Scream Opening Analysis

The Horror film Scream, starts with the camera presenting the key element in the sequence, the phone. While the camera shows a close-up of the phone, there is loud music representing a heartbeat that progressively gets louder and louder. This builds up an uncertain & tense atmosphere as well as a sense of fear.  The music tells the audience to be fearful of what is to come and also creates emotion for us.

 

The Mise-en-Scene shows that the house is in an isolated location, far away from any other houses or public areas. This creates an unnerving environment and makes the woman an easy target straight away. This is shown through a crane shot, which looks at the house from a far and then zooms in to show the signs of isolation. We see that the house is located in a woodland and is deserted, making everything that happens much more intense.

The main woman in the film from the first clip is blonde. From this we can stereotypically infer that she is the damsel in distress. Within the scene, the blonde haired girl plays with knives whilst on the phone to the man. The act of playing with knives foreshadows the violence that will soon take place later on in the clip. It is also seen that she is highly vulnerable as she is unaccompanied at night in a secluded location.

At the beginning, the house is lit up and this shows how at this point in time, there was no fear at this point. Within the scene, the camera follows the girl using a tracking shot and when doing so, zooms in to emphasise the fear on her face when she realises she may be in serious danger. When the realisation kicks in, the music and sounds become louder, such as the popcorn. This builds up more tension and makes the audience fearful and scared.