Horror film- Scream opening scene analysis

 

A close up shot reveals the film title 'Scream' which is in a white font but quickly turns red and flickers, this hints an innocent person being in danger. The noise input is a scream combined with the slice of a knife which clearly links with the title of the film and connotes to the audience that this is a horror film. A close up shot reveals the ringing of a telephone which shows the audience that this phone is a important feature of the film and hints to the audience that danger is just a phone call away. On the other end of the line a stranger is trying to get information out of the woman, she laughs and hangs up . As she ends the call a moment later the phone rings again, the camera zooms into an extreme close up shot revealing the look of concern on the woman's face, A close up shot reveals a woman who is connoted to be the main character answering the phone, a establishing shot is not used to give the audience an insight of the location she is in so this adds to the fear of an isolated location. The shot focuses on the conversation between the main character and an unknown person on the phone which is eerie as the surroundings are not shown which will make the audience feel scared as there is an uncertainty of what could happen to her. An establishing/ low angle shot reveals a house lit up which is surrounded by darkness which connotes fear. The background noise of crickets is eerie and would make the audience feel tense. Wrapped on a tree a swing is swinging slightly hinting that something has recently been there and the woman is not alone. An extreme close up shot reveals a hob with a pan of popcorn on it, the phone rings yet again and the camera zooms out from the hob and follows the woman to the phone. The woman is on the phone having a conversation with a complete stranger, she has her back on the popcorn, this close up shot denotes a knife which the woman swipes. The sound is eerie and connotes blood. This gives the audience the indication that graphic scenes will occur because you can hear the knife and screams but are yet to see what will potentially happen. The shot changes to focus on a close up shot of the popcorn, the popcorn starts to pop which is effective as it connotes danger as she is abandoning her plans to cook the popcorn to talk to a complete stranger which makes the audience aware that she has put herself in an extremely dangerous situation.No sound effects at all (during the length of time the woman was on the phone for) is eerie as she is so focused on the phone call with a stranger and doesn't seem to think twice of what danger she is in. The final indication that this film is horror is the dark and eerie atmosphere.  An over the shoulder shot reveals the woman walking around her house, this allows the audience to get more of a sense of her surroundings. The structure of the house is glass so this alerts the reader to the fact that she is vulnerable due to the lack of security and outsiders can see her inside her own home. This hints out to the audience that they know something she doesn't know, the stranger on the other end of the phone could be just outside her house.