Semiotic Analysis: Halloween examples

Horror as a genre has a very close connection with semiotics. Considering that horror as a genre is all about making various cultural references it easy to see that most films could not function on a deeper level without semiotics. A common theme among horror films is the victimization of women which relates back to feminism and how women are treated in the United States. Without semiotics in a film would a teenage girl running away from a serial killer be anything more than a random victim? The answer is no. To help me with my examples of uses of semiotics in horror films I will refer to the film Halloween.

            Personally I feel that horror has one technique of utilizing semiotics that is somewhat unique to horror genre and that is hoe sound is utilized. In horror films of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s were the first to utilize this technique. The film Halloween owes part of its fame to the Michael Myers theme song which is known by anyone who has seen the film. During scenes in the film the song will play when Michael Myers is near and about to strike. As soon as that music comes the audience can recognize danger is near. Many horror films use this technique of having a particular song or sounds that play when some type of danger is near.

            Horror films can also use semiotics by the way the way it uses its characters in the film and how the narrative can tell you about those characters. In the film Halloween the main character Jaime Lee Curtis makes no comparison to what one would think is a female capable of eluding an immortal murderer. In the film we learn that Jaime Lee Curtis is very timid because we learn of her fear of talking to boys. We also find out throughout the introduction of the film she spends weekdays studying and doing homework and weekends babysitting neighborhood children. After being subdued by Michael for a period of time she finally fends off her predator and then is rescued at the last moment by an older male. This would be the denotative meaning, what we see directly in the film. The way this is constructed tells me a few things about a connotative meaning. The final woman is a character placed into slasher films during the 70’s and 80’s because of the progressive movement in America. At that time females were starting to become very independent in the U.S. So films use the final girl as a reference that women are strong enough (final girl-Jaime Lee Curtis) to compete with their male counterparts (their predator-Michael Myers) and survive. I think it is interesting that they made Jaime Lee Curtis a teenage girl who likely would grow up to be successful due to her work ethic in school and babysitting. To me this references what the ideal teenage girl would be during the progressive movement fending for herself against a relentless male race.

            Interestingly enough Jaime Lee Curtis is able to survive until the end but still ends up being saved by a male. Opinions are mixed as to whether the film gratifies women or reminds them that they still need their male counterparts for success. Semiotics is very subjective and opinion based there are many debates very similar to the one that surrounds Halloween. Experts argue that horror films can be interpreted as either gratifying women or degrading them.