Halloween Review

As someone who has only taken one small film class in highschool and currently a Business major, I rarely critically watch a film. Instead, I have grown used to taking in the film at a surface level, meaning I get the main plots and intentions of a film but I fail to notice how the mechanics of a film—cinematography, visual design, editing, writing etc.—greatly affect the bigger picture that I have been taking from films. So, being able to watch Halloween for the first time and with a more critical set of eyes has opened my horizons to what to pay attention to in a film. 

The main thing I enjoyed while watching the film were the POV shots throughout the movie. We jump right into a POV shot in the opening scene where Michael Myers is watching a house then walks into the house and kills a woman. This is a great way to start a film because not only does it intensify the scene but it also puts me, the audience, in the shoes of the Michael which gives me the illusion that we’re committing those horrid acts. 

Another POV shot that I enjoyed was when Michael watches the young boy get bullied at school and then when he walks home. We see the boy through Michael’s eyes looking through the fence and it continues to pan across the fence as the boy walks—giving us the idea that Michael is following him. Then an interesting shift of POV happens when Michael gets in his car; the audience is put into the back seat of the police car while we continue to watch the young boy walk. I enjoyed this shot because as the camera was placed in the backseat of Micael’s police car we still see the boy through the fence but we also see the fence that separates the backseat from the front seats—giving us the illusion that we are Michael’s captured victim and foreshadowing to what he will do to other people. 

In addition to the POV shots, the sound editing was done well. Michael’s breathing being heard loudly during the POV shots heightens the horror aspect of this film. More specifically, the editors even edited his breathing sounds in shots where it wasn’t a POV shot which kept the idea of him watching people consistent.