Textual Ananlysis of the Opening Sequences to Scream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFCStOMqpfk

How Far Does the Opening Sequence to Scream Embody Much of the Horror Genre?

Horror movies are films that strive to exploit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from its viewers. The plots often involve themes of dearth, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain. Some horror films incorporate elements of the other genres such as, science fiction, fantasy, mockumentary, black comedy and thriller.

Scream, a horror movie which was released in the UK in 1997, was directed by Wes Craven. The beginning sets the motion for the rest of the film; it makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and lets the audience know that anything is possible in this film.

This film uses several horror movie conventions in just the first opening scenes. The house’s scenes are set in is isolated, and “…out in the middle of no-where…” which we hear the villain on the phone say. It is a white house, surrounded by trees, which get to see in an establishing shot, after we view a glimpse of the inside. The darkness of the night and the shadows cast by the trees sets a contrast of the white of the house, a connotation of good and evil.

The inside of the house starts lit up, the walls are white, a back drop for shadows, the rooms are open and there are no doors for the victim to open or close. Shadows are often used in horror movies, because they are often the stem of a child’s bad dream, which frequently turns out to be the shadows cast on a wall, shadows have a way of tricking the eye, and seeming to be something they are not.

The light in the house, there are lamps, and light coming from the television, creating a dim, half light which is often used in horror movies to make the audience feel uneasy because it is not dark enough not to see what is happening, this is also the light which most shadows look more eerie.

It starts off with the phone ringing, the stereo typical blonde teen girl and home alone, played by Drew Barrymore, and answers the cord phone. Telling him it is the wrong number and to have good night. When she walks through to the kitchen and the phone rings again, she picks up a cordless phone, giving her the freedom to walk around the house.

The girl is clearly comfortable in her own house, she is making popcorn, and wearing ‘comfy’ clothes, a big white jumper and pale trousers, and she is bare foot which is further symbolisation of her innocence in the scenario.

As she is on the phone talking to what we know is the killer, but she is yet to find this out, she reveals that she is about to watch a scary movie, he asks which one is her favourite and she describes the horror movie Halloween, where the guy in the white mask stalks baby sitters. This is ironic as her situation is about to become very similar. In this scene she is seen to be leaning on the kitchen counter, after putting the popcorn on the stove, playing with the block of knives as she talks. The knives are in the foreground, and she is central focus, the way she is playing with them is also ironic because later these knives then become the weapon used against her.

The camera follows her as she walks around the house, she is the main focus, and the camera barely moves from her, or from a mid-close up shot of her head and shoulders.

The sound is diegetic, sounds of the popcorn cooking, her walking and the sound of the dialogue. This changes when the voice on the phone asks for her name, she asks why he wants to know and he replies “Because I want to know who I’m looking at…” this is when the music begins to play in, because this is when the girl suddenly realises she could be in danger. The music used is eerie and similar to music used in the horror movie Halloween, creepy eerie music is something an audience expects from a horror, it helps the viewer predict when something is going to happen, and it creates a good deal of suspense and atmosphere.

She tries to be calm about it, turning on the patio light and looking out, and then locking the door as she tells him she has to go. As the phone rings again, his tone is harsher, but she hangs up on him again. The next time the phone rings she is back in the kitchen where the popcorn is beginning to burn and pop loudly. He is angrier and shouts at her, the popcorn is a time line for the action, as it burns and grows so does the action and tension.

Each time the phone rings, Casey jumps out of her skin, giving away the fact that the mysterious caller is getting to her, she starts off the film walking comfortably and confidently, but as the situation gets worse her movements become erratic and she tries to hide herself away a lot. She covers her face with her hands, and pulls the sleeves of her jumper over her wrists in a protective way. She is wearing pale clothes and is bare footed, which represents her innocence in the storyline, this is also a clue to whether she will survive or not, because she is too vulnerable she is not the ‘survivor’.

When she is answering the questions, and she answers correctly she jumps up hopefully, from her crouching position, and then after she sees her boyfriend killed on the patio, she returns to her foetus like placing.

When the killer eventually catches up with her, and she tries to run away through the back garden the killer is behind her, looking much bigger than he should in the perspective, a camera angle called the ‘Dutch tilt’ is used to disorientate the audience, as the scene is tilted slightly, sort of reminiscent of the villains lair in Adam West’s Batman series of the 1960’s, which was always slanted on the screen.

Typically contrasted to her pale, practically white outfit, the killer is in a black cloak and is masked. This is a connotation to the old ‘Good Vs Evil’ good being white, evil being black.

As she tries to out run the pursuit, with the phone still in her hand, the killer with the knife, we see a car in the distance coming towards the house, this does not ignite any false security within the audience because we have already learnt earlier on that they are in the middle of no-where, not even the police will get there on time. The audience is left with a glimmer of hope, as the killer makes his first blow, her parents make it to the door step, all is needed is a turn of their heads to see the scenario. What is ironic about the situation, and that first stab, is that screaming is usual convention used in a horror movie, but the killer prevents the prey from doing so in this first killing, she can not scream for her parent’s attention, leaving her helpless.

As the killer makes her life final, she pulls his mask from him, only to reveal it to herself, the audience obviously do not know who it is, this is a silence witness, and the only person who can help the case is now dead.

This killing is replayed twice in the sequence first when the audience sees it, and secondly when her parents listen to it on the corded phone inside the house. This is not the only postmodern reference in this opening sequence.

This is a postmodern horror, the well known actress gets killed off first, making the audience feel uncomfortable and recognise that anything is possible. Another way this film can be shown as postmodern is that it is deliberately filled with conventions and dramatic irony. The audience can see it coming because they’ve seen it before in other films, but the pastiche of other cult horror movies is only subtle in this first opening sequence.

Apart from when she is talking about the horror movies and her situation becomes similar to that of the film she is talking about.

At first I was unable to properly watch the opening sequence, which of course is the intention of the film, it scared me knowing that we do read about serial killers in the news and hear stories about it , so the knowledge that this was in some way plausible. Even watching it a fifth and sixth time I was not comfortable with seeing it, but the sequence sets the audience up for the rest of the film, will it be the same or worse, and who done it, these question are the ones the opening sequence puts upon its audience, these are the questions that spark the audience to watch, the needing to know more.

This opening sequence is easily one of the most memorable opening sequences to a film; it embodies conventions of horror film intentionally, focussing on the isolated house, and the innocent blonde, with her ‘jock’ boyfriend, the dim lighting, the suspense, the weapons, the blood, the murder, the chase, the gore and of course the screaming.