Halloween is a classic horror film and a film that help define what a slasher film is. Most horror films make use reflect on what we are afraid of, and this is no exception. This film all so takes it one step further and makes us question why we are scared of specific things through breaking down stereotypes and creating visuals for current events.
The idea of what we are afraid of is brought up in just two shots at the beginning of this film. For the first shot, we see the first victim of Micheal Myres for his perspective. We know to be afraid right off the bat because how he does it, he doesn’t seem to hesitate, nor does he hurry; he does it with minimal effort. So once we are brought outside and see that it’s a small child, we have to question could this kid has just done that terrible act, but we know he did we just watched it. So do we have to lose our belief that kids are innocent or do we call him an inhuman monster? This question is answered as we flash forward to two people going to the mental institute to find Myres. So we know the film wants us to lean towards, but does this make Micheal a monster.
This question of what makes a monster vs human is nothing new for the horror genre; it has been done plenty of times before. One of the places that this is most infamously done is the story of Frankenstein. The difference in how it is they present this is if they start as a monster or human. In Frankenstein, we are forced to ask, at what point does he become human?. In Halloween, what point does Myres become a monster?. To answer these questions, we have to decide which definition we want to use. We can use the dictionary definition, which states, “an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.” or we can use the culture definition, which is that its an inhumane creature. If we used the dictionary definition, both would be monsters, so, for now, we are going to use the second. For both story’s, there is a point in which they change. Frankenstein’s event seems to be once the creature learns about human culture and the condition of his existence. For Halloween, it’s a bit more complicated as we never see Myres have an act of compassion, so we have to question if he was not a monster?. With a bit assumption, we can answer this because, at the beginning of the film, we see the girl’s reaction to him coming into the room. She clearly knows him and assumes he is an innocent kid, so we can assume he was not a monster before that event. So I would place him as a monster after that event.
Calling him a monster has an interesting effect, in this case. Typical, we would look at a monster as something that we would never encounter, but during this time, real monsters were roaming the streets. With the Manson family murders, Ted Bundy and plenty more. Watching a monster like this had real-world parallels. Jamie Lee Curtis even said that “We can put all of our fears and concerns and knowledge that evil exists in the world … and put it behind that mask.” allowing us to believe that Myres is a representation of these people.
So the reason why we feel fear well watching this film is that this monster is real.
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