Commentary:
“There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, […] this thing in the darkness that we don’t understand. Internal is the human heart.“
(John Carpenter)
Michael Myers, the “everyman“ among movies serial killers, slashes himself through the suburban community of fictional Haddonfield since 1978. Back then John Carpenter and Debra Hill created a small ensemble of characters and settings that shaped the young horror-movie subgenre of slasher forever. Pure Laurie Strode became – according to scholars and researchers like Carol J. Cover (2012, 2015) – one of the first “final girls“ in movie history. More than forty years and many installments, directors, and writers later, the Halloween franchise still defends its status as a horror movie institution, which has lived through many fundamental changes.
Together, we will have a closer look during this blockseminar at those changes in all thirteen movies, from the very first Halloween (1978) to its most current installment Halloween Ends (2022), and we’ll analyze the franchise regarding audio- and visual aesthetics, narrative strategies/ continuity, character development, commercial aspects, audiences, music, and – of course – the impact on the horror movie genre itself.
Attendance at the introductory session (April 22nd 2023, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.) is mandatory for further participation in the course!! Literature, seminar, and discussion will be in English.
Introductory literture:
Clover, Carol J.: Men, Women and Chain Saws. Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton 2015.
Newman, Kim: Nightmare Movies. Horror on Screen since the 1960s. London/ New York/ Sydney 2011.
- Kursleiter/in: Dennis Dellemann