Scream (1996)
Scream was the first movie of an on going franchise of films,
totalling at 4 as of 2011. ‘scream’ , the original, was released December 18th,
1996 being directed by wes craven, produced by Cathy Konrad and Cary Woods. On
its week of release, the film had a total box office of $6,354,586. Due to the
films growing popularity, it was re-released on April 11th 1997, and
accrued a further $16.2 million.
The 5:16 opening scene begins with a black screen, with the
abrupt appearance of the self-title ‘scream’. The colours are flashing red,
white, and black, this gives the audience to connotation of the title
representing police lights, this right off the top sets the mood for the fest
of the film being a dark horror like film as police cars are usually
connotative to crime scenes. Another one of the main points that can be drawn
from the title will be the sound. As the title pulsates read, there’s the sound
of a heartbeat which is growing progressively more regular, up to the point
where there’s a loud bang; followed by a scream, and at this point the title
becomes all red and still. The audience can use past imagery from similar films
to imagine the scene, which is connotative of the genre. This also represent
the sub genre in the fact it shows it’s a slasher horror in the way that the
mise en scène represents that someone has just been killed.
Following the tense opening scene, we are presented a mid
shot of a young woman, seemingly aged around 20, stood in the living room when
her phone begins to ring. The lighting in the room is low key with dramatic
lighting on various points, which helps to set an eerie tone for the rest of
the movie. The sound of the room is diegetic and almost completely silent which
helps with the dramatic feel when the phone begins to ring. Upon answering the
phone, the conversation is somewhat strange where the person on the other line
has a deep croaky voice in which he follows with the line “who is this?”
Following this line, he continues asking other questions, and when the main
character puts down the phone, the bellowing sound of the phone rings again.
This helps the film to set a mysterious tone to the audience, as the audience
at this point have no idea who is on the other line, but they know its
dangerous in the way the sound is echoing and the main character become
understandable worried.
Fitting in with the codes and conventions of the horror film
genre, were presented with an extreme long shot from outside the house where
the character is in. this connotates to the audience that the person who was on
the phone is outside the house watching. This shot also shows the ain character
in a more vulnerable state as it shows how easy it is for anyone who is outside
to begin an attack.
By having the main character as a female, this creates more
of a vulnerable ideology as the stereotype of a female in a horror film is that
the commonly have a lack of self-defence and are usually the first to be
killed. This makes the audience see the character as more vulnerable,
connotating to the genre with the main character appearing helpless while the
‘killer’ stalks the character like a lion hunting a deer, before lunging in to
the attack.
After a number of other phone calls from the mystery
character, we’re presented with the line “I want to know who I’m looking at”
which makes it clear to the audience the mystery character is in fact outside
the house like we were able to foreshadow earlier from the extreme long shot
from outside the house. As soon as this line is spoken, a non-diegetic sound
begins to quietly play in the film, which progresses in volume through out the
rest of the opening scene.
The majority of the second part of the opening consists of
establishing the location through the use of tracking shots of the main
character as she runs from room to room. While the audience is presented with a
new frantic mood, the lighting becomes moor low key, while at the same time the
non diegetic music becomes more fast pace. This all fits in with the codes and
conventions of a slasher horror, and the ideology for the viewer would be that
in a matter of minutes that main character comes to be killed.
While the tracking shots are establishing the location, it
gives the viewers more of an insight to the background of the character. The
character appears to be fairly rich in a large white house. This fits the
stereotype people have for slasher horror, being a rich, young, white American
who appears helpless with a lack of self defence.
