Here is my recommended song for this post.

So, since our adventures with Shakespeare we have moved on in PLP, to the horror unit. This is one of the key units in PLP 12 and it is a huge undertaking. We have to create a horror film as our end product/project. That is a topic for another day, but since we are doing a horror unit of course we will be watching some movies. Which is what this post is all about.

I have not seen many horror movies (I get too scared) up until we started the unit. After going to the MOPOP in Seattle and walking through their horror exhibit I started to have a real interest in watching some of the classic and pivotal movies of the genre. As a class we have also begun to take a look at some of the more notable movies of horror, starting with Halloween.

I thought I would be a lot more scared watching it than I actually was. It wasn’t an overly scary movie for me (this wasn’t the case for some in the class) but nonetheless it was still a great horror film.

What I find particularly interesting is what influenced the movie’s story. When Halloween came out in 1978, that decade had seen a huge rise in serial killers. From the Manson family to Ted Bundy, many seemed to kill for no apparent reason. Those serial killers in the 70’s helped to influence the, now more common, psycho found in horror movies. Halloween was one of the first that incorporated a psychological unstable killer, Psycho being the first. During this time in the 70’s people were scared because anyone could be a killer and no one would know. It could be your neighbour down the street or a friend, anyone. Halloween played with this idea in crafting its set and characters.

Michael Myers was the psycho killer in the case of Halloween. He seemed to kill for no apparent reason, he originally killed his sister at the age of 6 and he escaped the asylum to return home. The horror of Halloween was broadcasted through Myers with that fear of random killing, same as those serial killers. Now, most serial killers typically have a general target, like young women. Michael however targeted the main character, Laurie, and her friends. In later instalments of the series it’s revealed that Laurie is his sister, but isn’t he case of this particular film we have no idea. I’m sure that many people leaving the theatre after seeing Halloween checking behind them constantly, because they had no idea if someone would try to get them as well.

The way the camera is set up, the music and the setting also play into making the movie scary. With the camera, they incorporate a variety of angles, to depict menacing views of Myers as well as and to the suspense. Having quick shots of seeing the killer, briefly in the beginning and using a continuous shot as the opening scene casts a suspenseful tone on the movie. With the continuous shot in the beginning you are thrust into a first person view from the viewpoint of Michael Myers himself, at the age of six killing his sister. You see it all play out in front of you and you can’t look away.

The score for Halloween is what brings it all together. Whenever you hear the theme for the movie you know something is going to happen, it puts you on edge and makes it suspenseful and scary for you. Halloween’s success as a horror film almost hinges on the music alone, it’s what makes it scary.

The set in the movie also ties back to the serial killer influence. Serial killers were popping up in neighbourhoods quite like the one used in Halloween. This forces the viewer to question there own neighbourhood and, like I said earlier, creates that suspicion and fear that anyone from anywhere could be a killer. Halloween set the tone for a lot of future movies with forcing the viewers to question things closer to home, sometimes even in their own home.

Now we’ve also looked at some other articles analyzing the film and it’s many aspects. One in particular caught my attention. It touches on the same things I have, so far. The camera, specifically the glide cam used in the opening shot, “feature body-mounted “floating” rigs that allow a camera operator to capture smooth, seamless tracking shots without using a dolly—ideal for Carpenter’s vision for the film, which was to literally put audiences into the shoes of the killer.” What was really interesting it that many horror movies after this implemented a similar strategy. It creates that horror that you are the killer, or are gazing right into the soul and actions of them as they see it.

The article goes into the actors and how low budget the film was and some fun facts about it. The one thing that really stood out to me was the success of the film. No one really expected it to do so well and create a huge franchise of Halloween movies. That goes to show that if you create something a little far fetched but relatable enough that people become paranoid, it will be a sensation. If you can make the audience uncomfortable than you did something right and more and more people will hear about it and watch it.

Now, on top of just watching movies we have also been reading a novel, Frankenstein by Marie Shelley. We are almost done reading it but we, as a class, did a compare and contrast between the novel and the film. Frankenstein was written in over 100 years before Halloween came out and it’s interesting to see what has changed in the field of horror. One thing I really noticed was the pacing and what the horror actually is. In Frankenstein it’s a pretty slow read, there are chapters upon chapters detailing one event with minimal horror. The only real excitement comes every 6 chapters or so when someone is killed or a major plot event occurs ie. the monster is created or Frankenstein destroys the second monster. With Halloween, it starts off right away with a killing and then it’s not until the last 30 minutes anyone else is killed. The suspense builds up over time until it’s facing you straight in the face. The horror in Halloween is right in front of you, it’s a guy trying to kill people for no apparent reason. Frankenstein is a little bit different, it’s not really that scary in its actual events, my heart doesn’t race and I’m not scared. The horror lies in what was created. It plays with what we as humans can create and do with science, how far is too far when exploring scientific fields and at what cost do the come.

Both stories play with the idea of humanity, what makes us humans and how do we connect. The monster in Frankenstein feels that he isn’t human, he can’t connect with any other humans because they are frightened by his looks, he desperately wants to be human. Now the author tries to depict him as a human, learning language and social norms, but he isn’t recognized as human by the humans in the novel. In Halloween we all know Myers is a human but mentally he does not share the similar traits a normal human would, he doesn’t seem all there. Which brings into question at what point do we stop being human and at point are we human? Both film and novel play with that idea through a different lens, they explore what it means to be apart of humanity.

Moving forward in the unit we are watching Get Out and working on our class-wide film. Both I’m really looking forward to and I’m also excited to finish Frankenstein as it was the very first horror movie I ever watched (the 1931 version). It will be interesting to look at horror not as something scary, which it is, but as a lens for us to reflect on society and who we are as humans.