Halloween 1978

Form and Function:
Trailer, to promote the film and persuade the audience to see the film.
M
Dark colours used to depict a night scene.
"Hole in the wall" - eyes of the mask.
Eerie music -like the "Jaws" theme.
Iconography -the symbolic dagger
Flashbacks from the past to the future.
Isolated, haunted house. -Lit in the dark
I
G
Slasher -expectations of the "final girl" fulfilled.
R
Child killer -shock value
Three teenage girls, of one who appears to have pre marital sex.
A
Teenagers who would identify with the Halloween culture.
Slasher -genre cinephiles
I
Those who commit "sinful" activites die.
The final girl is the hero, therefore crediting female characters with positive attributes.
Patriarchy - the final girl is saved by the psychatrist. (Those in powerful positions are men)
N
Voice over anchoring and controlling narrative development.
Flashback.
"The night he came home" -climax
E
Wider Context:

"Others have suggested the film is a social critique of the immorality of young people in 1970s America, pointing out that many of Myers' victims are sexually promiscuous substance abusers, while the lone heroine is depicted as chaste and innocent." (wikipedia)

Influenced by Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) seen at the Milan Film Festival, where independent film producer Irwin Yablans and financier Moustapha Akkad talked to Carpenter about producing a film about a stalker who killed babysitters. (film was first to be called "The Babysitter Murderers --Halloween.")

The opening title, featuring a jack-o'-lantern placed against a black backdrop, sets the mood for the entire movie. The camera slowly focuses on one of the jack-o'-lantern's eyes while the main music for Halloween plays in the background. Film historian J.P. Telotte says that this scene "clearly announces that [the film's] primary concern will be with the way in which we see ourselves and others and the consequences that often attend our usual manner of perception." (wikipedia)

Possible influence from the case of Myra Hindley?

http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade70.html
Many of the books published in the 70's revolved around a general theme of man's alienation from his spiritual roots. John Updike portrayed characters trying to find meaning in a society spiritually empty and in a state of moral decay.
The Kent State massacre was the most devastating event, with four students gunned down by Ohio National Guardsmen attempting to stem the anti-war demonstrations.
The Vietnam War continued to divide the country even after the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 put an end to U.S. military participation in the war.
Roe v. Wade legalized abortion.
The sci-fi adventure and spectacular special effects of George Lucas's Star Wars made it one of the highest grossing films ever.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003

M
Opening is unconventional of a slasher trailer –romance, and peaceful music.
The first minute of the trailer romanticises the location and drive into Texas. =The sun shining, long roads...etc
Change in tone –“They’re all dead” / frames in time with the sound of a heartbeat/ lots of fades into black
Long pause 30 secs before the trailer finishes – all that is heard are breathing sounds on a black screen and trailer changes again in pace.
I
New Line Cinema = big budget.
“From producer Michael Bay” – selling the film on the producer’s name.
Transformers, Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, and Bad Boys II.)
G
Slasher
Chainsaws and butcher’s knife.
Typicality’s of the slasher genre = isolated location (represented through the long, country road)
The “haunted house.”
The (interactive) “hole in the wall.”
R
Teenagers as sexually active engaged in relationships.
“Outsiders” –the tension between the northern and southern states.
A
Similar profile to the audience targeted by Bay. =Teenagers, older adults, mainly male.
I
N
Linear
Binary Oppositions between the outside world and the inside world.
Narrative is driven by the text on screen which guides the audience through the dates and locations of the film. –“Inspired by a true story”

E
Wider Context:
Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Gein did wear human skin, but he acted alone and did not use a chainsaw.
War on Terrorism 2001