Perspectives: 5 Reasons Why Scream Is Postmoden
5 reasons why the 1996 film Scream by Wes Craven is seen as being postmodern.
1 - The film is self-aware of it's self and the genre that it is in. Scream's characters have watched all of the horror films that have come before it such as Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) which Craven also worked on. Freddy Krueger even makes a cameo.
2 - It is nostalgic as it reminds the viewer what it is about the slasher genre that they love so much as well as pointing out some of the key patterns that happen in the plot of these types of films, which is the main reason as to why the slasher genre started to die out.
3 - Scream can be seen as being a parody of the horror genre. The characters like to point out the stupid decisions that horror film characters make that end up with them getting killed. The character Sidney Prescott, when asked if she likes horror films, says "What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It's insulting." Ghostface also points out a number of stupid things his victims do when calling them and how the characters in horror movies do the same thing which leads to them being killed. This is most likely what everyone has been thinking and said when watching a horror movie because they have seen this happen again and again in a number of different films.
4 - As well as being a parody, Scream in some ways can be seen as being a pastiche. It was made in the style of the other films that came out years earlier so that it could appeal to people who watch horror movies.
5 - It also deconstructs it's genre. As explaned above Scream knows about the horror film tropes and how annoying they have become over the years with nearly evey film that comes out following the same pattern. The characters deconstruct what you should and shouldn't do when the killer is going after you and how it always ends the same way, but find themselves doing said tropes a few seconds later because they are in a horror movie themselves.
1 - The film is self-aware of it's self and the genre that it is in. Scream's characters have watched all of the horror films that have come before it such as Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) which Craven also worked on. Freddy Krueger even makes a cameo.
2 - It is nostalgic as it reminds the viewer what it is about the slasher genre that they love so much as well as pointing out some of the key patterns that happen in the plot of these types of films, which is the main reason as to why the slasher genre started to die out.
3 - Scream can be seen as being a parody of the horror genre. The characters like to point out the stupid decisions that horror film characters make that end up with them getting killed. The character Sidney Prescott, when asked if she likes horror films, says "What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It's insulting." Ghostface also points out a number of stupid things his victims do when calling them and how the characters in horror movies do the same thing which leads to them being killed. This is most likely what everyone has been thinking and said when watching a horror movie because they have seen this happen again and again in a number of different films.
4 - As well as being a parody, Scream in some ways can be seen as being a pastiche. It was made in the style of the other films that came out years earlier so that it could appeal to people who watch horror movies.
5 - It also deconstructs it's genre. As explaned above Scream knows about the horror film tropes and how annoying they have become over the years with nearly evey film that comes out following the same pattern. The characters deconstruct what you should and shouldn't do when the killer is going after you and how it always ends the same way, but find themselves doing said tropes a few seconds later because they are in a horror movie themselves.
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| Freddy Krueger on his day off |
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