The 'Scream' films..

Wes Craven’s Scream films always had one thing in common other than then ghost faced killer. They all have a scene where a girl ( or two) is alone in a house and getting ready to watch a horror film when they get a phone call from the famous killer. Each film includes this scene but tries to make it superior each time.

In ‘Scream’, Drew Barrymore’s character endures this scene and ends up being stabbed in the stomach and dies. But the process of her not knowing where the killer is is far more interesting.

When she receives the phone call she starts to play with the killer, obviously thinking it’s just a prank call. The camera work throughout this scene is smooth and suggests that the killer is watching her. 
After we find the killer in the house and she’s trying to escape, we get many shots of Drew close up, taking half of the screen with her terrified face, while we can see ghostface walking around trying to find her.

This girl is completely vulnerable to the killer and has a very small chance of surviving. This is a interesting casting choice as Drew Barrymore is a big actor and would be expected to have a larger role than just the first 5 minutes, this is a clear homage to Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, doing the same thing with Vera Miles.

The most interesting take on this scene is the one featured in ‘Scream 2’. Sarah Michelle Gellar goes through a similar scene but it was worth taking note that at the time of this film’s release, she was starring in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ where she would play a super hero, saving the world each week. It was as though the film was suggesting that nobody is safe from ghostface, not even super humans.

The quadrilogy’s main character is Sydney played by Neve Campbell, who goes through each film trying to survive and capture the murderer. In the first film her character is vulnerable and scared, yet as each sequel comes along, she gets more confident and cares less about the killers. She knows how to deal with them and becomes emotionally stronger from these situations. Her character is very likable in this respect and comes across and a very strong woman who is constantly denying the killers her bloody corpse. She has become a member of the list of strong women in cinema along with ‘The Terminator’s Sarah Connor’ and ‘Aliens’ Ellen Ripley’.  She has proven much harder to kill than the smaller characters played by Drew Barrymore and Sarrah Michelle Geller who herself has played a character that belongs on this list.