Wes Craven's Scream (1996)
Sid as The Final Girl
Virginity/sex
Masculnities and violence
Craven critiques the cliched (gendered) horror tropes: intro scene with Casey
use of invasive close ups while Ghostface is calling her--the shot mirrors the type of violence
the dialogue is imbalanced: we know he knows and she doesn't (dramatic irony makes us uncomfortable)
Craven uses a zoom in with the line "I want to know who I'm looking at"--the zoom in reflects the "tightening" of stomach/anxiety; we mirror the killer's gaze
the intro sets the expectations for Sid to undercut
The Fountain Scene: "It takes a man to do something like that"; "Or a man's mentality"
makes us assign a gender to the killer before we even know for sure
invites audience suspicions and plays with who we think the killer is
Tatum (looking super feminine) arguing FOR women's violence: "that's sexist"
Use of meta-film and intertextuality
The video store scene: "there's always some stupid bullshit reason to kill your girlfriend" --satirizes the ubiquitous trope of killing the girlfriend--it's everywhere; reforges assumptions about killer as man--heterosexual frustration
the pre-sex scene talk: "it's all one big movie"; not great non-diegetic music
"or even a good porno"--reverses trope of virginal final girl
intercut with The Rules scene: it portrays as Clover suggests the way we respond to slashers
by putting The Rule alongside the sex scene, it give sus a direct contradiction; I'm about to break them.
"obligatory tit shot" refers back to one big movie
Lynda doesn't know who is under the sheets while Sid is in the sheets with the killer
Billy and Stu
close up two shot feels intimate?
sexual repression and the closet?
punishing heterosexuality?
the intercut/intertextuality with Laurie Strode in the closet and Sid in the other
Sid using Laurie Strode with a knife from Halloween to kill Stu; an ironic commentary on how movies make violence
"not in my movie"--Sid just cold blooded AND PREPARED: she knows the genre