Mise-en-Scenè

   When you’re watching movies, you are watching all the action that’s happening in every scene. If you watch closely and dissect different scenes, you will see exactly what the director wants you to see. This ranges from props in the background, to lighting of the room and music. There are countless scenes you could look at and admire every detail that went into it. This week I rewatched one of my old favorites and a classic in the horror genre, Halloween. This movie came out 42 years ago and was made by John Carpenter. This movie opened up a door for classic slasher movies proving to audiences and critics that something as simple as a man in a mask with a knife stalking teenagers, terrifying. Everyone knows who Michael Myers and can picture what his mask looks like. 

  Throughout the movie, you go from long distance blurry shots of Michael, his point of view, and 3rd person point of view. In the scene I watched closely, the main character, Laurie, thinks she has finally stopped Michael with a stab to the neck and then eye. We see her in clear view on the left side of the screen, in shock. We see a blurry mass laying on the floor on the right side of the screen behind Laurie. You know somethings going to happen but it doesn’t change the reaction. We see Michael sit up as the music makes a terrifying jolt. Laurie has the light of the moon on her face and as she gets up, so does Michael. He approaches and becomes clearer and brighter as he steps closer to the light. 

  When Laurie walks away she gets attacked by Michael as he furiously chokes her. The kids make an escape as they scream in panic and sprint away. We get a shot of this as if we were one of the neighbors watching from across the street. As Laurie is getting choked she pulls Michaels mask off and we finally see his face with a bleeding messed up eye. The lighting is amazing in this shot because everything is dark or black around his face and you see for only a second or 2 what he looks like very clearly. I think this was meant as a jump scare moment for how crazy and messed up he looked from being stabbed in the eye. Dr. Loomis shows up and shoots Michael just as he puts his mask on. Michael backs into a room and Dr. Loomis follows. When Dr. Loomis gets to the room he sees Michael standing there still as we hear his heavy breathing. He’s acting like he didn’t just get shot. The room that they are in is nearly pitch black with just his mask and a window visible. Dr. Loomis then shoots Michael several times until he gets thrown from a second story window. We see him laying in a spotlight with dark trees around the edges of the screen. Dr. Loomis goes back to check on Laurie. When he returns just seconds later, Michael is gone, and we have no idea where he is but we the last shots we get are of the house, each room, the street. Each shot not showing where he is but is heavy breathing persisting. The screen fades to black and the famous Halloween theme plays. 

  One thing that I haven’t thought of but now seems disturbing is that the kids were last seen running out in the darkness and out of the house. Then we see Michael, escape into the darkness and possibly chasing the kids. The way that they used light and darkness as metaphors for good and evil was amazing in this scene, especially in the last part with Michael apparently being defeated and in the light and then disappearing into the darkness.