Halloween and Scream Analysis

HALLOWEEN + SCREAM

Discuss how and why film genres change from Halloween to scream

The genre within horror movies has significantly changed over the years, and I will be writing about the difference between Scream and Halloween.

Horror was at its peak during the 1970’s when a massive arrival of knife crime ‘Slasher’ violence scenes were released; Halloween set a new breed of horror which set the standard for the films to come, trying to follow the ensemble of Halloween ‘slasher’ genre, horror was very different then to what it is like today, as I will go on to explain;

After Halloween was released the genre began to become very unrealistic. The scenes of horror was very unrealistic, it was unrealistic because the murderer was becoming superhuman, which means that he can’t die. The films were becoming too violent, this was creating controversy among the audiences because they felt that it was influencing children to think that violence was ‘cool’, therefore people was starting to link the violence in the films to the violence which was starting to be found in their society. Furthermore the violence in the movies was largely aimed at men, therefore this was excluding the other half of the audience, the women.  The women’s independence status was growing in our society and in previous films shown a rather sexist portrayal of women, however now attitudes was changing combining with the women’s role in society, therefore sexism was now largely seen as uncool and dishonest. The violence in the film was also seen as rather pointless, as it did not add much to the film, it was felt like it was ‘just there’.  Adding to the unrealism of the movies, the violence never had any consequences, for example, there was never any parents around when victims was being killed.

However, in 1996, Wes Craven wanted to re-build the horror genre in the film Scream.  By doing this he challenged the stereotypes of a typical slasher film such as Halloween, and he created a newer, slasher classic. A main factor which played a part in the refreshed genre that Wes Craven created was the music he used. In the old slasher movies such as Halloween, the music was seen to be very dull, plain and obvious, this gave the film an unrealistic feel. In Scream, the music created an atmosphere which had the audiences anxious and fidgety to see what is going to happen, this was created by having different tones of music for each scene.  Adding to the realism of the new classic genre, there was less voyeurism, this allows audiences to see things from both sides of view, the killer and the victim, this adds realism because they can relate to both sides of the story, but more importantly have sympathy for the victims. Furthermore, unpredictability was brought into the film; this was done by killing off big named actors early in the film, which largely challenged the genre.  For example Drew Barrymore suggested that in the old slasher movies, because of the high status, the actor will survive the longest, or survive it all, like Jamie Lee Curtis did in Halloween. However in Scream, the famous actors name was used on the poster, and she was killed within the first five minutes of the film. It was typical for horror films to not use big named stars, an example of this would be Halloween, this was because it was a very low budget genre, which meant it was cheap, unknown actors, everyday suburban locations, boring, using obvious soundtracks and no high tech. However Scream challenged this by having a number of big name starts, including: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Henry Winkler and Drew Barrymore. Wes Craven kept die hard horror fanatics happy by making many references to previous horror films (quiz, questions and jokes). Halloweens music was too sloppy and boring, however in Scream, the music was carefully timed and constructed in sync with the action to make the movie more entertaining. Furthermore in Scream there was fast moving camerawork & editing unlike voyeuristic stalking in Halloween. Wes Craven also re-invented the mask from Halloween to carry on with the stereotypical nature of the slasher movies.  Furthermore, realism was further embedded when the killers was less superhuman and robotic, they was just ordinary boys from the community, which lead to equal fights between the victims and the killer, as the victims have more chance of putting injuries upon the killer(s).  however, in both films knives are used, this is very iconic in horror films, moreover in Scream, it makes sure the victims are killed off in different ways than just typical knife injuries, for example one victim got killed by an automatic garage door, this therefore creates more humour and entertainment for the audience.

From this comparison we learn that Wes Craven had his main aim to re establish the horror genre and add some critical needed spark, whilst connecting with the genres of the past classics.