Movie: Halloween Party

 

Production Year: 2019

 

Tubi Provided Summary: A seemingly innocent Halloween meme awakens tortured souls inside a college dorm that once served as a hospice for dying and disfigured children.

 

Film Can Be Accessed At: https://tubitv.com/movies/583973/halloween-party?start=true

 

Does This Movie Pass The Bechdel Test: Yes

 

Main Character Analysis:

* Characters in this film were, for the large part, extremely two-dimensional. Most were written quite poorly with little to no character development*

 

  •  Grace: 
    • Grace is the main character of the film. She plays the role of the grieving friend and main character that gets caught up in something she does not understand as well as the standard boy-crazy college girl. With the help of a new friend, Spencer, she eventually solves the puzzle of the movie but in turn, releases evil onto the whole world.
    • Grace is primarily lacking in character development. She is the standard “not like other girls” character. For example, she played Dungeons and Dragons once. Despite her lack of depth, Grace does display a mix of character traits such as the feminine sympathetic and sensitive traits while also displaying masculine independence and willingness to take risks.
  • Zoe:
    • Zoe is the best friend and roommate to Grace. She is introduced as one of the main characters of the film despite her short run on screen. She has no discernible personality aside from her interest in travel and fear of pigs.
    • Because of her lack of depth, it is difficult to analyze Zoe’s character. She does, however, reveal herself to have a few undeniable traits such as feminine understanding and masculine assertiveness.
  • Spencer (aka Special or Special Needs):
    • Spencer is depicted as the standard college computer science nerd. Of his friend group, he is the only nerd that is conventionally attractive and is in turn, selected by Grace to be her right-hand man during the film. Aside from his interest in computer science, Spencer bases his nerd status, or personality moreover, on nothing else of value.
    • Spencer, much like Zoe, has little personality despite being in the whole movie. His personality is being an attractive nerd who knows how computers work. Despite this, he does display some masculine characteristics such as defending his beliefs and willingness to take risks.
  • Minor Characters Include:
    • Bubbles (aka Bubbles-In-The-Tub or Darren)
      • Despite his long run in the movie, Bubbles shows no personality aside from an interest in girls, booze, and a fear of his alcoholic mother. He is depicted as the standard college frat boy. He does, however, reveal some feminine characteristics such as sensitivity and understanding.
    • Court
      • Court is depicted as the standard college jock that intends to spend all his time partying and drinking. He is depicted as the popular kid who puts down nerds and chases girls and attention. He shows no personality aside from some masculine traits such as dominance and assertiveness.
    • Charlotte
      • Charlotte is a friend of Grace. She is only in a few scenes but reveals herself to be a primarily feminine character as she is compassionate, understanding, and sympathetic.

 

Death Analysis

  • Zoe: First to die, moderate death scene, chased down and attacked before she is mauled and partially consumed offscreen, killed by her greatest fear: a pig person.
  • Bubbles: Second to die, moderate death scene, scared by the image of the man that attempted to kidnap him as a child before being found dead on the playground offscreen, presumably killed by his greatest fear: the man that attempted to kidnap him. 
  • Court: Third to die, moderate death scene, attacked while sitting on the toilet and killed offscreen, killed by a member of a group of disfigured and disabled children.
  • Spencer: Fourth to die, short death scene, attacked and killed in front of Grace, killed by his greatest fear: The Halloween Party, a group of disfigured and disabled children.

 

Survival Analysis

  • Charlotte: No on-screen death or death discussed later in the film.
  • Grace: Ending remains ambiguous as she is in a life-threatening situation but the camera cuts before the conflict is resolved.

 

Final Statistics:

Character Sex Ratio: 3 Females: 3 Males

Character Survivor Ratio: 1 Female: 0 Males (not including ambiguous characters)

Character Death Ratio: 33% of Females to 100% of Males (not including ambiguous characters)

 

Final Takeaways: 

Halloween Party, while a poorly written and executed movie, was an interesting watch. The characters were written to follow specific stereotypes of students in a college setting, but unlike other films in the genre, Halloween Party did not deliver in this endeavor and the characters cumulatively came across as flat and underdeveloped.

Despite this, the characters did adhere to stereotypical gender binaries with the males typically exhibiting primarily masculine characteristics and the females exhibiting primarily feminine characteristics. There was some variety in this with characters that exhibited both masculine and feminine characteristics, but those characters were still written into either minor roles or roles that were highly stereotypical for that gender.

Aside from its failures, Halloween Party was a rather interesting watch. Unlike many films in the horror genre, Halloween Party passed the Bechdel Test rather quickly in the movie. In addition, the characters were split evenly with a three female to three male ratio. The survival rates surprisingly preferred the female characters with at least one female survivor while all the male characters died. Because of this, the film passing the Bechdel Test, and the characters’ analysis using the Sex Role Perspective, Halloween Party makes for a refreshingly unusual watch in the horror genre despite its plot-based shortcomings.

 

Shared by: Ariana Nichols
Image Credit: IMDb