Scream (1996)

Scream is a 1996 American slasher film. Scream managed to incorporate several horror films in it which include: Halloween, A Nightmare On Elm Street, When A Stranger Calls, Prom Night and Friday The 13th. Scream was written by Kevin Williamson who had a childhood love for horror, this is evident by the amount of other horror films he mentioned in the film. Scream is based partly on the real-life case of the Gainesville Ripper. Visual effects were used on several different scenes of the film to make for a better horror film and make the scenes look more realistic. The visual effects allowed scenes such as Casey hanging from the tree even look possible. The poster shows Casey the main girl in the beginning of the film which gave the audience the impression that she would probably survive the movie and be the final girl but that wasn't the case. 











Ghostface: "Do you like scary movies?"
Sidney: "What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. 
It's insulting."-- This is Ghostface and Sidney's first encounter in Scream and shows the clique of what typically happens in horror films. Sidney is the main heroine and protagonist of the movie and ends up surviving by destroying the killer. She's in all scream sequels and still ends up being the final girl as she defeats all the killers. Scream plays on the typical conventions of horror and this is what made the film so successful as the characters in the film acknowledged what normally happens in horror films. 

Randy explains the rules of horror films and what happens to people who abide by those rules. 
He explains the rules to successfully survive a horror movie: 
You may not survive the movie if you have sex
You may not survive the movie if you drink or do drugs 
You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back", "Hello" or "Who's there?". 
The second rule appeared to be accurate when right after Sidney had sex with her boyfriend, Ghostface entered and stabbed Sidney's boyfriend multiple time. In most horror films, when those rules are broken they end with dire consequences. Saying "I'll be right back" foreshadows the fact that the character won't come back and the audience anticipates this to happen which is what was Randy was highlighting in the film. In one scene of Scream, Randy yells at the movie telling the character on the screen to look behind him, unaware that Ghostface was behind him. This was done purposefully to show the naivety with some characters and demonstrate Randy taking the mick out of his own life as he was basically the same as the boy in the movie he was watching. The last rule applies as the characters who are defiant and rebellious in horror films are usually the ones who get killed off. 

The opening scene of Scream was one of the best opening scenes of a horror film in this time period. Casey discusses horror movies, sequels and participates in a trivia with the killer on the phone. The audience feels as though she is the main character of the film as she was the first character to appear on screen, it was effective in killing her off early as this was reminiscent of Marion Crane from Psycho as she was the main lead but got killed early. There are clear comparisons to Psycho such as Billy from Scream's surname is Loomis which was the same as Marion's lover in Psycho. Billy Loomis quotes Norman Bates in the film by saying: "We all go a little mad sometimes", it's clear that Billy is the Psycho in this film as he's revealed to be one of the killers.

In my opinion Scream (1996) was a very good movie. There were several elements of horror in it and a lot of blood which made the film more gory than some other horror films prior to scream which tried to keep blood minimal to make the audience feel as though they've seen more than they actually did. It was a good development of the slasher horror and the film was clever in all the different shot types and killings used to make the film live up to the horror genre. I liked the idea of the characters in the film being able to mention what typically happens in horrors, it played up to the clique and at times the film managed to subvert from a typical horror but at the same time several scenes conformed to a typical horror film.