Halloween. At the beginning of Halloween the title Halloween is presented in red writing, behind a black background then slowly the writing changes into orange.

At the beginning of Halloween the title Halloween is presented in red writing, behind a black background then slowly the writing changes into orange. I think the writing has changed to link it to the pumpkin that's beside it, the pumpkin suggests its Halloween. The writing flickers like a light, similar to the light inside the pumpkin. After a few seconds it zooms closer and closer of the pumpkin making it an extreme close up, only seeing the nose and the eye this might suggest to the audience that there is a mask involved. Next we see a long establishing shot of an American house at night, underneath there is a date to let the audience know what time is the film set.

In the beginning of the film the narrative is very typical of a horror/slasher film as there is a murder right at the beginning of the film. However, the murderer has revealed his identity. Many slasher films don't reveal the murderer's identity as this will create mystery to the character. The audience really didn't expect to see a murder at the very start. Most horror movies will want to create tension before the murder has been committed. The audience will feel scared and disgusted by what they saw, a small boy killing his own sister. If the murders happened in the beginning of the film the audience might expect more murders throughout the film as the murderer is a small boy and might grow up still killing people.

Before the murder has happened the sister is with her boyfriend, the audience might think she is not a virgin as she is a typical blonde teenager who is known to be in slasher films and who gets killed off in the beginning. When the boy is stabbing his sister, we see this in a point of view shot she is trying to protect herself by trying to push him away. This film is a typical slasher film as the murderer goes on a murder spree. We are led to believe that it isn't the boy because we see the start of the film in the murderer point of view. The audience might assume that it is her other boyfriend and he knows that she's been cheating on him we might assume that by the camera looking at the sofa where they were kissing and at the bed this might suggest that he disapproves of what they doing, there is also plenty of shadows to make it mysterious and tell the audience it's a horror movie they are watching and not a comedy.

In this movie there are several shots used: the point of view shot where we see through the killer's eyes, a low angle where the murder is looking up at the bedroom window where the sister and her boyfriend are, a crane shot where we see the small boy and the house where his parents took his mask off at a high point then zooms in closer in see the boys face at the point its not hand held and a reaction shot where we see the expression on the sisters face while is being stabbed. These camera angles have a huge effect on the audience as they can create a meaning towards a camera shot; it tells the audience how they must feel.

Throughout the movie there are many horror icons:

* Knife

* Nighttime

* Screaming

* Blood

* Mask

* Spooky music

* Teenagers

* Psychopath

* Victim

* Killer

The horror icons are added for the audience's effect so that they don't think it's a comedy instead of a horror and when a knife is shown to the audience they might indicate that someone might get killed, nighttime is when most murders are set as people are asleep so there won't be no one to help you.

There is diegetic sound, breathing where the murder has put his mask on, footsteps where the boy is walking up the stairs towards the bedroom, stabbing noises where the small boy is stabbing his sister, children taking to one another outside as they are knocking on door to get some sweets as it is Halloween, the girl screaming and the boyfriend and the girl laughing, also there is non diegetic sound when the boy is spying on his sister, the music is a slow tempo at the start then goes faster and then comes a continuous note when he's coming up the stairs until the murder is happening then it stops. The diegetic and non diegetic sound will have a huge affect the audience be the girl screaming while she is being stabbed they will be shocked and the non diegetic will make their heart pound faster waiting to see what happens next. The narrative of Halloween is a psychopath called Michael who has escaped from a mental hospital and goes on a murdering spree killing babysitters.

Farah Mahmood