carrie and Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a deliberate attempt to build suspense and make the audience scared.

In my opinion Halloween wasn't that scary, some scenes were quite predictable and I felt that I never really jumped and I just sat watching it with a blank expression. I like the fact Micheal Myers has a hidden identity by wearing a white mask and it was disturbing how he killed his sister when he was so young, I was expecting the killer at the beginning to be an older man. It conforms to the stereotypical view that the male is the killer and the girls in the film are prayed upon by men. Voyeurism is used a lot as this film is seen mainly through Micheal Myers mask. We see the film mainly through Micheal's eyes and this forces the audience into a deeper sense of participation in the action that takes place. The heroine at the end is depicted as innocent and pure which is why she probably survived the film, this film goes with 'survival of the virgins' and shows how innocent Laurie was at the end.