Changes in horror films
I will be writing about changes in horror throughout the years and why there was a change in the horror genre with reference to Halloween and Scream, two very ionic films. When horror first came out it was very different to horror today, they were more low budget films with actors that nobody knew and the narratives within the films were all too cliché. The films also were very unrealistic that you knew people wouldn’t do that with common sense, for example in Halloween when they knew there was a killer in their town, they still went out late at night. Also there was never anyone around when the violence was going on to help them; the police in the horror films reinforce the stereotype of them being useless they also never get there on time. Also it was young teenagers home alone, there were never any parents around so it was seen in these films that it easy to get away with violence because there were no consequences. These films were also perceived as too violent and they used young children in the films as killers which was giving the children the message that violence is a good thing and they can get away with it. However I feel that this still hasn’t really gone and there is a lot of this is films today however the only difference is the age restriction has gone up in horror films to avoid young children watching things that they shouldn’t because it can give them the wrong message. Horror back them was male dominated so therefore a large part of society was offended and wasn’t watching horror as much because of the way women were shown in these films. It would mainly be helpless young teenage girls who not always have clothes on. This is why men were more likely to watch these films than women. In Halloween I would argue is a male dominated film as there were naked helpless women who are the victims and the male is the killer so I feel this film could be seen a sexiest. This reinforced the male gaze theory that argued that films were too often made to satisfy the male ‘gaze’. Women were represented as sex objects in horror films to please male fantasies.
There is a big difference between Scream and Halloween because Scream was the first film to change the conventions of previous horror films and was not seen to be a cliché. They avoided this by not following other horror films like not using steadicam (sophisticated handheld camera often used for stalking scenes), also through the story they made the fights between the victims and the killer more equal to make it more realistic unlike Halloween. Also in Halloween they would go out at night even though there was a psychotic killer on the loose, whereas in Scream they were just at home and the killer comes and finds them. Wes Craven the director of Scream knew what was needed to make it a good film by making it different than the others; throughout the film they are continually mocking the clichéd conventions in Halloween. In Scream they laugh and joke about how overused these horror clichés are, for example “don’t say I’ll be right back” This clever use of pastiche makes fun of the outworn clichés, constantly mocking them. . They also mock the fact that horror was very sexiest and when the girl (Drew Barrymore) is on the phone to the killer she was saying how ‘it’s all male dominated and that it’s always a lost girl with blonde hair and big boobs that gets killed’. I feel in Scream they don’t use sex to relate to the horror. Another factor that Halloween was not as much as a success is the music that was used, very little money was spent on the music. They use nearly all the same music throughout the film; they also play it at specific times so you know that the killer is there. However the music in Scream has a much wider variety and is played at the right times. This helps builds up tension and also makes the viewer scared in Scream, they have synchronised the high tech sound track well to compliment the action so when it is scary the music will appropriately build up tension and create suspense.
There is less voyeurism in Scream because you get to see it out of both eyes the killer and the victims. Whereas in Halloween you only really see it from the killers point of view as the audience are positioned to see it from the killers POV. In Scream this gives the audience a chance to put themselves in the victim’s shoes which makes the audience have more sympathy for the victims which consequently adds more value to the film.
Scream used a number of big and well-known actors and actresses such as Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Henry Winkler and Drew Barrymore who was also used on the promotional poster for the film which made the audience think that she would be the main protagonist in the film. She was also featured at the start of the film and uncharacteristically gets killed early on, which is unusual for a big star to die in the beginning of the film. Wes Craven did this because they knew she is a big star and that people would want to go watch the film if they knew that she was in it. This was because they had a high budget to play with whereas Halloween didn’t. This also helped when it came to editing the film and the fast moving camera work unlike the hand held in Halloween, money can make a really did difference.
I will be writing about changes in horror throughout the years and why there was a change in the horror genre with reference to Halloween and Scream, two very ionic films. When horror first came out it was very different to horror today, they were more low budget films with actors that nobody knew and the narratives within the films were all too cliché. The films also were very unrealistic that you knew people wouldn’t do that with common sense, for example in Halloween when they knew there was a killer in their town, they still went out late at night. Also there was never anyone around when the violence was going on to help them; the police in the horror films reinforce the stereotype of them being useless they also never get there on time. Also it was young teenagers home alone, there were never any parents around so it was seen in these films that it easy to get away with violence because there were no consequences. These films were also perceived as too violent and they used young children in the films as killers which was giving the children the message that violence is a good thing and they can get away with it. However I feel that this still hasn’t really gone and there is a lot of this is films today however the only difference is the age restriction has gone up in horror films to avoid young children watching things that they shouldn’t because it can give them the wrong message. Horror back them was male dominated so therefore a large part of society was offended and wasn’t watching horror as much because of the way women were shown in these films. It would mainly be helpless young teenage girls who not always have clothes on. This is why men were more likely to watch these films than women. In Halloween I would argue is a male dominated film as there were naked helpless women who are the victims and the male is the killer so I feel this film could be seen a sexiest. This reinforced the male gaze theory that argued that films were too often made to satisfy the male ‘gaze’. Women were represented as sex objects in horror films to please male fantasies.
There is a big difference between Scream and Halloween because Scream was the first film to change the conventions of previous horror films and was not seen to be a cliché. They avoided this by not following other horror films like not using steadicam (sophisticated handheld camera often used for stalking scenes), also through the story they made the fights between the victims and the killer more equal to make it more realistic unlike Halloween. Also in Halloween they would go out at night even though there was a psychotic killer on the loose, whereas in Scream they were just at home and the killer comes and finds them. Wes Craven the director of Scream knew what was needed to make it a good film by making it different than the others; throughout the film they are continually mocking the clichéd conventions in Halloween. In Scream they laugh and joke about how overused these horror clichés are, for example “don’t say I’ll be right back” This clever use of pastiche makes fun of the outworn clichés, constantly mocking them. . They also mock the fact that horror was very sexiest and when the girl (Drew Barrymore) is on the phone to the killer she was saying how ‘it’s all male dominated and that it’s always a lost girl with blonde hair and big boobs that gets killed’. I feel in Scream they don’t use sex to relate to the horror. Another factor that Halloween was not as much as a success is the music that was used, very little money was spent on the music. They use nearly all the same music throughout the film; they also play it at specific times so you know that the killer is there. However the music in Scream has a much wider variety and is played at the right times. This helps builds up tension and also makes the viewer scared in Scream, they have synchronised the high tech sound track well to compliment the action so when it is scary the music will appropriately build up tension and create suspense.
There is less voyeurism in Scream because you get to see it out of both eyes the killer and the victims. Whereas in Halloween you only really see it from the killers point of view as the audience are positioned to see it from the killers POV. In Scream this gives the audience a chance to put themselves in the victim’s shoes which makes the audience have more sympathy for the victims which consequently adds more value to the film.
Scream used a number of big and well-known actors and actresses such as Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Henry Winkler and Drew Barrymore who was also used on the promotional poster for the film which made the audience think that she would be the main protagonist in the film. She was also featured at the start of the film and uncharacteristically gets killed early on, which is unusual for a big star to die in the beginning of the film. Wes Craven did this because they knew she is a big star and that people would want to go watch the film if they knew that she was in it. This was because they had a high budget to play with whereas Halloween didn’t. This also helped when it came to editing the film and the fast moving camera work unlike the hand held in Halloween, money can make a really did difference.
To conclude Wes Craven challenged and subverted the outworn horror clichés by making fun of them using parody. By having 2 ordinary killers instead of 1 superhuman strength killer it surprised the audience and made it more believable. He did however still keep some of the old generic conventions used in previous horror films like Halloween such as the use of knives as a weapon which are iconic props used in horror films and I think always will be. Scream was a box office success and got horror fans interested in going to see more horror films, prior to this it was a fading genre as it was becoming too predictable.
