Research film analysis: Halloween (horror)

This is the opening for John Carpenter's famous horror movie Halloween. For This analysis i'm going to cut out the opening credits and start from the beginning of the story (02.20). The film is set on Halloween Night 1963 in Haddonfiled, Illinois, USA.

The first shot you see is of a white house, apparently inhabbited as some of the lights are on.This point of view shot shows the audience someones perspective as it looks like the audience is walking with the person. The building seems to be isolated from others. This typical cliche is to make the people in the house seem vunerable; if something was to happen there is no one around to hear. The camera pans from the front door to the side window, through which we see a man and a woman making out. They seem to be alone in the house. This is once again, typical of horror movies as they usually begin with one or two people alone in the building as they make easy prey. The boyfriend and girlfriend then run upstairs, presumably to a bedroom.

From the opening two minutes, you can tell it is a horror film as when the upstairs light goes off, you hear some creepy music, which gives a sense of awareness to the audience as they realise that something is wrong. The light could symbolise the end of someone's life. Also, the camera moves around the house as if someone is walking around outside. This makes the audience feel uneasy as they realise that there is someone unknown oustide watching. When the camera enters the house you see an arm of a child get a knife out of the drawer, making the audience realise the potential killer is a child, which goes against all natural instincts as children are supposed to be innocent.