Analysis of Halloween 5

The film opens with a blackout screen and then the name of the film is established. However the font and colour of the writing hinted out the genre. The font seemed sharp which could be symbolic sign for a knife and the red font colour symbolised blood or danger. For every five seconds of showing a name of the producers there is a quick cut to sharp objects cutting across the screen. As the film is about to start we see a pumpkin that has been set for Halloween which also relates to the name of the film. The camera then stays on that shot long enough for the viewers to focus on it which clues us of the next shot. Then a long shot of police driving through fields with their sirens on established the opening location of the film and created an enigma to where the police were heading and what was going on.

Natural lighting is used to show realism and this shot was taken during night to add to the theme, there are also mists and fog to add on to the mystery and thrill of the movie. There is a man, a woman and a child, the man is on top of the car holding on to the top roof whilst the woman is driving and the little girl is in the back seat of the car. In this shot the woman is in tiers and screaming and the man on top of the car is wearing a white mask possibly for Halloween. The connotations of this sequence are the woman and child is the protagonists whereas the man in the white mask is the antagonist. The viewers reach this conclusion due to the damage on the woman face. The man doesn’t say anything at all which adds on to the thoughts of him being an antagonist. The props and costume used by the man show who he is and what he is after.

long shots at the beginning of the film so the viewers see the makers of the film however there are quick cuts in-between to establish the genre and to understand what is happing. The shot after seeing the police cars is a graphical match to another car driving trough what seems to be the same fields, which gives us the idea of where the police are heading. The fast pastes after that keeps the thrill and attention of the viewer keeping them guessing what the next cut is. A cross-cut editing was used between the police and the woman. By using this method the director has us engaged in the relationship between the two. The other technique used was shot-reverse-shot which help to establish the relationship between the man in the mask (antagonist) and the woman driving (protagonist).

Whilst the screen is blacked out there is an instrumental non-diegetic sound track playing softly when the director, producer etc are being established. Then there is a sudden sound of a knife cutting through something (diegetic sound). The comparison between the two diegetic sounds the instrumental sounds mysteries and the other sounds dangers and predictable e.g. someone getting stabbed. The sounds of the knife cutting through the air start off low then get louder and louder with sirens going off in the background which confuses the views is it something that is happing now or is it someone being rushed to hospital. We then immediately cut to police cars with their sirens on driving to wards an incident. The sound tracks build many unanswered enigmas and engage the audiences. Through the dialogue that is used by the woman ‘die, son of a bitch!’ and her screaming should that she is the victim. The little girl in the back seat added to who the protagonist and the antagonist might be. The diegetic sound of the wheels screeching and the use of the camera tracking in showed she had enough and reached the point where the tension was building up to. The compressed and tension building atmosphere at this point comes to an end and the audience are pleased to see both the woman and child safe.