JW - Deconstruction of 'Scream'

- Directed by Wes Craven in 1996.
- Had a budget of $15mil and made $103mil in the USA and $161mil worldwide.

Opening Scene (Ends after 12mins 29secs) - this is one of the most significant and recognisable horror/slasher movies ever made. It is a film our coursework will be very much based on, it's the classic slasher story. Blonde girl (scream queen) alone in her upper class home, gets a mysterious call, and despite her best efforts, she dies a gruesome death. Our coursework piece is very similar to this, although we'll only have two minutes to reach the conclusion of our opening scene (unless we're planning to leave it on a cliffhanger (narrative enigma)), we can take many clues and observations from this film.



The still pictured above is of Drew Barrymore, who is the main character in the opening. She is loosely the type of girl we want to star in our coursework, blonde, attractive and in utter despair
The opening scene is pure genius for many, many reasons. Firstly, it's simplicity, very little actually goes on until the killer kills her boyfriend, and then throws a chair through the door, it's just following a very eery conversation and the audience, has a very good idea about what is going to happen to the poor woman. Secondly, the way the popcorn acts as a 'clock' for the opening scene. It goes from normal and quite easily, to absolutely crazy, just as the scene does, it's a very clever piece of cinema.
There is no notable editing or special effects in this scene, which just contributes to the simplicity of it. The mise-en-scene is also rather basic, but yet it's brilliant. The isolation and loneliness of the house helps to signify to the audience just how this girl has no immediate means of help.

This is the opening scene to 'Scream':