Thursday, April 2, 2015

Scream the comedic killer


The film scream directed by Wes craven is not your average slasher flick, it made fun of, used, and inverted the rules of horror films and gender to create a unique film.. It revolves around Sydney Prescott her mother and a rash of killing that are happening around the anniversary of the death of her mother. Over the course of the movie Sydney encounters the killer multiple times in a perpetual last girl scenario, all the while the majority of people around Sydney are being killed by the slasher. Near the end of the film you come to find out that the killer is Sydney's boyfriend and his best friend who are doing it mainly for fun and revenge on Sydney's mother for having an affair.

While through the film Sydney is portrayed as the last girl there are also instances of other characters being in the last girl scenario. Sydney's best friend encounters a semi last girl scenario and in the begging of the film Sydney"s classmate is the last girl. Through all of them the women do follow the norm but they all deal with killer very well hitting him and holding him off very well. There even the thought that the movie won't progress as a normal slasher, because the female characters might kill or even catch the killer long before he gets to kill them.


Another preculiar factor in scream is the suppressed psychosexual fury of the killer. The first instance the killer murders he does so before the taboo rule of no sex in horror film is even broken by any characters. And when the taboo is broken we come to find out that Billy is one of the killers. Unlike most of the slasher films Billy enters into a sexual encounter and attains the desired sexual encounter, but it only serves to perpetuate his already crazed obsession with the killing. And the other killer Billy's best friend does not seem to have any repressed sexual desire but but just loves the sheer act of killing he seems to just be a psychopath.
The next notable factor in scream is the terrible place. Notably there is no real terrible place compared to the womb like places in other horror films. Most of the areas that the killings take place in are normal areas such as farmhouses and the school. Most instances the victims have many escape options in the way of escaping or fighting back against the killer. I felt as though the characters could have beaten the killer multiple times during the film the killer appears neither invincible nor scary many times. Many times during the film he even converses with the characters mainly only through hand gestures, which is very comical when you actually witness it. The killer there after seem unpromted as if fun is being made the the deaths of these characters.

Overall the movie is self has many different perceptions of the slasher gerne and how it is portrayed. It goes of and creates a original environment and feeling because it goes again the norms of slasher film, That contradicts and modifies the ideas and assumptions we have about the traditonal slasher films in a different way.