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| Fig. 1. Scream (1996) |
Scream, directed by Wes Craven, was released in 1996. It focusses on Sidney Prescott, a student at high school in a fictional town in California called Woodsboro. A killer, known as Ghost Face, targets Sidney inflicting gruesome deaths on those around him as the film unfolds.
Characters in the film make reference to real life people, which creates a direct link between the audience and the characters, creating more of an atmosphere of them being in a real and normal environment. The creation of a normal environment that is close to what an audience can associate with is a classic element of a horror film which will then seek to violate that sense of comfort and normality.
The characters also analyse the motivation of other fictional horror characters such as Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter during the course of the film. This had not been done previously in films of this type.
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| Fig. 2. Friday the 13th (1980) |
The film Mocks the stereotypical horror slasher movie such as Friday the 13th where characters within the film meet spectacularly gruesome deaths. The writing provides genuine suspense where the audience are taken to the edges of their seats waiting for the inevitable, punctuated with elements of humour and, at times, slapstick. The combination of horror and comedy was not something an audience was familiar with at the time of release and, arguably, the incorporation of humour widened the potential audience considerably.
As well as mocking the classic format of a horror film, Scream also incorporates and mocks elements of a classic ‘whodunnit’ type film.
The writer, Kevin Williamson, has also been involved in writing productions such as The Vampire Diaries which also display very specific post-modern themes.
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Fig. 1. Scream (1996) [Poster] At: http://cdn.bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/scream-poster.jpg
Fig. 2. Friday the 13th (1980) [Poster] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Friday_the_13th_(1980)_theatrical_poster.jpg
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