The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Narrative (Todorov's Theory)

Scream Trailor - Characters (Propp's Theory)

Chase scene storyboard

Structuralist film theory emphasizes how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions. I started my scene with an establishing shot of an isolated white house surrounded by a forest as well as it being misty. This automatically sets the scene and shows that there is know where for a potential victim to run, and the mist surrounding the house and forest create a sense of mystery and makes the atmosphere chilling. I then chose to go straight to an extreme close up of the killer from the waist down with the camera focusing on his hand on the door handle trying to get in, with sinister music playing which is gradually getting faster and building up pace as the killer succeeds in his task of opening the front door. I decided on not giving away the killers identity as this is a feature of structuralist theory; as in structuralist horror films, the killers identities are not revealed until the end of the film.

In the third box it shows a point of view shot of a young blonde woman sitting alone watching the T.V. She then pauses the T.V as she can hear someone fumbling with the front door and as a result she starts panicking, eerie music is then introduced in the scene to help build up momentum. This is typical iconography of the horror genre; a blonde female alone.  Still in a point of view shot it shows the young girl getting up from her seat and running towards the back door, upon getting there she realizes it is locked, this is also another typical paradigm of this genre, and shows that there is no escape for her. A little while after her tampering with the door handle to try and get out, she turns around to find the masked killer holding a knife, not too far from her. For this shot I chose to do a close up of only some of his silhouette, which helps with the sense of mystery. Another paradigm of the horror genre. It then jumps to a close up of the young girl screaming, before she starts running, this represents how she is feeling at this moment in time.  All the while sinister music continues to be played, to help build up the pace of the actual chase.

In the seventh scene it starts off as a long shot so that we can see the killer chasing his victim, however it does switch several time to point of view shot, with a hand held camera. I chose to use a hand held camera for this particular part of the scene as it makes it seem more realistic and all the different angles make it dynamic.  A she is running, she trips and falls to the ground, where she thinks she has got away from him, as a result of this the fast paced music stops, and all you can hear is her heavy breathing. This is a typical juxtaposition used in horror films to make the audience believe the character is safe but little do they know, something bad is about to happen just moments later.  Subsequently the killer has by this time got her and has stabbed her several times in the chest, killing her. And an extreme close up of the knife the killer used is shown dripping with blood. A knife is typical iconography used in this genre as it is a very personal way of killing someone, and there is also an air of mystery surrounding it because a knife can be found in anybody’s house, meaning the killer could be anyone, and creates mystery and suspense for the audience  as to whether the victim knows him.

How does the opening of scream follow the structuralist theory of the horror genre?

In the opening of Scream, the uses of paradigms which relate to iconography are used to help follow the structural theory of the horror genre. This emphasises how the film conveys meaning, but also has aspects to it that make it a postmodernist film, as it clearly acknowledges that the audience would have seen previous horror films following this structure, and it plays against it slightly, making it almost predictable.

The characters are an essential part of the iconography in displaying paradigms, which identifies the film to be in the ‘horror’ genre. We are first confronted with a young blonde female, who we can only assume is the lead character. The idea of using this sort of person as a main character and victim to the killer, plays up to the stereotype of what we would normally see in this genre of film. She is alone in an isolated house surrounded by a deserted road, a forest and is set in the night time.  This connotes fear and claustrophobia, making the audience think about how she is going to escape and if she does no body will be able to hear her screams, because nobody is around, making the killer be able to chase her around without anyone finding them. The main focus is of the young female in the kitchen, where sharp objects can be used as weapons. As in one of the shots a set of kitchen knives are shown in centre foreground, this leads you to believe that anyone could be the killer, because everyone has them in their household. This allows the audience to empathise with the victim because it is a personal way to kill someone, and the killer has to be up close to the person to do so. 

The killer remains anonymous and masked throughout the opening scene, which creates an air of mystery surrounding him/her, and could be anyone, making it more scary. This is a typical feature which makes the film structuralist because it makes a person unknown and evokes fear as we do not know who is behind it .He/she then makes a series of phone calls to the young females house, who is later to be his/her victim, the killer is using a masked voice when doing this, this causes the audience to think who it may be and how far the killer will go with torturing her through the phone. The young female’s boyfriend is the first to be killed. He is tied up to a chair outside the house after being killed. Making him trapped and making his killing look more like a torture. This conforms to the idea of the final girl theory which we see in horror films today.

Sound and editing is another paradigm of the structure which is used in horror films to portray the ‘slasher’ sub genre. It creates momentum and atmosphere in scenes. Scream uses lots of jump cuts which help match the audience’s ever increasing heartbeat, during scenes of action. It builds up momentum the build up to the main plot is coming.  Point of view shots are also frequently used, to help the audience feel a part of the action, helping them to empathise with the characters and feel what they are feeling. Non-diegetic sound is used throughout, and the revelation that the killer is stalking her becomes known to her as well as the audience. This creates fear and becomes unnerving. Using this type of sound makes the atmosphere very tense as it follows her every movement. Silence and very quiet music is also used, this creates intensity in the scene and makes it seem threatening. Typical loud music that you would normally hear in the horror genre is played while the action un folds.

Theme is the final paradigm of a horror film is theme. The theme throughout is different compared to previous other horror films.  The characters in ‘Scream’ openly reference other horror films, creating fear as it can be easily related to by the audience.

The opening of ‘Scream’ has various paradigms, which contribute to the idea of the structuralist theory, such as the female victim and the final girl theory, the sound and editing and props. However the film also uses elements that do not follow the conventional ideas of structuralism, such as intertexuality. Although it follows these concepts, it shows the idea of postmodernism in the opening scene, which gives an idea of the structure that will be used throughout the duration of the film.