John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) is a postmodern film that highlights the different components of the slasher films (killer, locale, weapons, victims, and shock effects) which are discussed in detail in Carol Clover’s “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film”. The opening scene of the film shows Judith Meyers and her boyfriend engaging in sexual activity while 6 year old Micheal observes from outside. As a result of Micheal seeing, he stabs her multiple times with a large kitchen knife as she sits in front of her mirror, naked. The weapon he chooses allows him to physically put something into his sister which makes the kill much more personal.
Micheal Meyers is an extremely emotionally disturbed man. After he escapes from the asylum, Micheal heads to his hometown to stalk and kill a group of friends on Halloween night. Laurie, who is very feminine, innocent, quiet, and smart, Annie, who is wild and unchaste, and Lynda who is the stereotypical sexually active cheerleader are our main characters in the film. The audience can tell from the very beginning that Laurie is the final girl. The Final Girl in a slasher film is typically very innocent and is usually the one to find her friend’s mutilated bodies as well as endure an agonizing chase with the killer (Clover’s article, page 84-85). She also has a sense that something is wrong which is a recurring theme in the film. Laurie is convinced there is someone following and watching her, while her friends completely ignore the possible danger. We also see Laurie’s transformation from a very feminine, timid character in the beginning to a more masculine and brave character in the end (Clover’s article).
As Micheal stalks and kills his victims, he does so while wearing a mask. There is a scene when he is strangling Laurie and she rips his mask off. He stops attacking her to put the mask back on. It is almost as if he needs a mask in order to kill (he had a mask on when he killed his sister as well). It is likely that Micheal is locked in a child state of mind (Clover’s article, page 77) and feels as though if he wears the mask, it will be like killing his sister all over again. This, and the fact that Micheal displayed Annie, the girl who physically resembled Judith, in front of her stole tombstone after he killed her shows that all the girls he kills are just surrogates for his sister. He wants to recreate the feeling he experienced during his first murder. We also see that the murders of all the girls are played out and are very up close, where as Bob was murdered quickly because he was in the way of Micheal’s real target, the girls. The audience also sees the postmodern element of an open ending, leaving the audience without answers. Halloween contains many of the elements talked about in Clover’s article and is therefore a great example of a postmodern slasher film.
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