Task 2.1 - Halloween Analysis

In the opening scene of Halloween, it starts as a point of view shot looking at a house, the director has chose to do the start of the film in a point of view shot to show that the audience don't know who the killer is until the end of that scene, which makes he scene have tension. The director has chose this location because a house, late at night is a scary location. There is no music until the boy looks at the window in the picture to the left and the lights turn off and music starts to play. The music is very screechy and has a scary effect to it, the director has done this because it builds up tension towards the first scene.

The arm going to get the knife is like a dolls arm, or like a clown, this is also iconography as a clown is an icon of horror. The director has chosen to do this because it makes it look more scary, as dolls are a convention of horror. This makes the audience feel even more scared, as they think that this boy isn't a real person. The knife is also a convention of horror, as it shows that the boy is going to kill someone, making the audience even more scared.

 When the boy goes up stairs he puts on a mask, when the mask goes on his face, it looks like the picture to the right. This also brings in the conventions of horror, as a clowns mask is know to be scary and is in a lot of horror films. It also makes the audience feel scared for the girl, as the boy has a knife and is heading to the girls room. The director did this to build up tension.

The titles of the film Halloween is set with a black background and a pumpkin to the left hand side all the way through. The pumpkin is there because it is a convention of horror and as the film is called 'Halloween', the pumpkin fits in well with the film. The actual titles role through the middle of the screen and is in the colours red and orange, this is because they are both colours that are used in scary films. Red represents the colour of blood and as the film is called Halloween, the colour orange is like a pumpkin, which is a convention of horror.