Our third Halloween lesson. The festival crosses the ocean, and something strange happens to it.
Learn from Songs · Festivals: Halloween · Part 3 of 4 · C1–C2
Halloween: Thriller
Halloween goes to America, to Hollywood and to the shops: the immigrant festival that became a film genre and a multi-billion-dollar industry. Stance and hedging (arguably, it could be argued that, is widely regarded as), cleft sentences (What made Thriller unique was…, It was Carpenter who…) and nominalisation, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria, and two songs.
SOPHIA
PHILO
Strange in what way?
SOPHIA
It becomes a business, and a kind of cinema. Fear itself becomes something you can sell.
MARCOS
People pay to be frightened? Philo gets that for free every time he hears a noise in the stacks.
Before you listen: the song
America, from the 1840s to today
Halloween arrived in America with Irish and Scottish immigrants, above all those who fled the Great Famine of the 1840s. By the early twentieth century, the night had a reputation for pranks and, in some cities, outright vandalism. It was partly in response to this that schools, community groups and, later, businesses promoted organised parties and door-to-door trick-or-treating, which became widespread after the Second World War.
Hollywood, meanwhile, had given the festival its monsters: Universal’s Dracula and Frankenstein (both 1931) supplied the faces that children would wear for decades. John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) turned the date itself into a genre, and the decade’s great horror films, from The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) to Sam Raimi’s shoestring The Evil Dead (1981), made fear profitable, while drawing on, and arguably distorting, older religious and folk beliefs.
The commercial festival is now vast. Americans are estimated to spend well over ten billion dollars a year on costumes, sweets and decorations, and the American model has been exported, sometimes uneasily, to countries whose own traditions were older and quieter, from Ireland itself to Spain and Poland.
Our songs: Thriller (1982), written by Rod Temperton, was turned by Michael Jackson and the director John Landis, fresh from An American Werewolf in London, into a fourteen-minute short film, with a spoken passage by the horror actor Vincent Price. In 2009 it became the first music video added to the US National Film Registry. Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London (1978) treats the monster as a dandy about town.
What exactly are we buying, when we buy fear?
Listen: two ways to be frightened
PHILO
Listen to both songs. In each one, how seriously is the horror meant to be taken?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A. Notice how each song turns fear into entertainment: theatre and satire.
🧟 Listen to the song: “Thriller” (Rod Temperton, 1982), sung by Michael Jackson.Listen to the official recording →
🐺 And listen to: “Werewolves of London” (Warren Zevon, LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel, 1978), sung by Warren Zevon.Find the recording →
From Samhain to the suburbs
DEMETRIA
What strikes me is how little of Samhain is left. The Otherworld has become a costume shop.
SOPHIA
That is arguably too pessimistic. Lanterns, disguises and visits from house to house can all be traced back, if indirectly, to the Irish and Scottish customs we saw last time.
Hedging and stance
MARCOS
Arguably, Thriller is the most influential music video ever made. It could be argued that horror films reflect the anxieties of their time.
SOPHIA
At C1–C2, you show how confident you are: arguably, it could be argued that, seems to, tends to, is widely regarded as, to some extent, there is little doubt that. Strong claims need evidence; weaker ones need hedges.
Cleft sentences
PHILO
What made Thriller unique was its length. It was John Carpenter who made Halloween a genre.
SOPHIA
Cleft sentences put the focus where you want it: What + clause + is / was + focus, and It is / was + focus + who / that… Also: All (that) the film needed was a mask. The reason why it worked is that…
Nominalisation: the language of analysis
DEMETRIA
“Halloween was commercialised” → the commercialisation of Halloween. “Films distort old beliefs” → the distortion of old beliefs.
SOPHIA
Academic English often turns verbs and adjectives into nouns: commercialise → commercialisation, distort → distortion, popular → popularity, anxious → anxiety. It sounds more abstract, and it lets you pack more into a sentence.
Sophia’s comparison: the haunted house of Athens
SOPHIA
In Athens they tell of a house nobody would rent, because a ghost in chains walked there at night. The philosopher Athenodorus rented it cheaply, sat up writing, followed the ghost, and had the ground dug where it vanished. Bones were found and properly buried, and the house was never haunted again.
PHILO
A ghost-hunter with a writing tablet! Fear made the house cheap; reason made it a home again.
MARCOS
And somebody will always try to make money in the space between the two.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| arguably, it could be argued that | hedging a claim | Arguably, Thriller changed the music video for ever. |
| is widely regarded as, tends to | stance and generalisation | Halloween is widely regarded as an American export. |
| What… is / was… | wh- cleft for focus | What made it unique was its length. |
| It is / was… who / that… | it-cleft for focus | It was Carpenter who made the date a genre. |
| commercialisation, distortion, popularity | nominalisation | The commercialisation of Halloween accelerated after 1945. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Who performs the spoken passage in “Thriller”?
2. How does “Werewolves of London” present the werewolf?
3. Who directed the “Thriller” short film?
4. Who brought Halloween to America?
5. Which film turned the date itself into a horror genre?
6. What happened to the “Thriller” video in 2009?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. Thriller is the most influential music video ever made. (argue: adverb)
8. It could be that horror films reflect the anxieties of their time.
9. In my view, made Thriller unique was its length.
10. It was John Carpenter turned the date into a genre.
11. The of Halloween accelerated after 1945. (commercialise)
12. Halloween is widely as an American export. (regard)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “What made the film frightening it was the music.”
14. “It was in 1978 that Halloween became a genre.”
15. “Arguably, it is undoubtedly the best horror film ever made.”
16. “The commercialisation of the festival has been widely criticised.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Debate. “Halloween in Europe is a cultural import that should be resisted.” Argue for or against, using hedges and cleft sentences: What worries me is… It could be argued that…
Discuss. 1. Why do people enjoy being frightened? 2. Which horror film or story has frightened you most, and why? 3. Is commercialisation always the death of a tradition?
Write (250–300 words). Review essay. Write a short critical essay on one horror film, song or Halloween custom: what it shows about the fears of its time, and how it has been sold. Use at least three hedges, two cleft sentences and five nominalisations.
Now play the gamebook: a haunted house, and a merchant who sells fear.Play the gamebook →