Case Study ‘Halloween’ directed by John Carpenter (1978)

The film genre that I find most interesting today is the one of horror. In the earlier years of horror, the conventions, theories and technical skills used by the directors and producers was seen to me as very straight forward and when analysing the film closely the directors intent was always shown vividly. This is what I admired the most about the horror genre, but over the past few years I have noticed a change. What these conventions and theories once were have become somewhat blinded and confused as genres become hybrid as audiences are not effected as intensely as they used to be.

One earlier horror film that I feel shows horror conventions and theories well is ‘Halloween’ directed by John Carpenter in 1978. In this horror film the film maker relates the plot line towards movements that are happening in the world. Through a bit of research into this film I discovered that during the late 70’s statistics show that 6 million woman were attention college which was now the same number as men Carpenter relates this film towards this movement as we seen a seen of the protagonist forgetting her chemistry book on her way home from school and going back to get it revealing that she cares about her education. I believe that Carpenter tests horror to an appropriate level and uses real life situations in order for audiences to relate and engage with them on a personal level.

In this film ‘The Final Girl’ theory by Laura Mulvey is tested where protagonist Laurie is seen as a virgin as if she was pure whilst her friends do the opposite. This divides the protagonist from the other characters and shows the audiences that in this theory in order to survive you need to show traits of innocence. Carpenter convinces the audience well of these conventions and society movements which creates a relevant story line and links to the time period the film was released.

‘Halloween’ is a beneficial film to the horror genre because it shows audiences want they want to see leading them to engage with these horror films as they continue to develop with the change in society such as earlier change in the role of women throughout the world.

For the coming of semester two I intend to broaden my knowledge about genres in not only films, but in other media platforms. I find this area of study very interesting as directors and producers have to continually understand and develop towards what audiences want in terms of genre and feel this area of study continues to grow over many years to come.

Throughout this studio I would like to become more knowledgable in specific genres such as horror or documentary. In school I did some study about the horror genre and feel the conventions and theories were very interesting in which they engaged with audiences and had a clear connection to the directors intention of the films. Specifically in this genre I would like to look into ideas such as the male gaze and iconography and understand how this has developed over the years in order to keep engagement with audiences and help the horror genre to keep growing in the media industry.

I feel very governed by the documentary film genre as I see it as a very important part of everyday life. It is a good way to keep informed in a visual way. I think that it would be interesting to look at the conventions of these films and how they differ from other film genres as it is more of an informative genre and has a clear directors purpose of the film.

For both of these genres but possibly more so horror I want to look into technical skills such as camera angles and lighting in order to understand why they are used, and how that reacts with the audiences engagement. This research can then further lead to discovery about the changing of genre conventions and how today genres have had to become hybrid as audience are no longer as engaged with straight genres as they once were.