How does Halloween follow the codes and conventions of the Slasher-horror sub-genre?

How does Halloween follow the codes and conventions of the Slasher-horror sub-genre?

The trailer for the original Halloween movie is a perfect example of the codes and conventions of slasher movies. This is because the movie itself is seen as being the first major example of the genre, creating many of the codes and conventions in the process.

Firstly is the characters we see in the trailer the main ones who speak in the trailer are the female lead, the old guy who knows what is happening and of course the killer. These 3 characters are something present in most slasher trailers and they follow, what would become, the usual pattern the old guy who knows what is going in is a psychologist who treated the killer so he knows how he thinks and his personality, this is a version of this character which is often seen in movies and trailers to give a little bit of information about the killer, the other being a local in movies where the victims are new to the area like in Friday the13th’s original trailer there was the old “crazy” guy with his bike warning them. The other characters also follow the usual conventions of horror trailers the female lead is a blonde haired teenager who works as a babysitter who lives in the suburbs and we only see her running from the killer and looking for help. Finally there is the killer and this trailer shows the killer of well by barely showing him. In the trailer the killer is constantly hidden in shadows and wears a mask and wearing a jumpsuit and wielding a knife (a design that would become even more popular with the Friday the 13^th films and a few others) we don’t know who he is or why he is doing it just that he is strong, tall, insane and unrelenting, these character traits are what would become the basis for most if not all slasher movie killers . The only other characters in the trailer are the other victims who we only see briefly and mostly just before they are killed, thus making us want to know who these people are.

Next is the setting for the film, as I mentioned the film we can see from a few scenes is a suburban town in America which is the setting for a majority of other slashers such as Scream and Nightmare on Elm street another being an old camp in the woods. We also see many the usual locations used for kills and chases in horror trailers such as the kitchen and staircase, usually in horror movies these two locations are some of the more commonly used like in the original Scream.

This movie also follows a number of other conventions such as music. This trailer is one of the best known for the use of what would become the franchises theme song with similar use of music being used many time in the future by other horror films, this one is of note because it creates a great amount of tension and fear because of its repeating piano chord and what I believe is cello backing eventually becoming one of the most iconic horror theme songs.

 The props and costumes also follow convention. As I said the killer is wearing a mask and a full body jumpsuit, similar designs would be used for years with little variation (such as Scream’s “Ghost-face” killer who has a full body black cloak like outfit instead). The mask is also an important feature as even though we know who he is we don’t really know what he looks like, he could be anyone and anyone could become him is the idea of these killers, these are people who have snapped and just enjoy killing everyone the mask allows that element on anonymity. The final prop that is one of the major conventions of the Slasher-horror genre is the killers weapon, the knife a simple well known weapon that anyone could use and is thus the number one most often seen weapons used by killers in slasher films with only slight variation such as Jason Voorhees’ machete knife in the Friday the 13^th franchise.

This movie is a great example of codes and conventions used in most slasher-horror films as like I said in the beginning this movie is seen as being the first of the modern day slasher genre and creating or using these codes and conventions. The only things that you might see in more modern slashers that is different in the ways of code and conventions are things that have changed or been created since then and those are very few.

By Todd Green