It would be fought here, in our present.
Stripped of its dialogue, sound effects and music, can the sequence still communicate its message?
WatchThe Terminators opening again without sound, and youll see just how effective and lean its visual storytelling is.
We watch as the T-800 pulls up on a road where children are playing in the sunshine.
The shot also symbolises how effectivelyThe Terminatorplays with the conventions of the slasher horror genre.
My contemporaries were all doing slasher-horror movies, Cameron said.
John Carpenter was the guy I idolised the most.
He madeHalloweenfor $30,000 or something.
That was everyones break-in dream, to do a stylish horror movie.
It was a very slasher film jot down image.
And it really was the launching pad for the story.
Its casual murder of a gunshop owner (played by the great Dick Miller).
And most of all, that perfect shot: the Terminators face.
Human yet somehow inhuman.
Handsome yet also cold.
Its the face of a being that cant be reasoned with.
That doesnt feel pity, or remorse, or fear.
That will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
