Scream

“The first monster you have to scare the audience with is yourself.”  This quote came from Wes Craven the director of the movie Scream. The film starts off with Casey Becker waiting for her boyfriend to arrive at her home, unfortunately Casey is home alone. She receives a mysterious call from a strange man claiming he wants to "play a game." The ironic thing about this film is that, Scream is a parody that brings to life the cliché elements in horror while still having the ability to scare you. The characters even openly talk about what they would do if they were in a scary movie and the things that are known to happen. Casey plays his game, because her boyfriend (Steve) and her own life depend on correct answers. Casey tells him she is going to hang up the phone, but he says "I want to see what your insides look like." This line can either be taken sexually as if the killer has sexual frustration built up or that he wants to brutally murder her.

Thinking back on the Killer element of Carol Clover's Her Body, Himself I thought of how he carries those characteristics of psycho sexual fury. Casey answers a question about Friday the 13th, but the killer claims her answer is incorrect and brings Casey and Steve to their demise. Reflecting back on the Carol Clover article, the Weapons category; the killer has no gun, all he carries is a huge knife which to me is a phallic representation giving more power to the male character.

Next Sidney Prescott is introduced, a normal girl in high school but she is struggling dealing with her mother's death almost a year ago. Throughout the movie Sidney as a character grows tremendously and proves herself. These qualities make Sidney the Final Girl, Sidney also has the unisex name, which I realized right off the bat. Sidney's father is leaving town so she stays with her best friend, Tatum. After school she arrives at Tatum's house and no one is home. She receives the same call as Casey Becker, her and this mysterious killer interact and she puts up a fight and escapes as she contacts 911 the killer takes off. Her boyfriend Billy was crawling up towards the window to comfort her and as he gets there a cell phone falls from his pocket making him appear as if he is the killer. I mean what're the odds? how did he know to come there at the time as if he was almost "saving" Sidney. I realized that when the police arrived Tatum's brother Dewey was talking to the sheriff and gives Sidney credit by saying "Sidney looks tougher than she looks." Scream films treat female characters as more than dumb, pretty, easy targets, running from the psycho killer with their breasts bouncing and hair flowing. Before classes were suspended Sidney was in the rest room at school and heard two girls talking about her claiming "Sidney has issues and killed Casey and her boyfriend Steve. And Maybe she's even a slut like her mother." And continue with the slut shaming of Sidney's mother as they call her a tramp which throughout the film it makes it seem like Sidney's mother's promiscuous behavior is what got her killed. This should never be the case and never should someone's life be taken just because of their sexual rendezvous.

 

 
 
 
The local news reporter, Gale Weather tries to get the story of Sidney and the killer but Sidney punches Gale in the face for writing a very false book about her mothers death. Ironically in the end Gale, saves Sidney's life by shooting the killer so in some aspects to me both of these women are seen as the Final Girl. (But more so Sydney than Gale).


The Terrible Place in this film is the home of one of the killer's, Stu. The terrible place is normally stereotyped to be womb-like (very damp and dark). The crazy twist that they add to this film is this is an average home that belongs to a normal family (besides that fact that their son is a sadistic killer). Creating this image of a normal house being the terrible place makes the audience feel as if they are safe and the killer will not strike there.

The only character throughout this film that they make a semi- easy victim is Tatum, stereotyping the "dumb blonde" look for her. Wearing a little yellow blouse as she goes out to the garage for drinks and of course the camera focuses on her upper body and that her nipples are hard. Honestly to me Tatum was too smart for that. She knew the killers motive and what he was capable of and put up a heck of a fight. Unfortunately she was unable to fit through the cat door in the gar age which brought her to her death. All of these reasons make Tatum the Victim, Tatum seems as if she is more sexually active than Sidney (with her boyfriend Stu) as she hints at it throughout the movie. In horror movies females are killed for the loss of innocence and loss of virginity, almost as if it's a punishment. This is what makes Sidney different, she doesn't give into Billy wanting to have sex and holds off.  Tatum even says to Sidney "Billy and his penis don't deserve you" and hearing something like that from your best friend makes you believe it. 



 

So while people are being murdered inside Stu's home, which hey why not throw a banger while a psycho killer is on the loose? Sidney and Billy wander upstairs to Stu's parents' bedroom, where she finally decides to have sex with Billy. To myself I was thinking no please don't do it, but seeing she is the final girl I knew she would prevail. After they are finished the Ghostface killer barges thru the door and stabs Billy. Sidney runs searching for help from Dewey. This is where everything pieces itself together and Sidney doesn't know who to trust or turn to. Billy and Stu are the master minds behind these horrible murders and even Sidney's mothers' death (SUPRISE!) They also have been hiding Sidney's father in a closet hands tied together and his mouth taped shut. Billy says to Sidney "How about this? Your slut mother was f*****g my father and my mother abandoned me." There you have it, here is the Killer's problematic childhood story of having no motherly bond and all of his rage.

 

 

Aside from this film, I did a little research myself on how these sort of movies made women feel. I found out back in the day feminist groups would actually protest for banning these types of films because these women claimed that these films made it seem alright to hurt women. Some people claim the meaning of these films is for a male to get a sense of enjoyment out of watching a female in distress. My point is women can also enjoy these films, yes there is and always will be a victim whether male or female, but there's a sense of pride watching some young girl defeat a indestructible male character. This is female empowerment at it's best, she is not needing to be saved nor helped but she does it alone because she is capable and she is strong.