Scream: A Twisting of Classical Horror

In Wes Craven's film Scream (1996) the classic horror scenario takes an interesting and almost comical reversal from the typical horror/slasher films. In the town of Woodsboro multiple horrifying murders have been taking place spooking the whole town and reminding them of the horrible murder that took place a year before. The main character Sidney's mother was murdered the previous year and now the killer is back and is after her and her friends. Throughout the film the slasher film is mocked in a way that the characters are even aware what to do and not to do in this slasher film reality that they are a part of. Throughout the film elements as Carol Clover discusses in her article are present either traditionally or with a reversal, such as the Victim, the Terrible Place, the Killer, the Weapon, and the Final Girl.

Movie within a Movie
First it is important to note on the mockery of the slasher film that is present throughout Scream. The victims of Casey and Sidney are called by the killer with his coined phrase "What's your favorite scary movie". Casey plays into this game, whereas Sidney does not. She replies with "I don't like scary movies, they are all the same with some big boob blond bimbo that's always running up the stairs instead of outside. Its insulting". This comment shows how the typical slasher film is insulting to women and that Sidney is aware of that. Ironically enough she is about to be in her own scary movie where those stereotypes are reversed with her as a character.

The rules are discussed by the character of Randy who claims there is a "simple formula to horror": One, never have sex, because you will die; Two, you cannot drink or do drugs; and Three, never say "I'll be right back", because you won't be back. During the party we see how the film plays off of the "horror rules". The teenagers are watching the classic slasher film Halloween and Randy comments on how Jamie Lee Curtis, the main female, never dies because she stays a virgin in the film. During the party scene the audience is given clips of the movie Halloween and flipping back and forth between reality at the party and the movie. As Randy is discussing the virgin of the movie the camera goes to Sidney and Billy in the bedroom where they are about to have their first sexual encounter together. Of course right after this sexual encounter Billy supposedly dies and Sidney is left running away. However, as the traditional slasher film viewer would not expect Billy is only faking his death, reversing the death after sex scenario. Sidney also does not die, which reverses the expected again showing the the female does not need to be punished for having sex as other films have shown.

Another instance where the back and forth of the movie and reality are shown is when Randy is sitting on the couch watching the movie and is yelling "look behind you" while at the same time the real killer is behind him. At the same time the camera man in the van outside is watching the party being filmed and sees the real killer and is yelling "look behind you" to Randy making it a comical movie within a movie within a movie scene. One of the last scenes that is shown playing on the TV is when Jamie Lee Curtis is hiding in the closest and the killer is looking for her. At the party Sidney is hiding in the closest while Billy is trying to find her. These horror movie scenarios add an interesting and almost comical addition to the film and allows the film to show the audience that this particular slasher film is not like the traditional. I also couldn't help but notice the janitor wearing the Freddy Kruger sweater and hat and the movie Frankenstein playing in the video store adding a nice touch to the movie.

The Typical Beginning

The film starts out with elements one would expect in the classic slasher film. There is a mysterious person calling and terrorizing the blond girl (Casey) that is home alone only to reveal that she is about to die. As Clover points out in her article, in the beginning of the film the camera pays more attention to the slashing of the female victim more than the male character. The blond's boyfriend is the first to die and we see him tied up in a chair the lights go off and then he is sitting there dead with blood and guts coming out of him. The death of the female however is much longer and much more focused on. The audience sees the knife going into her multiple times, the blood coming out, and finally the killer hanging her from a tree in the yard.

Victims
Unlike the beginning of the film, the rest of the films takes a twist away from the classical slasher films. The victims is one example of how this occurs. Typically audiences would see many female characters dying and less males, and the focus would be more on the female victims. Throughout the film however only two female deaths occur and six or more male deaths occur. And unlike typical slasher films, the camera in this film spends just as much time on the female victims as the male victims (mainly on those of Billy and Stu). As a way of mocking the traditional horror film I think, the two female characters chosen to be killed were both blonde pretty girls as is usually seen in the horror films. Both of these characters are Casey in the beginning and Tatum. Unlike the traditional films however, even though these women fail they fight back, Casey kicking the killer in the gentiles for example, and use better judgment at trying to escape. In stead of running up the stairs or hiding somewhere, both females attempt to escape outside in a open area giving them more of a chance to get away from the killer. More mockery is shown towards the classical slasher film when Tatum is being attacked and she asks the killer if "he wants to play psycho-killer" and if she can be the "helpless victim". Tatum is playing off of what audiences would expect the female victim to act like, mocking the stereotypical girl in slasher films. Even though she does die, Tatum importantly portrays and mocks the expected female victim.

Terrible Place
Clover's article describes the "terrible place" as a womb-like often dark and damp or enclosed place where the victims are most commonly attacked. These places are meant to represent the feminine gentiles where there is entrapment and no escape. The film does play off of this typical situation in that most of the attacks are in a room/ house, closet,garage or vehicle, all of which are enclosed places  where it is difficult for the victim to escape. Although the film does portray the attacks in this womb-like entrapment, I feel it is to mock the typical slasher film rather than play into the feminized portrayal of a entrapment.

Killer/ Weapons

At the end of the film it is revealed that Billy and Stu are in fact the murders that have been terrorizing the town. Stu is somewhat just a follower of Billy for the killing sprees, but Billy's character plays off of the traditional slasher film. Clover suggest that the killer is often filled with psycho-sexual fury and has a problematic childhood. Billy's reasoning for killing Sidney's mother is because she was having an affair with his father causing his mother to leave. This shows the attachment to the mother that the child has and because of it has turned into a killer. He also comments that he has a "lack of sex" which is another reason he is enraged and wants to kill everyone and makes sense for his weapon of choice being a phallic symbol of a knife using it to compensate for his lack of sex.

The film reverses the typical scary killer and makes the ending of the killers somewhat comical. Billy and Stu stab each other in order to try and frame Sidney's father. They are distracted and Sidney gets away and then calls the killers with the same scary voice. The killers masculinity is taken away by the female victim during this scene. Sidney reveals that she has called the cops calling Billy a "mamas boy" and leaves Stu crying claiming that "his mom and dad are going to be really mad at him". Both Billy and Stu are freaking out that Sidney got away and called the cops making their scary male killer character into a worried feminized killer. Sidney takes over the role as killer by putting the costume on coming of the the closest, stabbing Billy with an umbrella, which is a pointed object much bigger than Billy's, making her the more masculine character.

Final Girl
Clover describes that the "final girl" in the slasher films as a woman who has a unisex name, is pure, has a self rescue, and goes from the screaming victim to the furious attacker. The film also plays of this tradition by giving Sidney a unisex name and making herself her own rescuer. However, the film changes it making it more of a mocking of the slasher film. As mentioned Sidney does have sex, but again the film shows that shouldn't be a punishment for the female and as a result does not die from it. Also, Sidney was never really the girl running and screaming, every time she was attacked she fought back and in the end was also the attacker. Even though she was the victim throughout most of the film, she was never really seen as a feminized character. She constantly had smart come back and was always outsmarting her attacker which is not what is always expected. She kills Stu by pushing the TV on him which is ironically playing the horror movie that he and Billy are attempting to mimic. Unlike the classical slasher film she was not the only final girl, Gale Weathers the reporter was also alive and aided Sidney in killing Billy and giving Sidney the gun to finish off Billy. Randy is also left alive, even though he was clearing shot in the chest where he should of died, but the film mocks the slasher movies once again by giving Randy the line of "I am alive. I never thought I would be so happy to be a virgin". The female victim of Sidney officially takes over when Randy comments that the killer usually comes back for one final scare and Billy then moves when Sidney shoots him stating "not in my movie".

The film Scream, goes far from the traditional slasher film especially when it comes to portraying the female characters. While the film does play to some of the typical slasher female victim stereotypes, it does it in a way that is mocking the classical slasher film making audiences see that the female characters should have a lot more power. Scream continuously reverses the roles of the female throughout the film making it an slasher film like no other.