Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

 Halloween is a horror film from 1978, which follows a lot of the horror film conventions. The protagonist is a young teenager, Laurie, who has many androgynous features. Firstly, her look. Jamie-Lee Curtis was cast for this role due to her somewhat masculine features, such as her low voice and square jaw, and throughout the film she is shown to be wearing minimal make up, and is dressed in often frumpy clothes, that aren't as tight fitting and 'sexy' as the other female characters - Annie and Lynda. As she is the main character, you expect her to survive, which she does. She fights back against the (unsurprisingly) male antagonist. This idea of her 'fighting back' gives yer yet another androgynous feature, as women are usually seen as dainty, and not up for a fight, and she is neither.

As well as typical characters for a horror film, the plot follows the common horror conventions: 1) A traumatic past event that creates a psychopathic killer, 2) The killer returns to the site of the event (often on a specific date), 3) The killer kills a group of teens, usually with a weapon with a blade, such as a kitchen knife or axe, 4) A final girl survives, but the killer is never truly vanquished.

These conventions are all true of Halloween, and the technical codes used during filming are common for horror films too, such as the low key ambient lighting used in most if not all scenes, and apart from the brief scene during the day, it is set at night. POV shots are used as if we're 'watching it through the mask', giving us a restricted narration. The music and sounds used are also synonymous with the horror genre, ominous repeated music and parallel sounds. Adding to the typical plot of the film, it is set in an isolated house, with no authority figures about (No parents or proper adults), it is also set on Halloween night, giving the film the appropriate setting to create the maximum effect to scare people.

We see indicators throughout the film of Laurie (the protagonists) innocence. She is a virgin, who wears muted colours and dresses conservatively, and in once scene she expresses how embarrassed she is about a schoolmate 'Ben' knowing she has a crush on him. Some critics have suggested that this characteristic about Laurie (and how much sex her friends have) are all part of a 'reactionary sexual agenda', trying to prevent teens having sex. It shows throughout the film that the characters being the most sexually promiscuous are the ones who get killed first, Annie, who is in her underwear going to pick up her boyfriend, Paul, so they can have sex in an empty house, gets her through slit by the antagonist -Michael. Lynda and her boyfriend Bob are also brutally murdered just after having sex, and not surprisingly, the only main characters which survive to the end of the film are Laurie, and the two children, Tommy and Lyndsey, who have not been having sex. Although this is how the audience (specifically some critics) perceived the film, it was not the preferred viewing of the director, John Carpenter. Carpenter said that this underlying moral of the film wasn't intentional, and that Laurie survives because she has less on her mind than the others (she's not thinking about getting drunk and having sex), but she is also more resourceful and smart than the others. He also makes the valid point that although Laurie was a virgin, it did not stop the killer going after her, just like he did the others.
Overall, Halloween was an entertaining and iconic film, and was a trend setter in the industry. It was cheap to make and brought in a lot of money (and of course, the whole film industry revolves around money), and the conventions of slasher films like this were endlessly recycled and adhered to. Some other slasher films that followed on from Halloween include; 'Friday The 13th' (1979), 'Terror Train' (1980), 'Happy Birthday To Me' (1981) and 'Prom Night' (1980).