Scream is an iconic horror film and the opening scene is one that is remembered time and time again as a horror classic, producing the line ‘don’t answer the phone…’ The film is often perceived as structuralist because it includes all the iconography needed to make a conventional horror film.
Scream follows the codes and conventions of a horror films firstly through setting. An establishing shot portraying the isolated house is a shot often used to create a realistic setting for a horror to occur. The sound used in the opening scene is heard in many slasher films to create tension and drama. The heartbeats, screaming, knives clinking and high-pitched screeching is part of the sound formula which together with the image creates fear within the audience. The first character introduced Casey (Drew Barrymore) is conveyed as the stereotypical first victim; blonde, flirtatious and a boyfriend ‘who’s big and plays football’. Similarly conventional, the later introduced killer is wearing all black and a Halloween mask, a prop often used in horror films to conceal the identity of the killer to create a mystery in the plot. In addition, Wes Craven has used props such as knives placed on the table, to foreshadow the events about to occur. Structuralist horror films are often made to be relatable to the audience. Scream achieves this by setting the plot in a house, as well the killer contacting his victims over the phone, an object that the audience would use on a daily basis.
Almost every horror, whether structuralist or post-modern, uses discontinuous editing to create tension and a frantic atmosphere. Scream is similar in their editing, the beginning of the scene uses less noticeable editing but as the pace of the plot builds the editing becomes more discontinuous. Jump shots are used to create a pouncing motion which connotes the feeling of being attacked, emphasising the movement of the killer and creating fear and often shock in the audience.
Although the film is mostly seen as structuralist horror, there are aspects which are post-modernist. In the opening scene Casey is seen referencing other iconic horror films and the more humorous tone that brings to the scene is what makes Scream more post-modernist. Also Drew Barrymore is an A list actress and to have her killed off in the first scene was a decision most directors would have been reluctant to take.
Scream encompasses all that is seen to be a ‘horror film’. Wes Craven uses every iconography to ensure that Scream is successful in both being entertaining and scary, despite there being elements of post-modernist horror it is the structured way which he arranged these paradigms that makes Scream a structuralist horror film.
