*Content Warning: Article contains descriptions of murder and physical violence.*

On a rainy Oct. 31 at 2:00 p.m., Hamilton College’s F.I.L.M. series (curated by Professor Scott MacDonald, Director of Cinema and Media Studies) presented John Carpenter’s

Halloween

in the Bradford Auditorium. The classic slasher film drew in a large crowd of both faculty and students, all eager to see it on the spooky holiday of the same name.

There was little introduction needed for this film; pop culture and cinema history alike had given the audience all the context they needed for this film. Aware of this, Professor MacDonald only commented that Carpenter also composed the score for

Halloween

before screening the actual film, but this was no idle remark. The chilling synth cues and dissonant piano themes throughout the film create a haunting atmosphere that encourages the audience to be vigilant. This score only consists of frightening music, implying that danger lurks everywhere in

Halloween’s

world.

While a looming sense of danger may seem like a classic horror movie trope, it grows more ominous when one considers the setting of

Halloween

. Serial killer Michael Myers stalks protagonist Laurie Strode and her friends throughout

Halloween

in the tiny town of Haddonsfield, with motivations to murder them all. Such gory and frightening actions starkly contrast the mundane atmosphere of Haddonfield, an environment specifically constructed to feel like an area of indefinite normalcy and safety, as it becomes infiltrated by a homicidal stranger and tainted with violence.

Halloween

thus makes its audience realize that danger can pounce upon people in any place and time, even in environments designed to make people feel safe. This perfectly reflected a popular sentiment of the film’s era: the Seventies were a decade reeling in the wake of many serial killers taking countless victims, regardless of who they were and where they lived. From the 1969 stabbing of Sharon Tate in her own home to the 1974 disappearance of Susan Elaine Rancourt from her college, no one felt safe anywhere.

Furthermore, when one analyzes the victims of Myers,

Halloween

feels even more chilling. The people he targets and murders are all innocent teenagers behaving in normal adolescent ways, such as going to school dances, rebelling against their parents and having sex with their schoolmates. The teens in this film are killed simply for being teens, as if Myers is punishing them for an adolescence stage that he is disgusted by, yet never possessed, having spent most of his childhood in Smith’s Grove Sanitarium — a psychiatric hospital he eventually escapes.

Despite such frightening atmospheres in

Halloween

, Laurie Strode is no shrinking violet when danger comes on her doorstep — quite literally, as Myers tries to kill her in the various houses she takes shelter in. She is terrified that a silent and relentless monster is after her, but she does not let her fear paralyze her. In fact, Strode actively fights back against Myers in several iconic scenes. After Myers has murdered Strode’s friends and seeks to kill Strode herself, she is visibly frightened, but does not hesitate to incaptiate him with a sharp knitting needle that she was using to pass the time in a previous scene. In a later scene, when Myers begins destroying a closet that Strode hides in for safety, Strode instantly creates a weapon to defend herself by straightening out the wire of a clothes hanger and stabbing him in the eye with it. Suffice to say, it is thrilling to see a horror protagonist be vulnerable, yet smart and brave, in these moments of high tension and crisis.

From settings to character,

Halloween

is full of elements that make it a timeless horror classic that people from any generation can enjoy, and the audience at this particular F.I.L.M. screening proved it. The age range for this audience varied greatly, from older faculty members who had previously watched

Halloween

to younger college students who had never seen it until that afternoon. However, regardless of age, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves during the screening by flinching during the musical jump scares and muttering their support for Strode to survive, making it a perfect screening to celebrate Halloween at Hamilton College.