Scream analysis - Ms Begum

How is Scream a conventional thriller?

The narrative about Scream can be related or even seen as one of the many conventional thriller films due to how it first starts of innocently and then slowly starts to become more darker and builds up suspense until eventually something very dramatic happens, usually the killer makes his appearance and strikes the victim. (resume explaining and relate to scream scene here)

Sound
- The doorbell starts to ring, this in turn gives a reaction from a audience that they are expecting something to happen, this is diagetic sound as it is both sound we expect to hear and it relates to the scene as well (the killer ringing the doorbell and in turn, we hear the doorbell ring)
- The music within the scene starts to calm down as her parents are driving towards the house and then eventually parking up nearby the house, showing a sense of hope. But then the music builds up quickly as the killer jumps onto her and then a quick chase happens with very intense music, then when she is finally stabbed, the last killing blow quickly stops the music and a eery silence is then cast as the parents enter the house to find she is not inside but do not know she has just been struck down by the killer right infront of the house

Costumes
- The girl who is focused on in this scene is wearing cream/white clothing which shows she is an innocent character as white usually reflects purity
- The antagonist aka the killer, Is wearing a long black cape which reflects mystery and how he blends into the night/darkness, he also has a white mask to hide is identity which both makes us curious to who he is or/and what he looks like; adding onto the mysterious look and feel he carries

Editing
- There is a reaction shot on the girl character to show us that she saw something outside and how she has reacted to it by showing us both her body language and facial expressions
- The editing of the sound comes into effect and we as a audience can hear and see this as the part when the killer jumps through the window to get to the girl, the music starts suddenly and very loudly

Iconography & Setting
- The mask that the killer is wearing protects the antagonists identity. Conventional as the audience gains suspense to what the killer looks like and we question who he really is
- Knives in the kitchen, standard everyday tools used in cooking, but in this case the girl pulls out the knife and now from being a normal kitchen utiensil, it has now become a weapon
Narrative
- The girl picks up the phone and starts to get into a convenstation with a stranger which then she slowly loses her interest and shuts the phone, but the stranger calls her back constantly demanding her attention and gets very angry quickly when she starts constantly shutting the phone and ignoring him.
- The stranger on the phone starts to play mind games with the girl by asking her questions, but with a horrible outcome if she loses as we discover by the stranger telling her to put on the garden lights, that her boyfriend has been taken captive and is at risk of being killed if she gets the question wrong

Summary of how it has helped me understand thrillers more:
This has helped me understand the thriller genre much more, specifically in terms of using mircoelements, such as for example the use of iconography, the ability to turn everyday household objects, such as the knives in the kitchen into weapons.
More mircoelements that i have learned to be able to focus on is also costumes and how it can give us as a audience a sort of guess on what role/part the character plays as, such as the girl wearing the white sweater in Scream, as an audience we see her as a innocent character, which later in turn we also see the killer who is wearing full black clothing aside from his mask, Which also hides his identity and adds to the mystery and makes us curious to who he is or looks like behind the mask.