Postmodernism in Scream

The final girl

-          Sydney fulfils the role of the final girl.

-          Characters are being killed all around her and she is left at the end of the film having to confront the killers.

-          The confrontation allows her to discover the true identities of the killers and find out the truth about her own mother’s murder.

-          The final girl re-establishes order by confronting her own past traumas and fears

Mise-en-scene

-          The opening scene of Casey Becker’s killing also provides examples of the ominous mise-en-scene characteristic of a horror film. She often moves around the house lit by lamps which provide pockets of light and shadow.

-          The darkened spaces are frightening for both Casey and the viewer because they provide places for the killer to hide.

-          The lack of illumination in the scene is both literal and symbolic – neither Casey nor we know what lurks in the dark.

-          When Casey looks out of the window the mist over the pool also provides an example of disorientating mise-en-scene

Narrative

-          Scream follows the equilibrium – disturbance – new equilibrium pattern of most horror films. The killing of Casey breaks the peace of the small town, and chaos ensues as other characters become victims the mid-section of the film charts the successive killings and the inability of the local police to solve the crime. It is only with the final confrontation scene that peace is reinstated.

Themes of death and destruction

-          Death and destruction are what the killers inflict upon the world of the film, but in Scream we are made to look further into this theme.

Iconography

-          Scream includes many classic icons of horror.

-          We see knives and a mask in the opening sequence and these are used throughout the film to signify the killers. Knives are the intimate violent weapons.

-          The killers must attack from close quarters and often stabs many times, heightening the fear and pain of the victim.

-          Horror films use disguise as a means of disorientating the viewer and obscuring the killers identity until the end of the film.

Why is it postmodern?

-          Horror films often have a knowledgeable audience who are aware of horror conventions and have certain expectations of the genre. Scream is a film which clearly acknowledges that its audience will have seen previous horror films. It invites us to comment on the predictability of the genre and at the same time offers us new, self-conscious, at time humorous, but nonetheless frightening example of the horror film.

What is postmodernism?

-          A currently popular intellectual concept. It is used as a way of grouping and describing the styles of thought and culture attracting most critical attention during the final few decades of the twentieth century. ‘Postmodernist thought’ has caused a revolution across all academic disciplines, from Physics to English via Geography. Postmodernism offers a different way of both constructing and deconstructing ideas.

Scream

-          At the time when Scream came out horror was a well-worn genre. Audiences were getting bored of the horror formula. Wes Craven alleviated this with his post-modern twist on horror genre