AS Media - Genre Dconstruction - Horror - Scream

The brief:


- To deconstruct a film opening in the same genre as our planned film opening
Analyse the use of:
- Genre conventions
- Location/Setting
- Plot/Narrative (Scene opening)
- Props/Costume

Scream is considered to be a slasher film.

Conventions of a Slasher Film:

The Killer:

Every slasher has a killer. They're usually male, and their identity is often concealed either by a mask or by creative lighting and camerawork. Even if his identity is known, as in the case of Halloween's Michael Myers, he still tends to mask his face. This, combined with the fact that he's usually mute and seemingly unstoppable, heightens his ominous, threatening nature. His back story often includes a childhood trauma that turned him into the homicidal maniac he is, thus creating a level of sympathy in the viewer. Throughout a franchise like Friday the 13th, heroes come and go, but the killer is constant: the iconic antihero valued for speaking softly and carrying a big machete.

The Victims:
In slashers, the victims tend to be young and attractive. They're typically high school- or college-aged adolescents who engage in vice-ridden activities: sex, alcohol, drugs, crime. Rarely does the killer pick these kids explicitly because of their misdeeds, but there is an unwritten moral code in these films that punishes bad behaviour. As nihilistic as they might seem, slasher fans like to know that the people who die somehow "deserve" it.

The Heroine:

Although slashers are often criticized for being misogynistic, they're one of the few film genres that primarily feature strong, independent female leads. The heroine is almost always a friend of the victims, but unlike them, she's virtuous. She doesn't go along with all of the sexual acts and drug usage, and if she doesn't obscurely stop her friends from bullying the geeky outcast who may someday grow into a homicidal killing machine, she at least feels really bad about it. The heroine is also known as the "final girl" because by the end of the movie, all of her friends are dead, and she's left alone to deal with the killer.

The Violence:

One thing that separates slashers from thrillers and murder mysteries is the level of violence. Slashers shift the focus of the film from such trivialities as "plot" and "character development" and instead concentrate on the killing. Storylines are basically constructed around giving the killer reason and opportunity to murder people. The deaths are violent and graphic.


Scream Opening:

Plot/Narrative

The first scenes show a clear equilibrium for the main character as she is at a place of contempt and is serene in her living. This is followed by a  disruption of this moment of peace as we hear the killer call and give threats, also he kidnaps and kills Casey Becker's boyfriend Steve. We eventually see the killer who is wearing a white ghost mask this would be seen as a conventional use of costume in slasher movies as it is a key signifier of the genre because the automatic association with mask is a lack of identity and lack of ability to identify making their connotations automatically negative which subsequently would lead to an assumption of a killer. Secondly this implies that the narrative of the story will follow to some extent Todorov's 5 stage theory (shown below) as we have already been shown an equilibrium and a  disruption to the life of the main character setting the film on a journey to create a new equilibrium.

Todorov's Theory:

The Narrative Theory

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and again equilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)

2. A disruption of that order by an event.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

Location/Setting:

The house used in the opening scenes is in a remote desolate area which is highly common of horror films as it provides the writer with the ability to have a killer who can do his killing and dirty work and be untraced as only close relatives or love interests usually find out abou the murder and that is where the investigation starts to fid the murderer and avenge the fallen victims of his time. This makes killings more discreet and less open so that there is a disparity and mystery to the killer and his intentions. It is also a very domesticated environment as the majority of the scene takes place inside the house with the exterior threat of the killer being a constant throughout. Tis also shows how Casey Becker is trapped from the beginning and the threat of death is imminent from here being inside however it is also imminent if she goes outside as the killer is out there also. This encapsulates the notion of imminent death within a murder situation perfectly as the victim is trapped and has no control over her pre determined fate.

Props/Costume:

All of the props used are very common of the domestic environment such as pots, pans, furniture and other miscellaneous items that would be found there. This is common of horror movies as most of them are quite modernised and take place on earth this shows the initial conformity of scream as a movie. The costumes are also modernised except for the killer who wears a mask which is highly conventional of the slasher sub genre as it hides the identity of the killer from both the audience ad the victims/character so the investigation as it unfolds becomes an uncovering whereby both the audience and the characters on screen are finding out piece by piece about the killer. This plays on the fear of the unknown which is a primal instinct that we have that s embedded within our species which helps it to both create suspense and fear and to conform to the conventions of a slasher movie.



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