Halloween Opening

The first frame is a pitch black screen with no image. The music starts straight away and immediately creates an eerie atmosphere for the viewer. The piano is playing a minor riff of the same note in quavers with random notes changed to either one higher or one lower to create a chromatic effect. This is done to throw the viewer off as the random note is not expected.

The music continues over to the next frame which is the institution Compass International Pictures. This is then followed by the next institution Moustapha Akkad. The copy on screen changes from orange to red. The orange connotes Halloween and the red connotes danger and blood.


The inside glow of a pumpkin's face slowly starts to fade in until it becomes completely recognisable. This is a creepy image as it is the only thing we can see on the whole screen. It creates a very eerie feel for the viewer. Forte minor chords are now involved in the music.

The music continues as the first actors name appears on the screen next to the pumpkin's face.

The name John Carpenter then appears on the screen. John Carpenter directed, produced and scored Halloween and is therefore arguable the most important person involved in this film. After a few seconds the film title appears on screen.





The credits continue with more of the cast's and crew's names. Whilst this is happening the pumpkin is very slowly moving in towards to camera. This makes the viewer feel uneasy as they are not sure what else to expect it to start doing. The score is gradually building to a crescendo and strings have now been added to create and build the tension.

The pumpkin continues to get closer and closer to the screen until you can only see one eye hole and the nose hole. Then just before the last name appears (John Carpenter) the candles inside go out leaving the screen in pitch black. This will put the viewer on the edge of their seat as they do not know what to expect.

The opening music then stops here and the voices of children singing a Halloween rhyme starts. Children's voices are used as they're very innocent sounded but also have a haunting element to them. The words 'Haddonfield, Illnois' appear on the screen followed by 'Halloween Night 1963'. This is to set the scene for the viewer.

We get the first piece of action after the credits. A long shot of a house. The camera then starts to move in closer to the house and it becomes evident that it's a POV shot. This will capture the audience's attention as they will want to know who is behind the camera. There is no music here, the audience can only hear an insect in the background.

The camera then goes to a close up of the house door from the outside where we can see a girl and a boy kissing. They then run into the living room and the camera follows them. From the POV shot we know that they are being watched through the window, suggesting that they will be victims.

The two characters then go upstairs and the camera walks round to the front of the house and looks up to the bedroom window. As the light in the bedroom turns off there is a high pitched sound which is used to make the viewer jump and to start building tension again.

The POV shot continues as the character walks around the back of the house and in through an open door into the kitchen. The lighting is extremely dark which all adds to the scary element. There is one high sustained string note and then a piano starts to playing minor crotchet notes to create an eerie atmosphere.

The light in the kitchen then switches on and we see an arm come from beneath the camera and reach into a draw and pull out a knife. The arm is dressed in a green costume which suggests a child-like manner of the killer to the viewer.

The killer then continues to walk through the house slowly and the piano notes stop leaving just the sustained string notes playing. This helps to keep the tension. The killer then watches from behind the door as the boy leaves, meaning the girl is left alone and vulnerable.

After the boy has left the killer starts to make his way up the stairs. As he climbs them the clock starts to chime which creates a haunting atmosphere for the viewer.

Once he reaches the top of the stairs the killer picks up a mask that's lying on the floor and puts it on his face. This now means that the viewer's vision is blurred as we are still seeing all of the action from a POV shot. This makes the viewer arguably as vulnerable as the girl as they cannot fully see what is happening.

The killer walks around upstairs and into a room where the girl is sat naked brushing her hair. When we first see her he hear the same high pitched sound that we hear when the bedroom light turns off. It then becomes clear that this is his victim. As her walks closer to her, she turns around and shouts "Michael!" which tells us that she knows the killer.

He then starts to repeatedly stab her, although the viewer does not actually see the knife go in they just hear it. There is a forte low pitched sound as he starts to stab her which makes the viewer jump. We then see a long shot of the girl dead on the floor.

Michael then walks outside and the minor piano notes start to play again. Another character appears and says "Michael?" The mask is then pulled off of the killer and the camera jumps to a mid shot of a young boy holding the weapon. It becomes evident that the killer is him.