Media Essay for GCSE English AQA, Wes Craven's Scream

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How does Wes Craven’s Scream offer audiences a new approach to the horror movie

A convention in a movie is something that you would expect, also known as the ‘normal’ way a movie should be. There are two key aspects that make a horror movie; the narrative conventions, and the genre conventions. In traditional horror movies they have typical sets of narrative conventions based on fairy tales and horror movies. Examples are the journey from safety into danger, the hope of being rescued or the possibility that the threat returning Also in traditional movies they use standard conventions so that audiences can easily identify what type of movie it is. In this essay I will find out how Wes Craven uses horror conventions in his movie Scream.

In the movie Scream, it follows most of the events that would usually happen in a traditional horror story. You would expect a young vulnerable women being harassed by a man in a house alone. The tension builds by the background music as the movie goes on and the hope of being rescued is increased.  In Scream all these are portrayed with slight changes. There is a young vulnerable lady in the house alone, she is then terrorised by a man on the phone who she does not know. As she is on the phone, she puts popcorn on which is building the tension as she does not check it while she talks to the stranger.  The man on the phone continues to harass her and she fears for her life. This is then increased as the lady sees her boyfriend and her parents and the hope of being rescued is increased, but id does not happen as she is killed before it could take place.

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This affects the audience as they feel the tension of how the young lady feels as she is terrorised. The popcorn on the stove shows how the situation builds up. As the young lady gets more terrorised by the person on the phone, the popcorn gets bigger. The audience then knows she is quite safe as they know what would normally happen in traditional movies, but at the same time they are not sure of how the director will show this.

The generic conventions shown are what would usually be in a movie. An isolated house in the ...

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The structure and detail of this essay leave a lot to be desired! There are one or two insightful observations about horror conventions, but on the whole the research, the use of the technical language of film studies, and the depth and detail of the analysis all need a lot of development. Current grade: 2 stars