Analysis of Scream

BY Rachael Booth

Analysis of Scream

The title sequence starts with an advertisement of Miramax Home Entertainment then another one for Dimension films. The word Scream then appears in white capital letters on a black background, firstly the letters fill the screen then they close into the centre of the screen in a moderately sized text as they do close together you hear a banging noise. Then the text goes red and you hear a screaming noise and another bang and the text then vanishes. The first shot that appears on screen is a close up shot of telephone. The first character to appear is a female character dressed in a feminine jumper and white tracksuit bottoms in a medium close up shot. The female character then answers the phone and has a very feminine sounding voice in contrast to the voice on the other end of the phone which is deeper and masculine sounding. The voice on the other end of the phone then asks who their speaking to then the female character presumes that it’s a wrong number and puts the phone down. She then turns and walks away from the phone, the phone then starts to ring the female character then turns back round looks at the phone, then we get a close up shot of the telephone, then the camera cuts back to the female character. This is an example of an eye line match which is used to help the audience see what the actors on screen are seeing. The lighting is artificial and mainly background lighting. The camera then moves to a low angle shot looking up at some trees outside the house. Outside the house it’s night time. The camera then shows a close up of a gas hob being lit. The phone then rings again and it’s the same deep, masculine voice as before. The female character then walks round the house and picks some books up from the kitchen table and walks to the front room while she’s still on the phone. Things then get a little bit creepy when the voice says “I want to know who I’m looking at” the females voice then gets quieter she then looks outside and hangs up the phone. She then walks away from the window, the phone rings again however the female character quickly puts down the phone. The female character then answers the phone again and shouts at the voice on the other end, but the voice on the other end sounds angry and threatens the female character, the music then comes in and gets gradually more intense. The female character then runs to the door and locks it, she then looks out of a glass pain on the door and we (the audience) see the path (eye line match). She then hangs up the phone and begins to cry and scream. There is then a knock at door. The phone rings again and the voice on the other end shows tells the female character to look on to the patio she then sees her boyfriend tied to a chair bleeding, with a head wound. We see her boyfriends face in close up shot which then zooms out into a medium shot. She then turns the patio lights off and crouches down. The voice on the phone then tells her to play a game is she answers the questions correctly her and her boyfriend will live however is she answers incorrectly they will die. Her voice quite and tear full. She pleads with the voice on the phone to stop. She answers the first question correctly however this was a warm up question, she then gets the next question wrong and begins to scream and shout down the phone. The camera then cuts to her boyfriend out on the patio there’s very little lighting except some background lighting. The female character then turns the patio lights on and we get a medium shot of her boyfriend bleeding to death. She then crouches down again and listens to the next question, then a chair gets thrown through the patio window and she runs to the kitchen and picks up a knife and hides outside the house. The camera cuts to inside the house and we see a human like figure in the house in black clothing wearing a mask. Then the camera cuts to a car in the distance in a long shot. The music is getting gradually more intense. The female character then turns round and sees the figure behind her they struggle for a while then the figure starts chasing her as she heads for the car. The figure catchers her and stabs her once then the knife comes up and we get a close up of it showing it to the audience covered in blood. She then gets stabbed again as we see too people entering the house. The camera then cuts to the people in the house and there shouting for “Casey” there searching gets more and more frantic, and the female character trys crawling to the house however the figure grabs her and drags her away. The camera then cuts to the people in to house holding on to a phone and they can hear a breathing noise like there’s someone on the other end the camera then cuts back to female character being dragged away with the phone in her hand.