Halloween - Opening Scene

MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE

OPEN on a black screen. SUPERIMPOSE in dark red letters:

HALLOWEEN

Then we slowly:

FADE IN TO:

Darkness, with a small shape in the center of the screen. As MAIN TITLES CONTINUE OVER, CAMERA SLOWLY MOVES IN on the shape.

We get closer and closer until we see that the shape is a Halloween mask. It is a large, full-head platex rubber mask, not a monster or ghoul, but the pale, neutral features of a man weirdly distorted by the rubber. .

Finally CAMERA MOVES IN CLOSE on the eye of the mask. It is blank, empty, a dark, staring socket.. SUPERIMPOSE FINAL CREDIT.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

Black screen. SUPERIMPOSE:

HADDONFIELD, ILLINOIS

OCTOBER 31, 1963

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT./INT. MYERS HOUSE -- NIGHT -- SUBJECTIVE POV (PANAGLIDE)

It is night. We move toward the rear of a house through Someone's POV. CAMERA MOVES UP to a Jack-o'-lantern glowing brightly on a windowsill. It is a windy night and the curtains around the Jack-o'-lantern ruffle back and forth.

Suddenly we hear voices from inside the house.

SISTER (V.O.)
My parents won't be back till ten.

BOYFRIEND (V.O.)
Are you sure?

Then LAUGHTER.

The POV moves from the Jack-o'-lantern down to another window and peers inside. We see the sister's bedroom through the blowing curtains.

Into the bedroom comes the SISTER, 18, very pretty. She GIGGLES as the BOYFRIEND jumps into the room. Also 18, he wears a Halloween mask and costume.

BOYFRIEND
(continuing)
We're all alone, aren't we?

SISTER
Michael's around someplace....

The boyfriend grabs the sister and kisses her.

SISTER
(continuing)
Take off that thing.

The boyfriend rips off his mask. He is a handsome young man underneath. They kiss again, this time with more passion. The boyfriend begins to unbutton the sister's blouse. She responds to him.

The POV swings away from the window and begins to restlessly pace back and forth, agitated, disturbed. We HEAR THE SOUNDS of the sister and boyfriend inside the bedroom growing more and more passionate.

Finally the POV moves back up to the window. Inside through the moving curtains, we see the sister and the boyfriend on the bed, naked, making love.

The POV springs back from the window and stalks quickly down the side of the house, past the Jack-o'-lantern, around to a door. Quietly the door is opened and the POV moves inside.

The POV glides silently through the house into the kitchen, up to a drawer. The drawer is opened. A large butcher knife is withdrawn.

Then the POV swings around and moves to the kitchen door. We look down a hallway to the front door. The boyfriend steps out of the bedroom door, buttoning his shirt. The sister stands in the doorway, a sheet wrapped around her.

BOYFRIEND
I gotta go.

SISTER
Will you call me tomorrow?

BOYFRIEND
Yeah, sure.

SISTER
Promise?

BOYFRIEND
Yeah.

They kiss again and the boyfriend walks to the front door. The sister watches as he leaves and shuts the door behind him. Then she turns and steps back into the bedroom.

The POV moves slowly down the hall to the bedroom door and peers around inside. The sister sits at her night-table brushing her hair. She is still completely nude.

Slowly the POV moves into the room. Suddenly we move down to the discarded Halloween mask on the floor. The POV bends down and picks it up. Then suddenly the POV is covered by the mask and we see through the eye-holes.

The POV moves up behind the sister. Sensing a presence, she spins around and stares at the POV, covering her breasts quickly.

SISTER
Michael...?

Suddenly the POV lunges forward. The sister continues to stare incredulously. There is a rapid blur as the POV drives the butcher knife into the sister's chest and out again almost before we've seen it.

The sister looks down at the blood forming at her hands, then

back up at the POV with an astonished disbelief.

Then in a wild paroxysm the butcher knife blurs continuously in and out of frame, slashing the sister mercilessly. She begins to SCREAM, trying to fend off the blows with her hands, then suddenly falls out of frame to the floor.

The POV moves back away from the sister's lifeless body, spins around and careens out of the bedroom.

At top speed the POV races through the darkened house, to the front door, out the door, down the steps and rapidly up the street. The CAMERA careens along in frenzied flight, up the sidewalk, up a small side alley, down someone's backyard, then to a sudden, abrupt halt in front of MOTHER and FATHER just coming out of a neighbor's house.

Mother and Father stare at the POV, at first in puzzlement, then slow, growing horror.

MOTHER
Michael?

CLOSE SHOT -- MICHAEL -- CRANE

The father's hand reaches up and rips off the Halloween mask, revealing MICHAEL, 6, underneath, a bright-eyed boy with a calm, quiet smile on his face. CAMERA PULLS BACK, revealing the blood-stained butcher knife in his hand, then further back, CRANING UP past his parents standing there, up from the neighbor's house to a HIGH SHOT of the neighborhood as the sounds of POLICE SIRENS rise in the distance.

FADE OUT