A
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The information age is characterised by
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O
a fundamental shift in the concept of
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artistic production in which creativity
is no longer conceived in terms of pure
invention but rather as the re-articulation
of pre-existing codes
J. Collins, Architectures of Excess:
cultural life in the information age
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During the 1990s, genre film production
saw a multiplicity of remakes, sequels and
adaptations. The Horror genre is no exception
to the ‘rule of the remake and sequel’ during
the 1990s and beyond. In his article ‘Same as
It Ever Was: Innovation and Exhaustion in the
Horror and Science-Fiction Films of the 1990s’,
David Sanjek states that, although there seems
to be an abundance of cinema screens, these
offer nothing new or intellectually exciting or
role throughout the film – and indeed in many conventionally a warning of impending death.
stimulating to the audiences.
Horror movies, as we are later informed by Randy iii. You don’t leave the room saying ‘I’ll be right
Indeed, in the early 1990s the film industry
(Jamie Kennedy), the Horror film enthusiast. The back’, ‘cause you’re never coming back – this
seemed to return to classic novel adaptations
conversation between Casey and her murderer is when Stu (Matthew Lillard) leaves the room
and the Fantasy/Horror cycle of the 1930s, with
ironically focuses on (Slasher) Horror films and mockingly says he’ll be right back. This
films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford
featuring psychopath killers. Among others, we makes the other characters (and us) laugh,
Coppola, 1992) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
are reminded of Halloween and its killer, Michael, whilst our expectations are teased about
(Kenneth Branagh, 1994). By the mid-90s, we
characteristically identified by his white mask. whether he is actually coming back or whether
saw the release of Wes Craven’s Scream (1996),
Soon enough, the killer in Scream appears, he is the next victim.
which revives the Teen Slasher Horror cycle of
wearing a white mask and holding a rather sharp In the first instance, the phone ultimately
the 1970s and 1980s. This, at first, would seem
knife, which he motions in a very familiar Psycho becomes a tool in the heroine’s hands, which
to corroborate Sanjek’s assertion. However, the
fashion. Casey is stabbed several times and hung exasperates the killers, who are incapacitated by
film actually refers directly, consciously and
from a tree in the garden. The sequence finishes their own means of intimidation. Secondly, not
unashamedly to many classical Horror movies,
with Casey discovered by her mother, whose only does Sidney not die, but she gets to act out
such as Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock,
terrifying screams remind us once again of Jamie the role of the Final Girl to the end, even if not
1960) and Halloween (John
Lee Curtis’s memorable screams in Halloween. a virgin any longer. Randy, a male character, on
Carpenter, 1978), and invites
Apart from the thrill of the chase of the victim the other hand, is the one who now appropriates
its fans to engage actively
by the killer and our fear for her, the audience the convention as he happily identifies his
in deconstructing key
are, from the beginning of the film, encouraged virginity as the reason for being alive. Finally, our
generic conventions along
to embark on a Horror-conventions-and- expectations of the friend’s conventional death
with the characters, who are
allusions-recognition game. are subverted as Stu does indeed return, but as
themselves Horror film buffs.
one of the psychopathic killers. Each of the rules,
Based on an analysis of visual
Establishing the survival rates
then, is established – only to be revised by later
and narrative elements in
Throughout the film, many other direct visual
action in the film.
the Scream trilogy, this article
and narrative references are made to Halloween,
will argue that, rather than
a seminal Slasher-Horror film – and by extension The conventions of the sequel
‘intellectual understimulation’ ,
to other films of the cycle. Scream does not, While Scream re-articulates key Horror film
practices of self-referentiality,
however, just recreate or repeat those as a conventions, Scream 2 (1997), the sequel,
pastiche and parody (see
nostalgic or reverential statement; nor is it just does the same about Horror film sequels. The
glossary) have contributed to a
another film following an established and tired film-within-a-film referential structure is used
redefinition of the Horror genre by
formula; it self-consciously draws our attention again to provide the backdrop of the generic
offering its audiences alternative
to its own elements of pastiche through the conventions explored, occasionally mocked
forms and levels of engagement
dialogue and the mise-en-scène. For example, out-right and redefined. The film that the
with the texts:
when Randy tries to explain to the other characters watch and talk about while more
inviting the moviegoer to
teenagers in the house – who are effectively gruesome murders take place is ‘Stab’, a film
participate in the construction of
an audience, like us – how to survive a Horror inspired by Gale Weathers’s (Courtney Cox) book
the Horror experience via modes
movie, he is in fact becoming a vehicle for the Woodsboro Murders; in other words our Scream!
of response which are increasingly
conventions he draws attention to. At this point, In the opening sequence of Scream 2 we find
self-aware.
we know they have to survive metaphorically ourselves at the cinema, watching, along with
Reading Scream
not only the killer in the film they are watching the predominantly teenage audience in the film,
(not, coincidentally, Halloween), but ironically the opening sequence of ‘Stab’, which we know
Scream starts with a murder sequence
and literally, the killer in their house, who we
of a young couple about to see a ‘scary
have seen, but they have not. Randy recites the
movie’. Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) is
following ‘rules of survival’:
home alone, making popcorn and waiting
i. You never answer the phone – the
for her boyfriend to arrive. An establishing
detrimental effects of which we have already
shot informs us of the isolated location
seen in the first sequence, described above,
of the house, a stereotypical locale of
and we expect to see again bearing upon
Horror films, allowing for the unsuspecting
Sidney (Neve Campbell).
and helpless victim to be terrorised by the
ii. You do not have sex – at this point we
killer without any witnesses. The means of
have a cut, taking us to the bedroom where
terror is the phone, a prop that plays a key
Sidney and Billy (Skeet Ulrich) are having sex,
english and media centre | February 2008 | MediaMagazine 59
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