Visual Analysis
The film I have decided to look at for my initial analysis is Scream. (Wes Craven 1996) I picked this film because it is one of my favourite, and one of the most famous horror films made in recent years. This is hugely down to its original script, interesting plot and excellent acting. I decided to choose this horror film for its opening voyeuristic scene. I also like the fact that scream plays with intertextuality to bring older more unbelievable horrors such as Nightmare on Elm street and Halloween into the story turning this modern day horror into a more realistic cinema experience. These types of cross layers are types narratives, which I would like to bring to my own crime narrative.
I am concentrating on the opening sequence because this is when the main character is being stalked and watched from outside the house. I am going to focus on the camera, lighting, sound and general mise-en-scene features and how they affect the film.
The opening shot is a close up of a ringing telephone as the camera pans up to Casey (Drew Barrymore) Reaching down to answer. A mysterious mans voice, which is now iconic of horror films, speaks to the blonde. Wes craven sets the scene by showing that the girl is alone in the big secluded house. The shot cuts to outside, there is total silence accept for the chirping of crickets which emphasises the girls isolation. The camera then pans down to an empty swing, still moving slightly; this creates suspense, as the audience doesn’t know who is outside.
The house inside is lighted bright in complete contrast to the darkness outside, this is the same contrast between the evil outside and the innocent blonde girl, who one stared in E.T. The darkness also adds to her vulnerability. Back inside the house, a shot of popcorn being made adds to the scenario with loud popping noises to make you jump. The phone goes again; this is the third phone call within the space of 1 minute and 10 seconds. A tracking shot follows Casey around a kitchen island to pick up the phone, the same mans voice speaks. Casey starts chatting to the man on the phone, and become flirtatious, close up shots of Casey are used to show the conversation becoming more intimate. These close up shots are clever in seducing the viewer into feeling emotionally involved with the character; this is a technique Craven uses throughout the film especially later on with the main character Sidney (Neve Campbell).
Mise-en-scene is used to direct the audience to possible sinister events to come. Craven uses iconography of a knife to make the audience feel worried, when Casey pulls a big kitchen knife out of its block and talks about the film Halloween to the killer. This makes the audience worried as they anticipate the events to come. Another tracking shot follows Casey from behind, down a dark hallway, into the living room obstructing part of the view. This obstruction is a technique that I have tried within my own surveillance filming as its makes the audience wonder what is going on. The use of the colour blue is very strong in the next scene, from the TV screen and the swimming pool outside. The colour blue is usually associated with calmness. Soon after Casey walks into the blue lighting, the disruption begins and you realise that the caller wants more than a conversation. He asks Casey for her name, and when she asks why, he says because he wants to know who he is looking at. The camera suddenly zooms into Casey’s worried expression and some quiet percussion music begins, and starts to get louder. A dog can also be heard barking outside, which makes you think someone is outside. Low-key lighting is used on the close up of Casey to highlight terror in her face. This gets the audiences attention and music makes you feel on edge. Casey looks out to window to see if she can see anyone, Craven then cuts to a POV shot which pans across the garden through the window stopping in intervals, in a jerky movement. This suddenly makes the scene feel realistic, as if you are in Casey’s position seeing exactly what she sees. Movement of the camera plays a big part in horror/ crime films as the more erratic the camera becomes, the more tense and jumpy you feel. This is something I need to take into consideration when filming, as it is tricky to get right. The use of lighting also helps create this tense atmosphere because the POV shot looking outside is very dark, which makes it hard to see. The audience also know that it is usually dark whenever a killer appears in horror films, so this makes you concentrate on the screen harder, so that when the killer comes into shot you get a bigger scare.
The next shot cuts to a close up of Casey’s hand locking the door as she hangs up on the man. This makes the audience feel reassured for a moment. The next shot shows the popcorn, which has expanded and looks like it is about to catch on fire, making the audience worried, as a fire looks inevitable. The shot cuts back to the dark hallway where the phone rings again before she can get back to the kitchen. She answers but doesn’t want to talk to him so hangs up quickly. The camera tracks backwards, into the kitchen where the phone goes again. The call this times gets nasty you know someone is definitely watching her. An extreme close up shot is used to empathise this, and you can see that Casey is petrified. A tracking shot quickly follows Casey down the hallway as she runs to lock the doors. The non-dietetic tense background music becomes apparent when you know the killer is near. Another erratic POV shot looking out the door window is used to seem like Casey’s eyes looking for the man. Casey is still on the phone to the man and tells him she is about to call the police. He tells her that they would never make it in time because they are in the middle of no where, which empathises the remoteness to make the audience feel alone and scared, just like she does. The lighting has become very dark as the man terrorises the girl on the phone. She is becoming more hysterical and doesn’t know what to do. Craven uses sound cleverly to scare the audience, as for the high pitch noise of the phone at unexpected moments and the doorbell being rung as if it’s a game of knock down ginger, making it all seem like a sick joke to the audience.
Casey screams to the man that her boyfriend (Steve) will back soon so her better leave, the music is becoming more intense then he mentions her boyfriends name and the music stops and the camera pans into her worried face. The audience should start to eel like there on a roller coaster of emotions with the music going up and down making it tense and jumpy. The killer tells Casey to look outside, and more POV shots are used to show Steve tied up outside. You still haven’t seen what the killer looks like yet so the whole time Craven is building suspense with the music, lighting and clever camera shots. Steve gets killed by a device, which splits him in half, and close up shots show Steve’s intestines ripped out.
The costume and setting are crucial to the film as they define the genre as Horror and give the film interest and suspense. Casey’s house is mentioned by the killer as being miles from any other house, which makes her feel cut off from help. The ghost face Halloween costume is also part of the iconography, as we see it reoccur throughout the film. These visual short hands tell the audience that it is a horror film. The first time we see the killer is after Steve had been killed and the killer breaks into the house. A POV shot slowly walks backwards as we see Casey heading for a side door. There is no music at this point until the masked killer runs past at the other side of the house. A quick blast of high-pitched music is used to scare you. Casey makes it outside, making the audience think she is safe. This is then empathised with a shot of her parent’s car in the distance. As she tries to get away, an extreme close up shot showing the mask properly, appears at the window. Casey screams which makes the audience jump. Casey runs towards her parent’s car, which has got closer. At this point the audience are on the edge of their seats screaming at the screen, hoping Casey gets away. A shot of her parent’s car drives past her without her being noticed. The killer then jumps through a window and pounces onto Casey. As they both get up a slow motion shot is used and the music becomes faster and higher pitched until the climax at the stabbing. This background music is parallel because we expect to hear this scary music before a killing takes place. Cast falls to the ground screaming in pain as the camera focuses on the blood she is losing.
Craven teases the audience when Casey goes to pull off the killers mask before he finished her off, because before you can see who the killer is, the camera pans away so you can’t identify him. This makes the viewer want to carry on watching to find out who the killer is and why these two seemingly innocent teenagers have been brutally murdered.
I really enjoyed analysis this opening scene to screen as I have never completely focused on a small section of film before and watched it time and time again to really concentrate on the camera, lighting and sound. This is going to help me greatly for things to concentrate on when making my own films. I also really like the surveillance/ voyeuristic qualities to this opening scene.
