Listen a Little More Carefully: Halloween 1978

John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween is one of the most famous slasher films to date. The film is known for many different things, from Michael Myers iconic mask to the trope of the “Final Girl” to its thrilling piano theme. However, one aspect of the film that seems to be less valued is the sound apart from the music. In this blog post, I am going to include dialogue with sound.

Following Myers breaking out of the institution and doctor Loomis trying to track him down, the audience is introduced to another one of the main characters, Laurie. In one shot, she is sitting in the back of the classroom as her teacher seems to ramble on about a random subject off-screen. However, the subject isn’t random at all: it is about fate. As the teacher continues to vehemently talk about fate, the shot zooms in on Laurie, who then looks out the school window to see Myers standing next to his car:

1978’s Halloween’s classroom scene talking about fate and inevitability is strangely similar to Hereditary’s classroom scenes
byu/DeusoftheWired inHereditary

The teacher says that “You see, fate caught up with several lives here,” which can be seen as a foreshadowing of the multiple deaths to come in the film (Halloween 15:52-15:57). This tense moment also addresses Laurie, or specifically, her fate to face Myers; “no matter what course of action” Laurie would take, her own “day of reckoning” would come (Halloween 15:58-16:08). 

The foreshadowing itself by using the teacher’s off-screen dialogue about fate adds to the unsettling mood of the movie. This scene almost feels like a prologue to one Shakespeare’s tragedies; by having the speaker off-screen, it gives more of a looming “prophecy” tension to the scene, which makes the audience more tense and apprehensive about not only the movie in general, but Laurie’s “fate.” This can especially be seen in the teacher’s last lines, where she describes how “In Samuel’s writing, fate is immovable, like a mountain; it stands when man passes away. Fate never changes” (Halloween 16:45-16:53). These last off-screen lines linger over the viewer’s head, creating an unsettling effect as Laurie looks outside again only to see that Myers has disappeared.

There are two potential uses of this song within this scene. One use is that this song was/is a stoner “anthem,” so in the moment, the calm tune contributes to the surface-level stoner atmosphere of the scene. However, if one listens to the lyrics, the relevance to the movie becomes more evident. The song opens up with the following verses:

“All our times have come

Here but now they’re gone

Seasons don’t fear the reaper

Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain, we can be like they are

Come on baby, don’t fear the reaper

Baby take my hand, don’t fear the reaper

We’ll be able to fly, don’t fear the reaper

Baby I’m your man”

The song discusses how death comes for all at one point, so it’s irrational to fear it, or “the reaper.” The verse, “All our times have come,” is explicitly talking about death, and eerily foreshadows the following deaths in the movie. In the meantime, Annie and Laurie’s own reaper, Michael Myers, trails behind them as the song continues. Here, the song not only becomes a tool for foreshadowing, but for heightening the suspenseful tone of the film as well as disturbing mood for the audience.

The director of the film, John Carpenter, made no mistake in choosing this particular song. In an interview for an article in The New York Times, Carpenter claimed that “I thought the song was unbelievable,” and that “We could have played against what was going on with a happy song, but we chose that one. The thing is cinematic all the way.” Here, Carpenter acknowledges that the song was set to match the deathly and suspenseful tone of the movie. He also notes how the song itself is “cinematic,” adding onto the significant weight it carries within this scene.

Additionally, to continue on more of a literary route, the use of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” heightens the sense of dramatic irony in the film; by now, the viewer has registered that Myers will try to kill the two girls. While Laurie isn’t wholly oblivious to Myers, in this scene she is, and both girls are unaware of the danger they are in. This song only adds onto this knowledge of the viewer, emphasizing the girls’ doom. In turn, the panic, anxiety or suspense the viewer is experiencing is elevated. 

Both uses of sound—off-screen dialogue and diegetic sound/music—contribute to some form of foreshadowing or dramatic irony, which intensifies the mood and emotions viewers experience during a horror movie. This is just one of the reasons why Halloween was (and still is) such a successful horror film that still serves as a foundation and icon for others.

Worked Cited

Halloween. Directed by John Carpenter, performances by Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran, P.J. Soles, and Nancy Kyes. Compass International Pictures, 1978.