Scream (1996)

Scream is an American Horror film directed by Wes Craven that was released in 1996. The film tells the story of the fictional town of Woodsboro, California being terrorized by a masked killer who enjoys tormenting his victims with phone calls and movie references. The killer's main target is Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), a teenage girl whose mother, Maureen, fell victim to a brutal murder one year earlier. The film takes the form of a "whodunit" mystery, with many of her friends and townspeople being fellow targets and suspects.

Drew Barrymore being terrorized by Ghostface

Scream was a box office success, grossing $173,046,663 internationally in it's 15 years and also spawning 2 sequels with a third sequel soon to be released and also a further two films in the pipeline. Scream is famed for revamping the Slasher genre, much like Halloween did in the late 70's using its standard Horror steretypes with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.

The film clearly takes notes from Hitchcocks' 'Psycho' (1960) from it's use of a maniac with a knife, to killing off one of the better known actresses in the first five minutes, which was considered very strange when Drew Barrymore's face had been a focal point of the film posters and alot of the advertising.


Opening Credits

Camera Angles

The scene starts with a close-up of a ringing telephone, which is quickly answered by Drew Barrymores' character. We then get a close up of her face as she talks to the mysterious male on the other end. We get a pan to show is the exterior of the house which then leads into a long shot from the outside of the house showing a swing set in the garden, which is gently swaying, perhaps to suggest that it is a windy night, or more likely to suggest someone has just been on/ near it. As 'Casey' becomes more frustrated and agitated by this mystery caller we follow her through her house until she stops and turns suddenly at which point we get a close-up of her face which shows fear, which allows suspense and tension to build. Other notable shots come as exterior shots, firstly we see fog in the garden, which is used to a creepy, tension building effect to suggest a dark, broody atmosphere, we also get a shot of 'Steve' tied up and bloodied which makes it evident something is about to happen.

Mise-En-Scene

The title shows up first in white on a black background, but then as we hear a gunshot becomes red which suggests blood and is more conventional with a Horror film. The location of the house is the American Suburbs, we can tell this by the exterior shots of the house used, which sets the very conventional 'girl alone in a quiet neighbourhood, in distress' situation. The girl in question, 'Casey Becker' is a very stereotypical ditzy blonde often found in Horror films, this is because Scream itself is meant to parody and make fun of the generic Horror film. 'Steve', 'Casey's' boyfriend is again a Horror stereotype being a jock, however unlike most Horror films this jock is shown as weak as he has already fallen to 'Ghostface', the unseen killer, meaning he will not be swooping in to save the damsel, which is what normally happens. While in this section 'Ghostface' is not seen, he is mentioned, all be it subtley. When asked what her favourite scary movie is, 'Casey' responds with "Halloween, you know, the one with the guy in the white mask?" This exophoric reference, while refering the Michael Myers, also refers to the antagonist of Scream.

Sound

The first three sounds we hear are a phone ring, a scream and a gunshot. The phone ringing, which starts as non-diegetic but moves to diegetic, sets the first shot of the movie, the scream clearly links with the title, and the gunshot is used to turn the title from white font to red. We also get a conversation, where as the scene goes on, one of the participants becomes distressed which is used to create suspense, also during the conversation we get a monotonus, loud drum beat as the situation becomes worse.

Editing
The only editing used in this scene really is simple cuts from shot to shot, when there is supposed to be suspense and tension the cuts are quicker than normal. There are a mix of seamless and continuity cuts used throughout the scene.