Horror

 

Scream 5 opening scene analysis

During the opening scene of scream 5 you see a range of conventions used throughout. These are used to help the audience understand what type of genre the film is and get a better understanding to what is going on.  

The first shot of the trailer is the title. The font and the colour is what immediately catches the audience eyes. It is big and bold and has bright red writing (representing blood) on a pitch black background making the title stand out even more. This was very popular when this movie was released in 1996, but now days it is usually white writing on a black background. Also when this title is displayed there is a non diegetic sound of a girl’s high pitched voice screaming in the background emphasising the word ‘scream’.

The first camera shot of the trailer is a close up of a phone ringing, this is effective as it shows this clip is going to be based on this phone call. Then when a blonde teenage girl picks up the phone and you hear a deep, creepy man’s voice say “hello” you know something disastrous is about to happen and this phone call is going to play a big part in it. When the girl replies she has a sweet voice and shows she is innocent and vulnerable.  As she ends the phone call and walks away the phone starts to ring again. Here it shows a close up of her face, you can tell she looks slightly worried. This gets the audience anxious and creates tension. Enigmas have started to be added. Who is this guy on the phone and what does he want?

The next shot is extremely clever. It is a shot of the double window glazed doors, the camera rests on them for about 1 second  giving the audience a quick glimpse to check if there is anyone there or something to make you jump. The camera shots are quite slow as it is building up the tension.

After this shot you are shown a shot of the front house, it is dark outside but all the lights are on in the house.  The house is slightly in the distance as closer to the camera there is an empty swing hanging off the tree. This shot creates an image in the audience head of a little girl swinging on the swing which is shown in horror movies and represented as scary.

You then end up in this girls house again, the phone rings for the third time and it is the same person. The teenage girl leans across the table; knives are in the view of the shot. This is effective as it makes the audience aware that there are knives and makes them wonder will the knives ever be used. When she replies to the mysterious man on the phone she comes across as quite flirtatious, this is following the conventions as it shows a vulnerable teenage girl home alone at night time flirting with this stranger. This is because teenagers are represented as stupid in horrors and deserve to die due to this. She then picks up a knife and you hear the diegetic sound of the steel thrusting against the wood as she places it back straight away.

The next shot is the camera following the girl into a different room,  all the doors and windows are glass so you are constantly looking outside to see if you spot anything. You then have the diegetic sound of the dog barking, this could giveaway to the audience that this mysterious man is outside. When the man then refers that he can see her, the camera zooms in on her facial expressions and music is added in the background to add tension. Again, as the girl walks away from locking the door the camera rests on what is behind her for just a second making the audience anxious thinking something might be there.  The shots start the speed up. The first shot of the popcorn things were quiet and it was cooking slowly but now the popcorn is much louder and the noise it is making is getting faster building up suspense. The music which is the non diegetic sound is getting louder and faster. You can hear the worry in the girl’s voice and the excitement and frustration in his keeping the audience on the edge of their seat.

The door bell rings, this could make the audience jump as the girl screams and turns around in surprise. She cries “who’s there?” You are shown the front door and nobody is in sight but as the phone rings again he replies “you should never ask who is there.”