Form and Function:

Trailer, to promote the film and persuade the audience to see the film.

M

Dark colours used to depict a night scene.

"Hole in the wall" - eyes of the mask.

Eerie music -like the "Jaws" theme.

Iconography -the symbolic dagger

Flashbacks from the past to the future.

Isolated, haunted house. -Lit in the dark

I

G

Slasher -expectations of the "final girl" fulfilled.

R

Child killer -shock value

Three teenage girls, of one who appears to have pre marital sex.

A

Teenagers who would identify with the Halloween culture.

Slasher -genre cinephiles

I

Those who commit "sinful" activites die.

The final girl is the hero, therefore crediting female characters with positive attributes.

Patriarchy - the final girl is saved by the psychatrist. (Those in powerful positions are men)

N

Voice over anchoring and controlling narrative development.

Flashback.

"The night he came home" -climax

E

Wider Context:

"Others have suggested the film is a social critique of the immorality of young people in 1970s America, pointing out that many of Myers' victims are sexually promiscuous substance abusers, while the lone heroine is depicted as chaste and innocent." (wikipedia)

Influenced by Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) seen at the Milan Film Festival, where independent film producer Irwin Yablans and financier Moustapha Akkad talked to Carpenter about producing a film about a stalker who killed babysitters. (film was first to be called "The Babysitter Murderers --Halloween.")

The opening title, featuring a jack-o'-lantern placed against a black backdrop, sets the mood for the entire movie. The camera slowly focuses on one of the jack-o'-lantern's eyes while the main music for Halloween plays in the background. Film historian J.P. Telotte says that this scene "clearly announces that [the film's] primary concern will be with the way in which we see ourselves and others and the consequences that often attend our usual manner of perception." (wikipedia)

Possible influence from the case of Myra Hindley?

http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade70.html

Many of the books published in the 70's revolved around a general theme of man's alienation from his spiritual roots. John Updike portrayed characters trying to find meaning in a society spiritually empty and in a state of moral decay.

The Kent State massacre was the most devastating event, with four students gunned down by Ohio National Guardsmen attempting to stem the anti-war demonstrations.

The Vietnam War continued to divide the country even after the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 put an end to U.S. military participation in the war.

Roe v. Wade legalized abortion.

The sci-fi adventure and spectacular special effects of George Lucas's Star Wars made it one of the highest grossing films ever.