Halloween Opening Scene Analysis

 

Halloween is a 2007 horror film directed by Rob Zombie. It is a remake of the original Halloween film, released in 1978. The mise-en-scene of the opening shot introduces the creepy aspect to the film immediately to the audience. A small boy wearing a frightening clown mask while playing with a rat is shown in a close-up shot. The evil child is a convention used in many classic horror films such as Orphan, The Omen and The Exorcist. Although now seen as a bit cliche, the use of children as the antagonist of a horror film plays on audience fears by taking a type of person normally so innocent and naive and turning them into a feared and knowing evil. The audience knows the boy in the first shot of this film is, at the very least, creepy as the lighting of the shot suggests it is daytime and he is inside wearing a evil-looking mask playing with an animal associated with dirt and disease. The background music is digetic, playing from a radio somewhere in the house. The rock and roll sounding music suggests a house that is chaotic and uncaring, as playing that kind of music so loudly suggests the characters do not care about each others peace and quiet.

The following shots introduce us to the mother and father of this house. The man seems unhygienic and suggests he doesn't care about his appearance, we see this through his long hair and unshaven beard. The dialogue exchanged also tells us he is unemployed and the audience get the image of him being a lazy character. We start to see the hateful dynamic of this family as these 2 characters seem to hate each other and using obscene language in front of their baby shows they are unloving. The shots are edited so the baby gets the prevalence of this scene, we as the audience are meant to sympathise with this crying baby and the amount of screen-time the baby gets supports this.

We are also introduced to the parents daughter, a teenage girl who conforms to most stereotypes. She shows her rudeness, uncaring attitude and laziness by throwing a fuss when asked to fetch her brother from upstairs, as well as demonstrating the "environmentally aware" phase teenage girls supposedly go through according to movies. She even makes a joke about her mum having an abortion and seems to genuinely dislike her. The fact jokes like these are being made around the breakfast table without any hint of this behavior being unnatural reinforces to the audience that this is not a normal family and they are all uniquely weird and crazy. The dad then makes another comment that shows his dark personality by suggesting he is attracted to his daughter. This brings in a theme represented in many other horror films, incest. Mainly used to show a weird community or cannibal films, this makes the viewer uncomfortable as well as showing why the evil child we were introduced to may have such a weird personality. The mother reacts to this comment by slapping the man, who then knocks all the objects on the table on the floor. This shows just how badly broken this home is, and demonstrates another theme of films, domestic abuse.

The scene then cuts to show the sister getting her brother, who is locked in the bathroom. We have a close-up of the boy trying to wash the blood off his hands and a small knife. We as an audience wonder why he has blood on him, but know it can't be a very good reason. After a few shots of the father calling the son a "freak" to the mother and saying he is "probably a queer" the boy enters the kitchen. The name-calling of his family and the mans homophobia assures the audience they are right for disliking this character. The boy tells his mother that "Elvis died, I had to flush him." The audience now knows that the blood came from the boy killing the rat he was playing with in the opening shot, proving what a sinister and evil child he is.