After watching John Carpenter’s Halloween I have chosen it to be the second greatest horror film of all time (next to ‘Alien’) which is quite interesting as it’s a independent film and it has very little blood in it. There are many reasons as to why it is so effective as a horror film but there are three reasons in particular which make Halloween such a scary and effective horror film.
The first factor is the music. The score created for ‘Halloween’ works perfectly for creating tension and suspense throughout the film. This is because the main theme is used constantly through out the film whenever Michael Myers is near or present in the scene, this helps to build tension because the audience knows he’s there. The music itself is very creepy and gradually builds along with the tension it’s creating, also the second piece of music which is used when Michael attacks someone is incredibly creepy and uses high-pitched notes similar to Psycho’s famous ‘Psycho strings).
The second factor is the atmosphere. The film takes place on Halloween night which helps to set the dark and creepy mood of the film, and identify all the iconic imagery and themes associated with Halloween (e.g. jack ‘o’ lanterns, skeletons, death, blood etc). Also the location is rather scary but also rather different to most horror films because it takes place in a quiet neighbour hood which isn’t exactly isolated but it’s not exactly an open environment ether. The neighbour hood setting gives the film a strong sense of realism and helps the audience connect to the film more since they could live in a similar type of location.
The final factor which makes Halloween so scary is the killer ‘Michael Myers’. What makes him such a great killer is that not only is he a human killer (which makes the film seem more realistic), but also his lack of motives or goal which makes him a very unpredictable character. What’s really scary about Michael is firstly the fact that he appears various times with in the film yet we don’t know when he’s going to strike, for instance there is one scene where Michael is standing outside the door and Laurie’s friend has her back turned yet he doesn’t kill her until she gets in the car and he appears out of nowhere. Michael’s appearance is also rather menacing because the mask he wears has a completely blank expression and it makes him look like he has pitch black eyes. Another factor that makes Michael so scary is that he doesn’t say a word. This makes Michael seem like a silent killer and could strike at any time and the only noise he ever makes is his incredibly deep breathing.
At the end of the day there are various reasons why Halloween is so scary but I believe these three factors are the most important and it's because of these elements that Halloween is considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever, since horror films are about scaring people and let's be honest "every one is entitled to one good scare".
Donald pleasance was a prisoner of war in ww2. He creates Michael Myers by drawing on the conceptof pure evil 'nazi's'.and tagging Michael with it. Jamie lee Curtis is very intelligent. And this intellect further develops Michaels character to John carpenters stylized eye.
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