| Elements In A Horror Film Essay, Research Paper
Horror has always been one of the most popular genres in film of anytime. One of the reasons why people are so fasincated in horror films is the excitement that it provides. Audiences of horror films are often expected to find killer, violence, drug, and be surprised in the movie. In order for a horror movie to be successful, it must give the audiences an intense feeling. There are many elements in a movie that help create the intimidating atmosphere. In the movie Halloween, the director used different camera angles, special costume, evil killer, and sex to build an intense environment and shock the audiences.
The director can easily construct an intense environment by manipulating the point-of-view of camera. At the beginning of the movie Halloween, the film opens with a long, single-shot that takes place on Halloween night, 1963. A young Michael Myers watches as his older sister, Judith, sneaks upstairs to have sex with a guy from school. After the boyfriend has departed, Michael takes a knife out of the kitchen drawer, ascends the staircase, and stabs Judith to death. The entire sequence employs the subjective point-of-view, an approach that the director returns to repeatedly throughout the movie. Only after the act is done do we learn that Michael is only a kid. The whole squence put the audience in the killer’s point of view to create the intense feeling and make them wondering what the killer is going to do next. After the sequence is over, the truth is revealed, and the audiences are shocked at the end.
Another thing that we can also expect from horror films is the use of special costume. Costume plays a major role in creating a character. In many horror films, the killer would have a special costume to accommodate the personality of the character. In the film Halloween, Michael Myers’s costume help creating an intimidating condition for the audiences. Michael can easily be identified as an implacable, inhuman evil by the audiences. It is because he always wears a painted mask to hide his idenity, and we only get to see his face once. This makes him more intimidating and frightening. He kills without making a sound or showing a facial expression, and his movements are often slow and zombie-like.
On the other hand, the director is exceedingly careful in chosing the camera angles he uses to shoot Michael. Before the climax, there’s never a clear close-up. Michael is always concealed by shadows, shown in the distance, or presented as otherwise obscured. It keeps the audiences wondering where he will appear next. This approach makes Michael a sinisterly threatening villain. Moreover, the real reason why Michael Myers is killing all those people remains a mystery. The lack of a clear motive makes his actions even more terrifying.
In order to make a horror film more realistic, it is common to use a story line that most of us can relate to. One of the approaches is thru sex. That way, the audience can understand the story easier and more interested in what is going to happen to them next. Michael’s primary victims are Laurie and her two best friends, Annie and Lynda. Throughout the film, Michael is shown gradually closing in on the girls, until in the final act, Laurie is involved in a face-to-face fight for her life. It is mainly due to the fact that the key to survival in Halloween is being a virgin.
Since Judith, Annie, and Lynda have sex with their boyfriends, they don’t survive their encounters with Michael. Laurie, who has nothing to do with boys does. For Annie and Lynda, the most important thing about Halloween night is finding a place to have sex with their boyfriends. For Laurie, however, it’s making sure the kid she’s babysitting is having a good time. Annie and Lynda are unaware of their danger until it’s too late, but Laurie recognizes her peril. The whole story is really intense and the director keep the audiences wondering is going to happen next to the girls.
The amount of content in the movie Halloween is relatively low, but the content is extremely scary. The director used special camera angles, special costume, evil killer, and sex to create an intense atmosphere and tight story board. The result of Halloween is a phenomenon success. None of the follow up horror films can come close to its success and Halloween has become a modern classic of the most horrific kind.
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