Changes In Horror

Comparing Halloween And Scream

Through out the years Horror films have been able to evolve due to the development of technology. Due to the changes in technology it is possible to see a change in the way in which horror movie have been produced an example would be between Halloween which was released in 1978 and was directed by John Carpenter and Scream which was released in 1996 and was directed by Wes Craven. Scream makes some references to Halloween as they are both similar in the sense that they are both 'slasher' films as both the killers wear masks and carry knives.

Since the release of Halloween it is noted that a lot of directors have copied the conventions used in the making of the horror film. This has made a lot of horrors become similar and repetitive in a sense as they are faded and continue to present a parallel structure to their audience. Horror films have declined in recent years due to their unrealistic themes and their over excessive use of violence, this has made the audience disconnect from it as they see it as promoting crime for young people. 

However Wes Craven the director of Scream has tried to challenge the outworn conventions used in previous horror films. He has done so by trying to avoid the some of the cliched conventions of a horror film, for example not using and steady cam in most scenes like Halloween does. Halloween on the other hand wasn't as violence based as the traditional horror movie. This because the film focuses on the stalking aspect of Michael Myers on his victims than him actually putting the knife in them. the antagonist is mainly shown choking and stabbing his victims however we are not shown any blood. moreover it does follow a typical convention of horror movies where the victims are mainly female showing them as vulnerable victims.

In contrast to Halloween, Scream is more explicit in terms of violence and what they show their audience. This is due to the fact that they show frequent bloody deaths which are very gruesome. In Scream the victims are not just hunted down and murdered but are also sometimes tortured e.g. Cassie and Steve this showed a significant change from the typical killing structure. Also this shows that there was no discrimination in terms of gender regarding the victims.

Halloween uses very monotonous music throughout. This makes it very predictable as the audience are able to predict what is going to happen next. Scream on the other hand took a different approach and uses atmospheric music from tunes that are unpopular to the audience. This makes it unpredictable as the audience are waiting to see what happens next.

The typical horror conventions tend to portray their victims as wild and sex crazed teenagers, they are often made out to be victims in a horror movie and are often weak and are of no match in strength with the antagonist. However in Scream this convention was broken as the victims fought back and this challenged the conventions of a horror movie by making it unpredictable.

In Scream the audience is given a chance to see things from the victim and the killer's point of view this takes away voyeurism and allows the viewers to sympathies with the victims. This challenges the Stereotypical conventions as in Halloween and other horror films we are only shown the perspective of the killer and are not able to sympathizes with the victims.

Most horror films such as Halloween rarely use famous stars, this is because they are made on a low budget which explains why they use cheap unknown actors, usual everyday suburban locations, very obvious soundtrack and low tech equipment with very poor special effects. Scream on the other hand had a high budget and was able to feature a number of well known stars such as; Neve Campbell (Sydney), Courtney Cox (reporter), Henry Winkler (headmaster) and Drew Barrymore (1st victim). This is seen as one of the major reasons Scream succeeded than most horror movies. the use of recognizable actors was used a form of attracting the audience as they would be going to see someone they are used to watching on the big screen.