Another typical factor of this horror movie is where it is set; there is one big house in the middle of nowhere, trees surrounding the house which blocks some vision of the victim, no noise which makes viewers feel edgy and make them believe something is about to happen, these two factors makes it mysterious and also makes the viewer nervous.
Then comes action, there is a lot of action In the opening scene of this movie and some of the material they use is clever. For example the phone rings and she is having a conversation on the phone with an unknown person which of course is the killer, at the same time she is having the conversation she is cooking some popcorn, as the conversation becomes more revealing the popcorn bag is becoming larger , this is showing that the tension is building and makes the viewer feel as if something is about to happen. Also while she is on the phone she looks outside and the swing is moving, this shows that someone has been there and maybe still are. The light outside is very dim and natural for example the moonlight outside is very soft so your vision isn’t as good as it would be if there was normal light outside, they do this so that the viewer cant see everything outside due to shadows and clouds, this gives it a eerie affect.
In this film tracking Is used to show that the victim is unaware of what is going on and gives the affect that she is being followed.
Panning is used to show what she’s looking at, for example in the garden scene it shows where and what she is looking at, it also shows her feelings, if the camera pans fast she is nervous and if it pan slow she is calm.
Also in this film zoom ins and close ups are very significant because in important scenes and at important times in the movie the camera will zoom in to the face of the victim to show there facial expressions, this helps express the feelings of the victim.
The backshot of the character shows that the victim is being followed and the victim is unaware of what is really going on, because we the viewers see everything and the victim on ever sees one view.
The director uses editing to show tension. They do this by going from one place to another, for example it goes from the house straight to the garden, this makes the viewer believe that someone is there, another use of editing is when th camera frequently goes from the action to the popcorn, by doing this the popcorn represents the tension, because the popcorn bag grows as the tension grows.
The name of this film also adds to the horror “Scream” people usually scream when they are scared, this makes the viewers edgy throughout the film as the thy name represents horror ”scream”.
