Halloween 1978 The Horror Movie

Horror films date back over a century ago starting with the 3-minute short film “Le Manoir du Diable (1896)” popularly known as “The House of the Devil” by film's earliest visionaries, Georges Méliès (Rockoff). Horror films are characterized by surreal and unsettling pieces blending in diverse and reconstructed art forms. The horror films are designated to evoke panic, fear, alarm, through a cathartic, captivating and entertaining experience. There are divergent genres of horror film including action horror, body horror; comedy horror; holiday horror; horror adventure; horror drama; psychological horror; superhero horror, zombie horror, gothic horror; science fiction horror, slasher film, splatter film among others. Horror movies peaked in popularity in the 1970s following the debut of 1978 classic slasher based horror film “Halloween” directed by John Carpenter. Crossing over $70 Million on its initial global release with a $320,000 production budget making it the most financially successful single independent (Grant 73). Beyond its commercial success is a legacy spanning several decades shaping the direction for the entire generation of horror film while still shaping tropes of newcomers.
The plot of Halloween 1978 is a psychotic killer, Michael Myers, who stalks and attempts to kill a group of teenage girls; Annie, Laurie Strode, and Lynda after breaking out of the mental hospital on Halloween 1978. The film is based Haddonfield, Illinois where 6-year-old Michael Myers viciously murders his sister after she parted with her boyfriend following a sexual encounter on Halloween night in 1963. Enraged with sexual anger, Michael escapes with a mission of killing Laurie who he considers as a similar version of his sister but kills Laurie’s friends before attempting to kill Laurie. During the Halloween, of 1978, Laurie notices that Michael is stalking her and her friends, Annie and Lynda, dismisses Laurie sentiments as Michael slits Annie's throat and strangles her to death as she leaves the house to pick her boyfriend Paul. As well, he strangles Lynda to death with a telephone cord and stabs Lynda’s boyfriend Bob to death after witnessing the two engage in sex. Michael and Laurie engage in a series of attacks, but they both survive from dying after repeated shooting by Michael’s psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis results into Michael retreating into darkness (Clover 23).
The slasher film mirrors contemporary social construction of gender, sexuality and, feminism in our culture (Cowan). Like other slasher films, the Halloween 1978 film depicts female inferiority narrative in a rationally masculine society through the “final girl “construct introduced by Clover (23). Clover defines a final girl as “image of the distressed female most likely to linger in memory is the image of the one who did not die: the survivor, or Final Girl (35)”. As Laurie desperately defends herself from Michael by stabbing him with a knitting needle, hanger wire and later with a knife, Michael survives the attacks. Although the film depicts Laurie actively defending herself with felicity, she doesn’t succeed to kill the monster as he subsequently arises after several attacks. Moreover, the relent of Michael after Dr. Loomis intervention depicts that masculinity where a man has to save a girl after all as argued by Clover’s theory. The stereotype of helpless by women is reinforced in slasher films such as Halloween 1978. While the male characters are portrayed as aggressive in their attacks, the female characters are portrayed as passive engaging less in combat unless it’s the only feasible option perpetuating the stereotype of women submissiveness which has social implication. “She is feminine enough to act out in a gratifying way, a way unapproved for adult males, the terrors and masochistic pleasures of the underlying fantasy, but not so feminine as to disturb the structures of male competence and sexuality,” Clover (53). From Meyer’s sister Judith to Laurie friends Annie and Lynda, the film depicts the inability of women to protect themselves.
Halloween 1978 alludes to conservative moralism on sex. Grants observe death as a consequence of illicit sex in slather film, “Killing those who seek or engage in unauthorized sex amounts to a generic imperative of the slasher film” (34). The film plot demonstrates that the survival of sexually uptight female character. Clover argues that a prevalent taint of the “final girl” as virginal and virtuous which mirrors the social conception of violence. The “final girl” Laurie, unlike her sexually teenage friends stabbed and strangled to death, is sexually inactive and survives the slashing demonstrating a social-symbolic meaning. Philips retaliates the argument that it’s the sexually passive victims that survive, “Laurie does not succumb to these numerous attacks because she, unlike her compatriots, did not engage in sexual activities” (138). Laurie is reserved, dresses in clothes conceals her feminine figure and is not actively engaged with boys while her friend Annie is outspoken, dresses in tight clothes and has a boyfriend. Although the plot entails the death of a male character as a consequence of “illicit” sex, the number of male deaths (1) is disproportionately compared to female deaths (3) which illustrates punished sexuality where the women don’t have the autonomy to express their sexual desires.
Drawing from Hutchings’s argument of masochism where male characters’ experience paranoid masculinity due to sexual and social tension, the film alludes to the increasing feminism in the 19th century (193). Michael’s enrage on illicit sexual behavior by the teenager babysitters could be interpreted as a reaction to feminism according to Hutchings (193), “... the slasher offered a conservative moralism regarding sexuality which was itself just one part of a broader turn to the right that took place in American film and American society towards the end of the 1970s (p. 193)”. The teenage babysitter’s girls are constantly engaging in social activities such as smoking pot and freely engages in sex which underscores the presence of feminism in Haddonfield, Illinois which Hutchings argues elicits the masculinity paranoia by men in the society. Phillips observes that Halloween 1978 was a reflection of the cultural context of mid-1970s where there’s increasing feminism movements “sexual liberation movement of the mid-1970s was particularly aimed at young women who were embracing the laxness of sexual morality as a manifestation of the expanding movement for women's rights (139). Michael’s persistent pursuit and attack of victims engaging with illicit sex demonstrate the struggles of the patriarchal society of the 1970s where man possessed prowess and was conflicted to the women empowerment revolution taking place in the US (Cowan).
A striking contrast to the sexist and feminist stereotypes that transcends Halloween 1978 is the maternal feminism by the female characters. The plot is constructed around teenagers babysitting younger children whereby Annie babysits Lindsey Wallace while Laurie babysits Tommy Doyle. Phillips brings the perspective that Laurie depicts inherent motherly qualities, “beyond her overall goodness, Laurie is, perhaps, more importantly, the ‘good mother’ in the film... We see Laurie with Tommy on a number of occasions in which she assuages his fears, chastises him for his naughtiness, and even tries to elevate his reading material” (139). As a babysitter, Laurie is a contrast to the Clovers definition of a final girl who is characterized by masculinity. Laurie is caught in the tradeoff of her safety and the safety of Tommy and Lindsey. According to Clover, the safety of Lindsey and Tom are Laurie’s main safety priority “Again thinking him vanquished, she sends the children to the police and sinks down in pain and exhaustion” (87). The film portrays Laurie as taking a motherly role of caretaker and protector as she prioritizes the safety of Tommy and Lindsey while trying to fight Michael. Upon her first escape from Michael, Laurie sends the children into hiding.



Works Cited
Clover, Carol J. Men Women, and Chain Saws. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Cowan, G., & O?Brien, M. (1990). Gender and Survival vs. Death in Slasher Films: A Content Analysis. Sex Roles, 23(3/4), 187-196.
Grant, Barry Keith. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. Print.
Hutchings, Peter. The Horror Film. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2004. Print.
Phillips, Kendall R. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture. London: Praeger. 2005.
Rockoff, Adam. Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film: 1978-1986. Jefferson, North Carolina; McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers, 2006.