Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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perspective established in the film is closely related to that character, Halloween
reveals in a concentrated way how the eye/camera can establish the perspective of a
film, without being used consistently.
The use of the eye/camera from 1979 to the present will be discussed in detail
in the next chapter, but at this stage it is important to provide a brief summary of the
device’s usage in this period in order to contextualize the device’s development and
evolution. Giallo films had a significant influence on the eye/camera in mainstream
horror cinema from the late 1970s as previously mentioned. Whether films drew
directly from the giallo movement or imitated films that had the co-opted giallo
form, the influence is palpable. Hell Night (1981: dir. DeSimone), Happy Birthday
to Me (1981; dir. Thompson), Maniac (1980; dir. Lustig) and My Bloody Valentine
are only a small representation of a body of genre films that, like giallo, use the
eye/camera to facilitate suspense and proximity fear in addition to providing a means
of disorientation in terms of distorting time and space, an effect which will be
discussed in the next chapter.
By 1984, a year which, as noted in the documentary Going to Pieces (2006;
dir. N/A), is generally considered the declination point of the substantial popularity
of the slasher sub-genre specifically, use of eye/camera had largely become habitual.
For horror films, the using of this particular device largely became a manner of
generic orientation: use of the eye/camera informs the viewer that they are indeed
watching a horror film. The fact that generic declination coincided with eye/camera
standardization is particularly significant, as it works precisely against a long-held
misconception by theorists regarding genre audiences: expectation and familiarity
with aesthetics and structure is central to the enjoyment of horror. These factors
illustrate that precise anticipation and repetition only appeal to genre fans, and the