Scream
For an opening title sequence I have looked at Wes Craven’s Scream. The
film was released in 1997 and was different from the other slasher films, which were
known to be boring because they were predictable and funny as the ways
that people died were not at all scary, but hilarious. So Craven came along and
made it scary by making a slasher film that was different to the ones that
were coming out. He did this because he wanted to bring back horror to the
slasher genre. Some of the ways that he did this was by exploiting everyday
objects to scare the audience.
The first thing in the opening in the opening of the film that stands out as scary is the title of the film. When the title appears it is white, to show innocence. Then there is a slashing noise and the tile goes red – to show someone has died. The colour red also has the connotations of blood and danger, which can give an insight to the film. As the title goes red you can hear screaming, then the screaming goes into a sound bridge into the phone call. The impact on the audience would be that they know that the girl who picks up the phone may be in danger and could possibly die. They would not know how she is going to die, but from the title they would know she may die from a knife, typical to the slasher movie genre.
For the Mise-en-scene the house was in an isolated area with fields around it. This gives the audience the impact of isolation and if there is danger, help would be a long way away. The house is white to represent the innocence of the people inside and fields around the house to show that there’s nowhere to run if something happens. In the opening, to support this point, the killer says down the phone to Casey “the police won’t come in time”- which would frighten Casey not to phone the police and make her feel helpless.
Another aspect of Mise-en-scene is the knives. When Casey is on the phone, you can see kitchen knives in the foreground on the table she’s leaning on. This helps the audience to see that they are important. When she takes one you can clearly hear the knife being brandished and this sound has been clearly enhanced to give the audience the impression of danger and that it is sharp. The knife can also be a weapon used by the killer, which is important because this is the main weapon used throughout the film. The audience would have knives in their kitchen, so to see one being used to murder someone could make them scared or worried as it is something that is within the realm of possibility and real life. They could get the feeling that this could happen to them making the actions within the scene more shocking and scary.
My last object for the Mise-en-scene is the phone. It is an ordinary object most homes had when it was released, which was turned into a scary object by the way it was used in the film. This was the method the killer used to contact Casey and this was scary, because she could not see who she was talking to or figure out if it was a joke or not. The audience after watching this opening would get worried about who’s calling them, just in case someone is trying to kill them. The fact that the phone was hung up and rang back several times in the scene helped the audience associate the sound of a ringing phone with danger.
At the start of the film the lighting is high key to show everything is alright. The lighting changes when the killer says down the phone “so I know who I'm looking at”. At that point Casey knows that she is not alone and starts to panic. Then the lighting changes to low key when Casey starts turning off the lights to restrict the killer’s vision and give the impression no one’s home. In the film they use a spot light on Steve when he’s on the patio. This creates a shock effect amongst the audience, because the light just comes on suddenly in the dark. The film also uses a spotlight to focus on Casey when she’s hanging in the tree.
At the start of the film the pace is quiet slow, because nothing much has happened yet. The pace only quickens when Casey realises that she is not alone. The pace quickens because Casey is starting to get scared, worried and panicked. The audience would also start to feel scared, because everything has changed. They would start to fear about what’s going to happen next. Pace of the film could represent the pace of her heart rate as she becomes more scared in the scene.
The mid shot in the film is used when Casey is on the phone. You can see her facial reactions as well as what’s she’s holding. Through out Casey’s phone call the mid shot is important, because it highlights the face for expression but also we can see what she does to protect herself. (For example, if she grabs a knife.)
The long shot is used throughout the opening, but it is very effective at the end when Casey is hanging from the tree. It feels like we are watching from the parent’s point-of-view at her. This shot creates tension, because it is the second murder we see but we have followed this murder through. We did not follow Steve’s murder through, we just see him on the patio and we don’t know how he ended up there because he’s not our main focus of the scene, he’s just used as a method of making Casey’s death more scary. We do know how Casey ended up getting murdered.
In the film there was a point-of-view shot of Casey's hand covered in blood, pulling off her killer's mask. Then she knows who her killer is, but the audience does not which creates mystery and tension throughout the film. As Casey pulls off the mask the shot goes up to a high angle shot of the killer’s knife, covered in blood. The shot stays at that high angle as the knife is brought down to paralyse Casey. She was not dead, because when her mum picked up the phone, she could hear Casey breathing.
The sound is very important. Three of the diegetic sounds you hear are: popcorn cooking, dog barking and the killer’s voice. When Casey is on the phone she puts some popcorn on the stove to cook. Throughout the film it shows the popcorn cooking and as the pace quickens, the cooking of the popcorn quickens as well. When Casey is about to be killed the popcorn is on fire.
When the killer says down the phone “so I know who I’m looking at” you can hear a dog barking in the background. Dogs only bark when they detect people moving, so that means the killer was moving round to the back of the house- to show that Casey is really not alone. The dog barking is a diegetic sound.
My last sound is the killer’s voice. He has got a false voice when he’s talking down the phone, because then it gives it more of a mystery of who he is. When Casey realised that she is not alone the killer uses a threatening voice that is creepy and sinister to get her to do what he wants, so Casey gets scared of who’s on the other side of the phone. The killer uses a mocking voice when he’s trying to get Casey to answer his questions, so he’s trying to make a joke out of her. The killer’s voice is a diegetic sound.
The opening scene also relies on an important use of non-diegetic sound from the music. Throughout the scene there is a use of high pitch violins to help build suspense and tension with the audience. This sound is commonly used in horror films therefore the audience will be aware that something bad will happen.
In conclusion Wes Craven made a scary opening for Scream. It may not be as scary now as when it was released, because we are used to scary films and many things in that film are not that scary. When it was released not many people had mobile phones, so having an opening based on a mobile phone was scary for them (also before Craven made Scream, slasher films were boring or funny. So having a scary slasher film would have scared the audience). If all of Craven’s films had an opening with at least one or two deaths in to get the audience hooked to the film, they would want to watch the rest. Then his other films would have been as successful as this film.
The first thing in the opening in the opening of the film that stands out as scary is the title of the film. When the title appears it is white, to show innocence. Then there is a slashing noise and the tile goes red – to show someone has died. The colour red also has the connotations of blood and danger, which can give an insight to the film. As the title goes red you can hear screaming, then the screaming goes into a sound bridge into the phone call. The impact on the audience would be that they know that the girl who picks up the phone may be in danger and could possibly die. They would not know how she is going to die, but from the title they would know she may die from a knife, typical to the slasher movie genre.
For the Mise-en-scene the house was in an isolated area with fields around it. This gives the audience the impact of isolation and if there is danger, help would be a long way away. The house is white to represent the innocence of the people inside and fields around the house to show that there’s nowhere to run if something happens. In the opening, to support this point, the killer says down the phone to Casey “the police won’t come in time”- which would frighten Casey not to phone the police and make her feel helpless.
Another aspect of Mise-en-scene is the knives. When Casey is on the phone, you can see kitchen knives in the foreground on the table she’s leaning on. This helps the audience to see that they are important. When she takes one you can clearly hear the knife being brandished and this sound has been clearly enhanced to give the audience the impression of danger and that it is sharp. The knife can also be a weapon used by the killer, which is important because this is the main weapon used throughout the film. The audience would have knives in their kitchen, so to see one being used to murder someone could make them scared or worried as it is something that is within the realm of possibility and real life. They could get the feeling that this could happen to them making the actions within the scene more shocking and scary.
My last object for the Mise-en-scene is the phone. It is an ordinary object most homes had when it was released, which was turned into a scary object by the way it was used in the film. This was the method the killer used to contact Casey and this was scary, because she could not see who she was talking to or figure out if it was a joke or not. The audience after watching this opening would get worried about who’s calling them, just in case someone is trying to kill them. The fact that the phone was hung up and rang back several times in the scene helped the audience associate the sound of a ringing phone with danger.
At the start of the film the lighting is high key to show everything is alright. The lighting changes when the killer says down the phone “so I know who I'm looking at”. At that point Casey knows that she is not alone and starts to panic. Then the lighting changes to low key when Casey starts turning off the lights to restrict the killer’s vision and give the impression no one’s home. In the film they use a spot light on Steve when he’s on the patio. This creates a shock effect amongst the audience, because the light just comes on suddenly in the dark. The film also uses a spotlight to focus on Casey when she’s hanging in the tree.
At the start of the film the pace is quiet slow, because nothing much has happened yet. The pace only quickens when Casey realises that she is not alone. The pace quickens because Casey is starting to get scared, worried and panicked. The audience would also start to feel scared, because everything has changed. They would start to fear about what’s going to happen next. Pace of the film could represent the pace of her heart rate as she becomes more scared in the scene.
The mid shot in the film is used when Casey is on the phone. You can see her facial reactions as well as what’s she’s holding. Through out Casey’s phone call the mid shot is important, because it highlights the face for expression but also we can see what she does to protect herself. (For example, if she grabs a knife.)
The long shot is used throughout the opening, but it is very effective at the end when Casey is hanging from the tree. It feels like we are watching from the parent’s point-of-view at her. This shot creates tension, because it is the second murder we see but we have followed this murder through. We did not follow Steve’s murder through, we just see him on the patio and we don’t know how he ended up there because he’s not our main focus of the scene, he’s just used as a method of making Casey’s death more scary. We do know how Casey ended up getting murdered.
In the film there was a point-of-view shot of Casey's hand covered in blood, pulling off her killer's mask. Then she knows who her killer is, but the audience does not which creates mystery and tension throughout the film. As Casey pulls off the mask the shot goes up to a high angle shot of the killer’s knife, covered in blood. The shot stays at that high angle as the knife is brought down to paralyse Casey. She was not dead, because when her mum picked up the phone, she could hear Casey breathing.
The sound is very important. Three of the diegetic sounds you hear are: popcorn cooking, dog barking and the killer’s voice. When Casey is on the phone she puts some popcorn on the stove to cook. Throughout the film it shows the popcorn cooking and as the pace quickens, the cooking of the popcorn quickens as well. When Casey is about to be killed the popcorn is on fire.
When the killer says down the phone “so I know who I’m looking at” you can hear a dog barking in the background. Dogs only bark when they detect people moving, so that means the killer was moving round to the back of the house- to show that Casey is really not alone. The dog barking is a diegetic sound.
My last sound is the killer’s voice. He has got a false voice when he’s talking down the phone, because then it gives it more of a mystery of who he is. When Casey realised that she is not alone the killer uses a threatening voice that is creepy and sinister to get her to do what he wants, so Casey gets scared of who’s on the other side of the phone. The killer uses a mocking voice when he’s trying to get Casey to answer his questions, so he’s trying to make a joke out of her. The killer’s voice is a diegetic sound.
The opening scene also relies on an important use of non-diegetic sound from the music. Throughout the scene there is a use of high pitch violins to help build suspense and tension with the audience. This sound is commonly used in horror films therefore the audience will be aware that something bad will happen.
In conclusion Wes Craven made a scary opening for Scream. It may not be as scary now as when it was released, because we are used to scary films and many things in that film are not that scary. When it was released not many people had mobile phones, so having an opening based on a mobile phone was scary for them (also before Craven made Scream, slasher films were boring or funny. So having a scary slasher film would have scared the audience). If all of Craven’s films had an opening with at least one or two deaths in to get the audience hooked to the film, they would want to watch the rest. Then his other films would have been as successful as this film.
RD