Halloween

This week I chose to watch the movie, "Halloween." This movie is about a girl named Lory and her friends, Annie, Paul, Linda, and Bob. The movie begins with the murder of a girl by a little boy named Michael. The movie then moves ahead in time to the life of the main character, Lory. Lory is a very smart girl who keeps mostly to herself and isn't very outgoing. The movie takes place one night when Lory is babysitting and her friend Annie is babysitting three houses down from her. Annie brings Lyndsey, the little girl she is babysitting, over to where Lory is babysitting so that Lory can watch Lyndsey while Annie has friends over at the other house. Annie drops Lyndsey off and then plans on going to pick up her boyfriend, Paul, but never makes it to his house. A crazy man (Michael) has escaped from a hospital and is on a killing spree. When Annie gets into her car, the Michael is in the back seat wearng a mask and he strangles her. Not long after Annie is murdered, her friends Linda and Paul arrive at the house. While the two are alone together waiting for Annie and Paul to get back, Michael stabs Bob and strangles his girlfriend while she is trying to call Lory. Lory gets very suspicious and thinks her friends are playing a trick on her so she decides to head over to the other house to find out what is going on. When she gets there she finds all of her friends dead in the house. Michael then tries to kill her but the doctor who knows Michael is loose, because he is his doctor, saves her life by shooting him. However, when the doctor looks out of the window to see where Michael has landed after the shot, he is no longer there. The movie ends making the audience think there must be a sequel soon to come.

I believe that Noel Carroll wouldn't consider this movie to be a horror film. The reason for this thought is because there is technically no monster in the movie. For Carroll, in order for a movie to be a horror film it must contain an unnatural, disgusting, nauseating monster. The monster in this movie is simply a man in a mask. There is nothing unnatural looking about this man when his mask is off. According to Freeland, however, this movie would be considered a horror film because it evokes a sense of art-dread in the audience. The audience is worried for the character and has absolutely no clue what will happen next but they dread what is about to happen. Freeland doesn't feel that a horror film needs to have a monster in order to be a horror film but that the film must evoke some kind of emotion from the audience.

The plot structure of this movie follows the complex discovery plot, founded by Carroll. It contains an onset, discovery, confirmation, and confrontation phase. The onset occurs in the very beginning when the audience sees the three girls being followed by a strange man. At this point the audience knows that something strange is about to happen while the characters do not yet have a clue. The discovery phase happens when each of the characters are confronted by the man. The main part of the discovery is when Lory discovers this man is trying to kill her. This is also the confrontation phase. Lory tries to defend herself and kill the man/monster. The final confrontation happens when the doctor arrives at the house and shoots the man, saving Lory's life. the confirmation phase happens when the doctor tells the sheriff about the house and the man. The sheriff doesn't really seem convinced but tells the doctor to get the man if he is really out there. Another part of the confirmation phase is when Lory goes around trying to get neighbors to open their doors to her and help her. No one opens their door because they know it is Halloween and a time for pranks to be played.

I believe in Freeland's view of a horror film. I believe this movie is a horror film because it does evoke fear and dread in the audience even though there is no real abnormal looking monster. A monster can be normal looking but the things this monster does can be what really scares the audience.