The Production of Halloween

The “New Hollywood” era was an era that stretched roughly from the late 60s to the early 80s where there was a wave of young filmmakers who brought a new style into the “New Hollywood” era. A new and improved way of presenting a story was brought, referred to as “post-classical cinema”. These new films were funded and financed by major film studios and introduced a style that wasn’t seen as “traditional” (Hitchman). The “New Hollywood” era films were known to redesign the classic genres of Hollywood like the crime and war films, thus showing a more critical view of society in the past and present.

The change in market during the period went from a middle-aged high school educated audience in the mid 60s, to a younger, more affluent, college-educated demographic and by the mid 70s, a majority of all moviegoers were at least under 30. There was desperation in studios during this period due to status of the economy. The best thing that happened to the filmmakers was that they brought an emphasis on realism (Citation 1).

The movie “Halloween” is known as one the greatest independent slasher films ever, created off of a budget of $300,000 and brought $70,000,000 in revenue. Halloween was directed by John Carpenter, produced by Debra Hill and written between the both of them. The movie was set in Haddonfield, Illinois, mainly on Halloween 1978. This movie was the break for “New Hollywood” actress Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode). John Carpenter was paid $10,000 for writing, directing and composing the music, plus he gained 10% of the rights from the film’s profits.

With such a low budget, the actors and actresses had to provide their own wardrobe, and props had to be created with the materials that they had or could be bought inexpensively. For example, the mask worn by Michael Myers in the film was created from a Captain