The Film Halloween, By Michael Myers

Asma states, "Monsters can stand as symbols of human vulnerability and crisis, and as such they play imaginative foils for thinking about our own responses to menace.” This means that human weaknesses and fears are represented through monstrous figures, and these fictional situations provide perspective into how we react in fearful environments. In our current society we fear many things, including but not limited to failed or corrupt governmental systems, the afterlife, the unknown, and captivity, which makes this claim valid. Although we may not realize it, these fears are embodied by the horror monsters we see in popular culture. Society shares common fears, and often times the most prevailing fear is reflected in the most popular characters at any given time. Monsters are the fictional representations of society’s dark subconscious, exploring not only why the author’s statement is accurate but what we actually fear.

John Carpenter’s Halloween was released in the fall of 1978; little did he know, his independent film would change the face of slasher films as we know it. This film was responsible for ushering in what we recognize today as modern horror. With a budget of just over $300,000, Halloween was shot in 20 days. It went on to become the highest grossing independent film of all time bringing in over $60 million until 1990; however, this film was not an instant success (Halloween UnMasked, 1999). Halloween also brandished a newer type of hero - a heroine. Jamie Lee Curtis has become known as the Scream Queen as a result of this film where she paved the way for other heroines in the slasher genre.

The movie Running Scared (2006) with Paul Walker is full of ethical dilemmas from the start. Low-level thug Joey Gazelle (Paul Walker) was supposed to dispose of “dirty guns” that were used to kill two police officers. Instead, he hid them in his basement to be found by Oleg, Joey’s son’s best friend and neighbor. Oleg’s stepfather was an abuser who came from the Russian mob. He abused his wife and Oleg on a daily basis so Oleg stole the gun to shoot his stepfather in order to save his mom and himself and he ran away after the incident. Joey needed to get the gun back in order to save his life since he was supposed to dispose of it since it was a wanted weapon. The police did not know what sort of weapon they were looking for.

The horror genre has held a prominent position in culture for most of history. Beginning in folklore, used as a device to scare children into good behaviors (e.g. The Grimm Brother’s Fairy Tales), horror has integrated its way into the 21st century through film, and in recent years even video games. Yearly, primarily during the fall when the leaves start to brown and the natural eerie sense of fear fills the air around Halloween, the film industry likes to fill in the holes between its major grossing seasons by filling the audience with fear. However, it was Christmas of 1973 that defined the new age of Horror, when William Friedkin released The Exorcist. According to Julia Heimerdinger of Academia’s online journal, Horror, as a whole, can

Human craves horror to face our fears and experience an adrenaline.Not everyone enjoys being afraid, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that no one wants to experience a truly life-threatening situation,But there are those of us who really enjoy the experience.After all, anyone who has heard of Stephen King will automatically know that reading one of his stories may result in a thrill. Most of us spend our entire lives avoiding our “hysterical fear” of death, and allowing us to read such a description really is “daring [our] nightmares” everybody has different emotions and feels a different way when it comes to scary, or horror movies. Some people watch them to reveal their not scared or afraid no more. I feel like when people are able to watch the movies and read the stories , they define the realness of them, and are able to be themselves.

What is it about horror movies that makes it so appealing? In Stephen King’s essay Why We Crave Horror Movies, he introduces the desires of fear. He argues that watching horror movies allows us to overcome the inner insanity inside us, allowing us to train out inner demons, accomplishing this through the use of ethos, humor, and metaphors. King does a good job of establishing credibility.

The classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead, was directed by George Romero in the year 1968. It was created on an extremely low budget, yet it ended up becoming one of the most iconic horror films of its time. Throughout the 97 minute zombie crazed horror, Romero uses a variety of styles that have both conative and donative symbolism within the film to make the audience feel as though the events were taking place during that time period. The more connotative signs used in the film are based on occurring civil unrest events of the 1960s’. The various current events were used in the film to create an inner fear in which a zombie attack could occur or even could already be happening. Many obvious and

“I became insane, with the long intervals of horrible sanity”, Edgar Allan Poe. Madness is characterized by “the state of being mentally ill”, otherwise known as insanity. Twisted Fate, written by Norah Olson, and the book/movie The Shining, written by Stephen King and directed by Stanley Kubrick, are both examples of how the main characters fall into madness.

Psychological Desires for Monster Movies One of the major reasons people watch scary movies or go to haunted houses and corn mazes is for the feeling it gives inside. The scary feeling we crave. As Stephen King mentioned in Danse Macabre, “terror as the finest emotion, and so I will try to terrorize the reader.” Some authors, as well as movie directors, will portray scary to please the audience that wants the thrill or rush while watching or reading.

In human nature there exists a morbid desire to explore the darker realms of life. As sensitive beings we make every effort to deny our curiosity in the things that frighten us, and will calmly reassure our children that there aren't any creatures under their beds each night, but deep down we secretly thrive on that cool rush of fear. Despite our efforts to maintain a balance of respectable emotions, we are a society of people who slow down to look at traffic accidents and find excitement in the macabre. We turn off the lights when watching scary movies, and when it's time to go to bed, we secretly make sure the closet doors are shut. Fear keeps our hearts pumping and endorphins rushing, for it is an emotion that reminds us of our

Since the beginning of literature, there have been certain elements that cause readers to feel unsettled. These elements are what evolved into the horror of contemporary times. Horror is unique in the literature genre due to the forms that fear can take. Fear in the horror genre comes from all sources, whether it is the way the story is approached, the way the story is told, the way the story is shown, or countless others. Above all other aspects of horror, though, the most iconic form that fear takes in the horror genre is the villain.

Alfred Hitchcock’s motion picture Psycho, released in 1960, contains peculiar placement of predatory birds and other fowls with corresponding lines regarding birds from Norman Bates, the primary antagonist. Throughout the movie, various references concerning birds are can be drawn through the use of bird’s eye view camera angle, location names, and character names. As the movie begins, the first camera angle used is bird’s eye view. Viewers venture, bird-like, into Marion Crane’s apartment complex where she and her lover, Sam Loomis, are conversing about their desire to get married. Marion’s last name, Crane, seems to symbolize her character in a physical way like an actual crane: migratory and defenseless. Like the crane resides in a typically marshy area, Marion’s eventual final resting place is in a marshy swamp near the Bates Motel. After Marion steals $40,000 from her employer’s client to pay off Sam’s debt, she runs away from her home, Phoenix. Like the mythological bird, the city of Phoenix comes to represents Marion’s death and rebirth as she leaves her innocent secretarial job behind for a better life with Sam. Although these references to birds are subtle and can remain unnoticed, there are other references in the movie that are entirely noticeable. In this film, the reference to birds in the parlor and the motel room serve as a visual motif for Norman’s conflict with his mother, other women, and himself.

Overall, horror has been a universal theme that has captivated various audiences. Horror films have long served various purposes. They deliver thrills and chills, as well as tell stories of the dark, forbidden side of life and death. They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time. For instance, Nosferatu (1922) was not simply a tale of vampirism but offered a distressing image of a town besieged by premature and random deaths, which echoes the Great War. Therefore, horror films between the 1920s-1970s have reflected societal fears during their release and demonstrate important historical significance. The various films analyzed in this paper have represented what was happening throughout each decade beginning with

After, King say’s that we watch theses creepy films gives us a “feeling of normality”(1)

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is one of the famous films of modern cinematograph. Psycho is a film with interesting and exciting plot, outstanding visual effects and, especially, with great soundtrack. Psycho has many remarkable scenes, for example, famous Shower Scene. This scene has become one of the well-known moments in the film by using different editing technics and music.