Scream Opening Analysis ☮ ☮ ☮

''Scream''(1996) is a slasher horror, about a town who is traumatised and terrorised by a psychopathic killer obsessed with horror films, who viciously murders unsuspecting victims.

The first shot we see is a black screen with movie's title "Scream" in a fuzzy old fashion computer style font, with what sounds like a screaming girl in the background, a sudden slicing sound is heard and the screaming girl mutes and we hear a heart beat type sound, Showing the audience exactly what type of film this is straight away , making them anticipate whats going to happen next. The camera then shows a telephone ringing on a tidy wooden table, suggesting to the audience a respectable normal home. We then see a hand emerge picking up the phone, the camera pans up the character at an average speed setting the pace for the film for the moment to be rather relaxed. The camera reveals the character who answered the phone to be a teenage blonde "pretty" girl.

The girl is wearing a white jumper and light jeans, this suggests through the colour of her clothing that the film is trying to portray innocence through this character, The girl answers the phone and seems wise and not your typical dumb blonde, by the way she questions the unknown caller, as she doesn't reveal anything about herself, and instead tries to get the caller to reveal things about himself. As the girl puts down the phone and walks away we see in the background a rather large posh looking home suggesting that the girl comes from a wealthy family.

When the phone rings a second time although straight after she puts down the phone the first time, she answers again which makes the audience reconsider the girls intelligence as if you knew the person was an unknown caller you wouldn't answer the phone again. The caller seems to be flirting with her and she smiles, illustrating that the girl likes attention which fits to her physical stereotype.Whilst talking to the stranger the camera pans slightly around the character, no longer showing the background of her house but instead of double clear doors, immediately drawing the audiences attention outside looking to see if theres anything "scary" behind her. Though the second conversation is shorter than the first call everything seems to still be innocent and she hangs up again. Though when the girl walks out of shot the camera still focuses on the double doors, making the audience rapidly look around the screen to find something abnormal due to the long amount of time that the camera focuses on them. During this scene the camera was at an ever so slight dutch angle, giving the impression that everything may feel as though it's normal for now, but theres still something strange about what's going on.

The camera then cuts to a low angled wide shot, showing a large white house which we presume to be the teenage girls and also a dirty, old looking swing, gently swaying in the wind whilst hearing loud crickets but other than that silence giving the impression of the girl being alone due to the lack of noise, which gives an eery creepy effect. Again the camera cuts, but to a stove where the gas is turned on, making the audience have a moment to think the trouble begins, but are quickly relaxed again when we see the girl has put on popcorn, As the girl walks away, another cordless phone rings, again the girl answers but continues to move about the kitchen quickly showing she isn't concerned about the strange caller, Though you can tell a sound of irritation in her voice when she says " who is this?". Though quickly the girl continues the conversation with the caller and treats him like a friend, continuing in small talk. Making the audience believe that the girl is being to trust worthy of the caller.

The caller asks about her favourite scary movie, to which she is in front of a rack of knives, where she draws one and out and describes a "slasher" movie, causing the audience to be led on that this is a slasher type movie, due to the repetition of knife references both in sound and visual.

As the girl continues to talk to the mysterious caller, the popcorn is seen in a close up shot where it seems to be expanding, illustrating the build up of tension and leading the audience to assume that the story is building and somethings going to happen suddenly.

The camera follows the girl at a high straight angle bouncing with her as she walks , giving an unsteady mood, The lighting changes to blue projected onto the girl, due to the night shining in through many of the windows, All of the windows in the girls house are open, constantly causing the audience to pay attention to them, thinking there is something out there due to the typical cliches you get in horror films. The caller asks if she has a boyfriend, where the girl responds with "why, do you want to ask me on a date ?", fuelling the stereotype of liking attention, as she doesn't know anything about this person which also adds to the dumb blonde stereotype also.

Though the mood changes harshly when he asks for her name because he wants to know who he's looking at, The camera then shows a close up of the girl's face when he says this and we see her smile disappear, showing the fear in her face causing her to realise that she doesn't know anything about this person and things have gone weirder than they already were. We also hear a dog bark, suggesting that someone is there, as usually dogs bark when someone strange approaches or goes past.

She then rushes to the clear doors and turns on the porch light looking (like the audience did) outside for the person that she was talking to, but sees nobody there. The camera then shows the girl through the doors, with a look of fear in her face, She then says she has got to go and can see she is now uncomfortable with the situation and realises she has done wrong by continuously answering the phone, We see her lock the door which again the audience would think she would have already locked, and feeding her stereotype of being a dumb pretty blonde who is most likely to die. Just before she ends the call we here on the other line "Don't hang up on me" in a sudden aggressive voice but she's already removed the phone from her ear and hangs up.

The phone rings again and she answers telling the man to "dial someone else" We continue to see and hear the popcorn crackling and sparking, showing an almost capacity to the tension, almost exploding. The phone rings again and she still answers the phone this time immensely angry answering "Listen asshole" which was a complete different way she had answered the previous times, causing the caller to lose his temper with a sudden sharp musical note whilst also saying if she hangs up again he'll gut her like a fish, to which she responds with silence. The weird man then confirms her hair colour by calling her "blondie" and we see her sprint to all the doors in the house while the camera tracks her hastily in a medium shot, we then see the the outside of her house through small windows in her door, giving the effect of looking through her eyes, making the audience put themselves in her shoes.

We then see her in her hallway, when the doorbell rings causing her to scream and begin to hysterically cry calling "who's there?!" repeatedly, as she claims that she will call the police the phone rings again and she jumps again, answering sobbing, the presumed killer, then says she should never ask who's there as it's a "death wish" and hasn't she watched the movies,  making the audience  presume that the "killer" takes his habits from scary slasher films. The girl still crying and screaming makes empty threats that her boy friend will beat the killer up when he turns up, when she admits she is a liar for leading the caller to believe previously that she didn't have a boyfriend, making the audience lose a bit of sympathy for the girl as she was flirting with another man when she was already in a relationship, which shows in a way that she isn't all innocent and slightly deserving of the terrorising.

The caller then says, "His name wouldn't happen to be Steve would it ?" causing the girl to stop all noise and question to him how he knows his name, where the killer tells her to "turn on the patio light, again", as soon as he says this we hear a sudden beat of a drum making the audience know that the killer has done something terrible and builds the anticipation and drama whilst the girl slowly moves toward the patio to turn on the light,confirming that both he knows her boyfriend and has most likely done something to him, and that he knows that she already turned on her patio light, showing the audience that he has been watching her this whole time.