Horror Films: The Human Attraction
Now days the horror genre is more or less like a big joke, filled with clichés, and predictable, unoriginal scares. In 1996 Wes Craven pinpointed this pattern and made it into one of the most successful film trilogies of all time. Scream came out and basically made fun of how ridiculous the genre had become at that point. While Scream followed the very patter it was making fun of, it also introduced a new way the teen slasher film was viewed, and made fun and scary again. One of the things that made the film scary was its use of the way it made its scares realistic and original.
Why do people watch horror films? The answer is the thrill of being scared. Worrying if someone is following you, terrified of being home alone, being afraid of the dark, this is what comes along with watching horror films. And from the thrill of being scared, comes the adrenalin rush.
In the opening scene of Scream there is a teenager Caser (played by Drew Barrymore) who is home alone, when suddenly the phone rings and the caller asks a question, and she responds with “I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong number.” The caller then persistently calls Casey trying to talk to her, making small talk, asking “What’s your favorite scary movie?” They conversed over the typical scary movie where there is a killer who stalks babysitters and how they always run upstairs and everything you would see in a typical horror movie. But after a while Casey got freaked out and started hanging up. When she was not taking the bait, things took a turn for the worse. The caller threatened Casey saying he would gut her like a fish if she hung up. He wanted to play a game, the question he asked to decide if her boyfriend lived or died was “Name the killer in Friday the thirteenth.” Casey screamed “Jason.” The voice on the other end of the phone said “Sorry, that’s the wrong answer.” And instantly her boyfriend Steve was murdered on her back patio.
Casey began to cry and the killer stated, “Lucky for you, there is a bonus round.” The killer asked “What door am I at?” They talk for a little bit and then a chair is thrown through the back door. Casey tries to sneak outside and looking through the glass door and sees a person dressed in a black outfit with a white mask on running around inside her house. While this is all happening her parents are driving up her long lane. She then hides under a window, looks up, and to her surprise the killer is directly in front of her and breaks through the window and attacks her.
She then tries to run and he stabs her in the chest. Casey then drops to the ground and the killer cut her voice box so she couldn’t scream. Her parents are walking up to the front door and she tries to call for help, but is unsuccessful. There is a fire inside the house and her parents are screaming “Casey” over and over again. Her mother picks up the phone to call the police but Casey had never hung up the phone so all her mother could hear was Casey being stabbed repeatedly and a faint whine. Casey’s mother then runs outside to go to the neighbors to call the police only to find Casey gutted, and hanging from a tree.
According to Scream, the three rules to abide by in order to survive a horror film are as followed:
1.) You can never have sex. (“Big no-no! Sex equals death!”)
2.) You can never drink or do drugs. (The “sin factor, an extension of number one”.)
3.) Never, ever, EVER, under any circumstances say “I’ll be right back”, ’cause you won’t be back.
In addition to the three rules to follow, you also need to consider don’t answer the phone, don’t ask whose there, don’t answer the door, don’t try to escape, but most importantly DON”T SCREAM!
Scream was produced at the opportune time because nothing had been created prior to Scream in the genre. Everything produced previously followed the same pattern as all other teen slasher films. Scream recreated the typical horror film. In the previous basic horror films such as Friday the Thirteenth, Halloween, or Nightmare on Elm Street the killer was portrayed as villain or a monster that was clinically insane. But in Scream the killers are not monsters, they seem like normal, popular people, and they connect with the main character either as a boyfriend or a friend. The killers seemed harmless, until they go on a killing spree. Other typical themes of previous horror movies were the attractive girl (typically a babysitter) being stalked by a serial killer and brutally murdered. Traditionally there was a young group, often teenagers as the victims of the serial killer. The killers in Scream on the other hand, had a motive for their killings. It was all personal (Wee 50-61).
Not only did Scream appeal to teenagers because it was a new addition to the typical horror film, but also because of the setting of the movie. Scream was based in an ordinary high school in a typical small town that had seen its share of tragedies just like anywhere else. This is more realistic to teens because it seems as if it could happen to any person or town given the proper circumstances. Also Scream not only provoked scares, but laughs as well. The best part about Scream was that it never stopped making fun of itself; it was as if there was a movie inside a movie.
Despite the recreation of the typical horror film, Scream did possess some negative qualities. The movie at times overdid it and was a bit corny, which in some cases could get old. Also slight parts were unrealistic. For example Tatum who was the main character Sydney’s best friend, her death was so farfetched. She was trying to climb out a doggy door in the garage door, got stuck, and the killer put the door up and she got smash and died. It is impossible for a mechanical garage door to even life an extra fifty pounds on top of the already heavy door, so there is no way Tatum would have been murdered in such a way.
Wee, V. (2002). Resurrecting and Updating the Teen Slasher. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 50-61.
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