How does the opening sequence of 'Halloween' inform the audience of the conventions of a thriller film?

The purpose of an opening scene is to establish the mood and visual character of a film in order to engage and entice the audience. Alongside this, amongst a series of other things, an opening scene contains mise-en-scene which, is relevant to the genre and contains enigma which, is a key feature of a thriller film. This post is analysing the opening scene of Halloween, where these features are analysed and discussed.

Editing
Editing techniques are used in this opening and in other thrillers for many different purposes but, the main ones being to build and add tension and to satisfy the conventions of a the thriller genre. A type of editing that is visible in this scene is continuity editing which, is where all the scenes are motivated by the events that happen in the film either before or after. This type of editing is notably comparable to the thriller genre as, it allows an understanding to flow through the whole film for the audience. Another editing technique present in this scene is the use of slow editing. This is when clips are joined together at a slower pace than an ordinary edit, in order to create suspense. The effect this has on the audience is the suspense, dramatic atmosphere and tension makes the audience fear and consider what will happen next. This is conventional to a thriller as it adds a fear of the unknown factor to the thriller making whatever happens after it more shocking and therefore more impactable. 

Conventions

There are certain things as an audience we expect and would like to see in a theatre film in order to make it as hard hitting and exciting as possible. By using thriller conventions we are in order to create this. We witness iconography being used with the knife being the subject of the death in the scene. As this weapon is immediately associated with death, the audience are in fear and fright when they seen this due to iconicness of this object. Alongside this, most thrillers and more importantly this opening, is set in domestic settings (the use of the knife linking in with this). This is effective because, it alows the audience to relate to what the characters are going through, making the relationship with the character more greater therefore, the events that happen to them are more important to the audience as they have built a connection with the characters. The characters themselves are also conventional to the thriller genre in the opening scene. We have a female blonde, victim evident. This creates a sense of vulnerability due to stereotypes, which, alows the audience to decide and be aware of who the character to be in sympathy with is from the offset. We also witness the hidden identity of the killer being shown to us, although, his identity is revealed towards the ending of the openings, at the beginning he is masked and we are left wondering who this killer may be. All these conventions are there to impact on the audience and make the thriller opening as effective and as inviting as possible. 

Cinematography 

As the killer gets closer to the victim a series of handheld shots are used that create a jerky and unsteady viewing. This creates a sense of uneasiness for the audience, which then ultimately leads to fear from them. At the very beginning of the opening scene an eye level shot is used in order to show the male character leaving the house and his girlfriend behind. This creates an emotional distance between the viewer and the characters as we know that, there is a killer in the house and they are preparing to be murdered. This is dramatic irony as we know what is going to happen where as they are blissfully unaware of this. A POV shot is also used by the killer when he is walking up the stairs towards the room, and also when he is killing her. This makes us an audience fear as we feel like we are perhaps witnessing the wrong point of view of this story as we witness it through the killers eyes and not the victims.

Sound
The victim shows her vulnerability as she sings and hums gently as the killer approaches her. This can be seen as contrapuntal sound as we would not expect to hear this sound in this circumstance. This makes the audience aware of her naivety which, in a way makes the audience fear for her more as we feel like she is unable to look after herself or defend herself against him. Other sound that is evident in the opening scene is ery music being used throughout. The music gets slightly louder and slightly quieter at times when dialogue is being used. The music creates a pase and tempo, that could mirror the inner feelings and heart beat of the characters as it gets faster at points of action and slower on the building up of it. The slow music builds suspense where as the fast music creates fear, fright and surprise which are all crucial feelings for the audience to feel. Finally, at 3:06 parallel sound is used. This is where Micheal is stabbing his stabbing his sister. The sound is made louder than what it would be in reality in order to emphasise the event that is happening. This is conventional to a thriller as, sounds are over exaggerated in order to create more fear and make the event happening more impactable.

My own thriller opening
By looking into the opening of this film it allowed me to consider and enquire into my own thriller opening I will be creating. By doing this research it alows me to gather a greater knowledge of opening scenes as well as alowing me to possibly consider using some of the things discussed in order to make my opening scene highly effective. The opening credits evident allowed me to consider what credits would needed to be used in mine whilst, also making me looker deeper and further into the use of credits and considering fonts, sizing, colour and where in the opening I will place them. Overall, the analyisation of the thriller opening Halloween, has given me inspiration for my own thriller.