In opening of ‘Scream’ the rising of the popcorn connotes the tension slowly. At the start you don’t expect it to be something to be scared of, but it slowly rises and the audience’s attention catches on. Then the audience starts to realise something is going to happen, and you start to feel sad for the character and hope that she can get away from the masked killer and survive. When she first answers phone you think nothing of it, and for second time but when she answers the third time and it is the same person the audience become aware of some kind of danger. Also the camera zooms in on Barrymore’s face to also show tension, and danger.
In ‘Halloween’ at the start, the camera starts of with a POV shot of the house then carry on for the rest of the scene weakening the audience, making you think, who is this person? Why are you here? Etc. Also there are LS and MS showing the mise-en-scene and the surroundings. During the opening of the film there are a lot of CU to connote tension, while she is running to safety there is a LS to connote that safety is far. There is non – diegetic sounds to connote tension, during the trial up to the killing and after. The rest of the film isn’t set in the same period as the rest. It is set fifteen years before. The introduction of the film does follow the conventions of a horror film, it is set in the night and the characters are left alone in the house.
The in the two films ‘Halloween’ and ‘Scream’ there are a number of differences and similarities. In ‘Halloween’ it is set in the 1970’s and ‘Scream’ is set in the 1990’s; the houses are very different. The camera shot in ‘Halloween’ is jerky and because it is a POV shot. Then at the end of the scene the camera zooms out when the Michael Myer’s is left holding the knife showing confusion. In ‘Scream’ the camera is smooth and shots a quickly edited when the tension builds. In ‘Scream’ the setting is in the countryside where there isn’t much people nearby, and in ‘Halloween’ it is set in the suburbs.
‘Halloween’ is a teenage slasher horror film so it contains conventions of a teenage slasher horror film: dark lighting, quite neighbourhood, teenage victims, etc.
‘Scream’ isn’t purely a teenage horror film as it is a hybrid film, and it is a mixture of the genres. It is a mixture of teenage slash horror, thriller and parody.
In both films, the females are both in a relationship, and are having sex, and in the end are killed. Critics argue that these films suggest having pre-marital sex is wrong and you will die if do.
The Target audience is set between 18-24, late teens and young adults. It is more unlikely suitable for young teenagers because it has swearing and visual effects that are quite horrifying. The cast of the actors in both films are in their late teens and young adults.
The Director of ‘Halloween’ wasn’t really well known, and had only made a one film before making this one, until he made this spectacular film, on such a low budget and most of it went to the one semi-famous actor, which was John Pleasance. It got its publicity from word of mouth, by teenagers. On the other hand ‘Scream’ was predicted to be a hit, and was. The director was well known from making the horror film ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’, and ‘Scream’ had well known actors such as: Neve Campbell and Drew Barrymore. It had a big budget and was spent on the film and the publicity, and made millions.
