Scream Clip

This essay will explore the different elements of film language and the effects it creates on the audience in the movie ‘Scream’ such as low lighting to create an eerie atmosphere.

The beginning of the scene uses low key lighting as it’s following the horror genre convention and creating enigma codes. The girl Casey who plays the victim uses the phone as the main prop to communicate with the unidentified killer. Another way which the killer is unidentified is through his clothes he wear a long black cloth and a white mask (and carries a knife which connotes death) so his identity isn’t revealed and at the same time it follows through with the conventions. The shots used are close-ups to draw attention to the protagonist’s facial expression which the audience identify with as scared and worried for the safety of herself and her boyfriend who is tied up outside. Her body language also shows this as she crouches down into the corner of the room. The director Wes Craven uses non diegetic sound to slowly build up the tension as she has to play along with the killer and if she gets the question wrong her boyfriend dies which he does and also there’s non diegetic sound coming from the characters’ speech.

The camera slowly pans into her as she’s answering the question which determines whether Steve lives or not. The effect of the pan is to show that she’s under pressure. When she stands up and look out a point of view shot is used as she’s looking to see where this ambiguous person is. When she gives the wrong answer they use a jump cut and show Steve with his guts out and the music accompanied with this is parallel as it’s quite dramatic and sinister. It then has long shot used of him dead and has a reverse shot of Casey facial expression where she’s shocked and crying. The prop she grabs is an envelope opener to use as a weapon to protect her. Diegetic sound is used when the window smashes as a chair is thrown into it and a high angle shot is used to make her seem small and powerless as she’s backed into a corner. Tracking is used when she runs to the kitchen in terror and this creates chaos.

The music as this point is quite loud and parallel. She then grabs a knife as a prop and slowly moves back in anticipation. It cuts to the masked killer looking around for her and then has a reverse shot to show the panic on her face. When she lets herself out and waits by the door clinging onto the phone her body language shows she’s afraid. The music builds up suspense and as she peeks to see where the masked figure is which is shown by a point of view shot & the music turns dramatic to make the audience excited. It then has a jump cut to a long shot of a car approaching in the distance. The audience hopes this is the new equilibrium where she will manage to escape. It then has a close-up of her crawling and then it keeps cutting to the car to raise enigma codes and makes keeps the audience in suspense as they wonder will she escape or not.

Dramatic irony is used as Casey slowly looks up to see where her killer is and the audience know that he’s going to be there and music intensifies to build up the suspense as she about to look. The masked person suddenly turns around and diegetic sound is used when she screams and he breaks the window and grabs her wrist but she punches him. It then has a long shot of her running and this is so the audience can see if the killer is coming. She runs and she sees her parents’ car parking up so she look relieved but then he jumps through the window suddenly which is unexpected. The diegetic sound is the window breaking and the camera is positioned behind the villain to show he has the power and the innocent girl as they both fall to the ground. The camera shot changes to a long shot and the two characters are positioned in the middle of the frame as she is being chased.

The parallel music turns dramatic and goes a bit slow as it goes into slow motion when he captures her and slowly brings the knife up in the air and stabs her in her chest. As she drops to the ground the camera is looking down on her so it’s the point of view from the killer and the makeup used is blood to show she’s injured. After he strangles her in a close-up and she kicks him the camera is upside down showing that she’s looking for help and she can see her parents nearby. The framing of camera is that so you can still see the killer in the background. As she gets up and walks lifelessly towards her door the camera is behind her suggesting that he’s still following her. Tracking is used to demonstrate this. It has both diegetic and non diegetic at the same time. The non diegetic is to create sympathy and hope that she can make it in time and the diegetic opposes the hope as her parents don’t notice her.

It has a point of view shot used at the same time as reverse as she’s calling her mother in a limp lifeless voice the killer comes from the side of the frame and as the door is closed the music intensifies again with a medium shot as she turns around to see her killer in her sight coming towards her with the knife. Just as when he’s about to stab her again she takes the mask of to reveal the identity but the audience don’t know and the music become dramatic as her facial expression hints that she knows them. A sound bridge is used as he stabs her for the final time it jumpcuts to her father calling her and the fire alarm going off which her mother runs to to sort out and the music becomes dramatic again as there is fire in the kitchen but Casey is nowhere to be seen.

To conclude horror genres tend to use quite a lot of cuts to create chaos and they use parallel music to build suspense in order to shock the audience. It wouldn’t be as effective and scary without sound and the victim is portrayed as hopeless in the efforts of getting away from the villian.