Textual Analysis of Scream

How can you spot/tell that this is a horror film? (Mise-en-Scene)

• Isolated location, remote house. Nobody is near her to help. Adds to suspense.
• Dark lighting, Night time, horror films normally start at night. Lighting changes deliberately as the events take a turn for the worse seeing her husband being killed.
• Alone in a big house, lots of windows shows she’s more vulnerable as she’s being watched.
• make-up: she is covered in blood
• There are knives in the kitchen, and the phone used to call the killer. Popcorn put on the stove at the beginning of the film foreshadows something bad will happen, as the popcorn bubbles and starts to burn she dies. The popcorn represents her life.
• Beginning of the film, women is on her own wearing innocent colours (white), juxtaposition to the killer in the dark black cloak with the mask, sinister. She has blonde hair and women with blonde hair are stereotypical to be vulnerable making her the victim.

The first thing that we see in the opening sequence of Scream is the Victim, and we can instantly gather that she is portraying the character of the ‘dumb blonde’ who is innocent and clumsy. We can also see mise-en-scene being used in the first scene as we notice that the girl is in a bright house, this contrasts to the outside which is very dark and is set at night time, the juxtaposition in light and dark represents the two characters of the villain and victim to be good and evil and to show the danger that the girl is getting herself into. The outside is presented through mise-en-scene. For example, the tree which is focused on is used to foreshadow her death.

Through the use of editing, we are shown that there is a match of action of her picking up her phone, this could emphasise her naivety and vulnerability and therefore enhancing the idea of her being a stereotypical character of being innocent and clumsy. Also, the slow pace music alongside the tracking shot gives us the effect that she is being followed, and also signifies that somebody is watching her, again adding tension to the scene.

With the tracking shot, the camera slowly tilts down, and by doing this we are aware that there is a villain present. The camera also uses a zoom into a medium close up to highlight the characters innocence as it presents to the audience to focus on her blonde hair and clean, pale coloured clothes, which also emphasise how stereotyped the character is.

          

Sound is also used throughout the opening sequence of scream, and this is done to add effect to the scene. Immediately in the opening sequence we hear both diegetic and non diegetic sound from her heartbeat  which is created from a slow paced drum beat and from the phone ringing, helping to create suspense which is typical for a horror film. Furthermore, A diegetic sound of crickets are used to signify that they are in an isolated location, and the sound of a dog barking connotes that there is danger lurking.