“Do you like scary movies?” purred a sinister voice over the telephone, and immediately Scream had marked itself out as something new in a tired genre. When it was released in 1996, the classic slasher franchises had all pretty much ran out of steam. Scream was different, it was a breath of fresh air: smart and self-referential, it reminded horror fans what they loved about the genre in the first place, and scared them silly at the same time. Scream 4’s brilliance was that it took old tropes and remixed them, a blending of old and new. Director Wes Craven was already accomplished, he directed films such as The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and A Nightmare on Elm Street- and the previous three Screams before Scream 4 came …show more content…
When she’s first introduced in the series, she’s already been through some serious trauma: The film begins with Sidney’s return to Woodsboro, the town where the original murders took place. Sidney meets up with her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) and quickly finds out that a new wave of murders has begun with a striking similarity to the previous three films. With the help of her old friend and recently promoted sheriff (David Arquette) and his wife Gale (Courtney Cox) it seems as though Scream 4 is the passing of the torch between the old damaged characters and the new ones. Scream 4 utilizes today’s millennial culture of technology, Youtube, and blogs to once again reinvent the slasher genre. Scream 4 combines just the right amount of comedy within the story to still stay true to the genre and pokes fun at the previous three films and the genre as a whole. Although there is nothing significantly new with regards to the story of Scream 4, the mystery of who is under the mask was well done and keeps the viewer guessing. The identity of the masked killer is a surprising one and makes an interesting comment on fame in modern
To begin with, some people would say they enjoy a horror movie that gets them scared out of their wits. They go see these movies once a month on average, for fun, each time choosing a newer sequel like “Final Destination” or “The evil Dead”. King says “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie we are daring the nightmare” (405). As a writer of best-sel...
...dience long after the film reels have stopped turning. The idea of a “scary movie” could be innocuous enough, if it is simply frights and ghoulish images, but Nosferatu raised the bar and discovered how to delve into a collective mindset and produce a truly unsettling product. Germany’s residual shame and concern regarding World War I made Nosferatu a gripping, telling exploration of a nation’s psyche.
Some would say watching horror movies and being scared out of your wits is a fun way to spend their hard earned money. They go see these movies on average once a week, each time choosing a newer version of a trilogy like “Chucky” or “The evil Dead”. Film making has come a long way over the last few decades, the graphic...
This essay will explore how horror films reflect the fears of both individuals and societies focusing on the film Cloverfield (Cloverfield, 2008). Films can often serve as an astute reflection of reality in a varying number of ways depending on the genre. The horror film can often serve as an analogy for the horrors of the real world. In the case of Cloverfield Director Matt Reeves creates a solid allegory of the September 11th terror attacks on New York City. “The horror film can bring us uncomfortably close to the worst that could ever happen—to a character or to ourselves” (Kawin, 2012).
This new facilitator of horror, the stalker, has helped to redefine a new subgenre of the horror film industry. What they do is absolutely terrifying, as they basically invade every aspect of their victim’s lives, with no regard for their friends, family, or possessions. After analysis of the three stalker films referenced above, as well as the numerous amounts of stalker movies that continue to be produced, one can understand why there is a demand for this style of movie. The entire idea encompasses that which is suppressed because it threatens our normalcy of life. The idea is captivating, and we as a society would much rather view this from the outsider’s perspective on the “big screen,” than to see them enacted in our everyday lives through ourselves or others.
Obviously casting Jamie Lee Curtis, a scream queen whose mother (Janet Leigh from Psycho) is the original scream queen, is a nod toward the audience. Additionally with a character named Loomis, after a character in the classic Psycho(1960) and showing clips of horror movies like Howard Hawks' The Thing (1951), Carpenter has created a world that exists primarily in the realm of reality. This world is realistic enough so that the audience can relate and associate with the characters, but also has enough of the self-referentialism to always keep the audience aware that they are watching a movie, not an accurate of representation of
Inspired by the life of the demented, cannibalistic Wisconsin killer Ed Gein (whose heinous acts would also inspire THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, 1974 and DERANGED, 1974), PSYCHO is probably Hitchcock's most gruesome and dark film. Its importance to its genre cannot be overestimated. PSYCHO's enduring influence comes not only from the Norman Bates character (who has since been reincarnated in a staggering variety of forms), but also from the psychological themes Hitchcock develops.
The first stage of the genre cycle is called the primitive stage. During this stage of the cycle, the genre of horror is very new. Filmmakers are trying to decide what makes a horror film a horror film, while audience are figuring out what they should expect every time they see this kind of film. For example, Todd Browning’s Dracula is the basic, stripped down blueprint for many monster-horror films today. It features the “bad guy” accompanied by the “good guy”. After several horrifying events, Van Helsing kills the vampire, Dracula, and good prevails, again. Thus, establishing that in horror films no matter how grue...
A girl runs frantically through the woods trying to escape an axe-wielding villain. The defenseless victim suddenly trips and collapses to the ground. The villain laughs wickedly as he lifts the axe above his head. The girl releases a final scream as the weapon quickly ends her life, causing the audience to go silent as they watch the villain drag away the lifeless body. Death, blood, guts, suspense, screaming, and terror are just a few things to expect when watching a modern-day horror film.
The Scary Movie trilogy is a spoof of scary and not so scary films. The first of the three movies to date was released in 2000. The movie was based on the scary movies that were released at that time. These movies included: Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Sixth Sense, and The Blair Witch Project. As the movies progressed they seemed to add parodies of not so scary movies such as Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible II. Even though these movies did not seem to fit into the title, they were still creatively incorporated into the second movie. Then, there is the highly anticipated third movie with spoofs of all the movies that have made it big recently. So, of course this seemed to be the best of the three featuring The Ring, 8 Mile, Signs, The Matrix, and even an "appearance" by the king of pop, Michael Jackson.
People flock to horror movies each year. Usually to be scared. Another is to solve the question of Who done it? Unfortunately, a lot of these horror movies fail to scare people or make the killer so obvious the audience gets bored. Occasionally, there are a few horror movies that stick out. Scream, directed by Wes Craven, is one of them. Wes Craven is always toying with the viewer's fears. Always finding ways to scare the audience at every turn. He also plays with the viewer's head, and has them second guessing themselves. How does he do it? Well, as one of the characters in the movie exclaims, "There's a formula to it. A very simple formula. Everybody's a suspect!" This paper will discuss how Craven uses sound, camera shots, and mise en scene
“Thriller” is a film, literary, and television genre that contains elements of suspense, anxiety and excitement. Within the thriller genre, there are multiple subgenres such as the mystery thriller, crime thriller, horror thriller, erotic thriller, psychological thriller, and the list still grows today. Many thriller films contain elements from multiple subgenres, which in turn helps to create the core elements with more potency and variety. Silence of the Lambs is undoubtedly within the thriller genre and moreover can be placed into several of its numerous subgenres. However, there are two thriller subgenres that Silence fits into like a perfectly tailored suit of human skin: crime thriller and psychological thriller.
A Nightmare on Elm Street and all of the following six sequels fall into its own sub-genre of the teen slasher/stalker sub-genre as well, know as the Nightmare on Elm Street Series. This series of films adds a new dimension to the typical teen slasher/stalker film, depth of character and story.
SCREAM starts out in the quiet country region of Woodsboro, California. The silence is soon broken by the ringing of a phone coming from the inside of Casey Becker's home. The conversation between Casey and the threatening Voice, eventually leads up to having Casey scared out of her wits and being gutted. Sidney Prescott learns about the murder, and also finds out it was almost as bad as the murder of her mother (Maureen Prescott), which occurred almost a year ago. Randy Meeks, Reporter Gail Weathers, and Deputy Dewey Riley all get mixed up in the story with Sidney. If you want to learn anything else about the movie, go WATCH IT!!!!
Would you rather be horrified beyond repair or thrilled to the point of no return? In horror, the main purpose is to invoke fear and dread into the audience in the most unrealistic way. Horror movies involve supernatural entities such as ghosts, vampires, teleportation, and being completely immortal. As thriller films are grounded in realism and involve more suspense, mystery, and a sense of panic. Though both genres will frighten the audience, it will happen in two different ways. Whether the horror thrills or the thriller horrifies, a scare is always incorporated.