Scream (slasher Film)

Scream 

Scream characters- Billy, Sidney, Stu, Tatum, Randy

The 1996 film scream directed by Wes Craven, follows a group of teenagers battling and trying to survive the mystery killer. The movie starts with a teenage girl getting a creepy mysterious phone call from the killer. The killer soon kills both the girl and her boyfriend. After the news spreads around the town and school that two of the student's classmates have been murdered, the school shuts down to avoid any more deaths. But just like any slasher film the deaths don't end there, they are just getting started. We are then introduced to the main character Sidney who appears to be the killer's
next target. Sidney's boyfriend Billy Loomis promises to keep her safe and assures her that nothing bad will happen to her as long as he's around. after the school shuts down a party is thrown which is where all of the chaos begins. several students are murdered including Sidney's friends and only a few are left in the end. By the end of the film, the killer is revealed to be Billy, Sidney's boyfriend, and his best friend Stu. 

Just like every other slasher film the final girl is very important to the story, however, Scream strays a bit from the "normal" final girl role. In Clover's Her Body, Himself, the final girl is always the last one left at the end, it is always a girl and a virgin, the final girl also often has to watch all of her friends get killed and has to defend herself and kill the killer. At the start of this film, Sidney fits this description perfectly however during the movie she loses her virginity to her boyfriend Billy Loomis.  While Sidney is still the final girl in this movie she is not the only one, the filmmakers also included two others, gale the news reporter and classmate Randy. Each of these characters plays a role in fulfilling the final girl description. Sidney is obviously the stereotypical final despite her losing her virginity halfway through the movie. But not to worry there is still a virgin left at the end of the film, Randy, this film threw a twist in by having more than one final girl, and then they threw another one in by making one of them a male character. The last final girl is Gale, she is now able to get the innocent man out of jail that was found guilty for Sidney's mom's murder. This film goes against the stereotypical role of the final girl while still including all of the parts of the role in the movie.

Randy telling the rules of horror movies

Sex is also a major topic point in this movie throughout the film sex is discussed several times. Sidney, along with most of the town, believes that her mother was raped before she was killed, then Her Body, Himself talks a lot about how clear the topic of sex is in slasher movies. Sex is mentioned multiple times in the movie that Sidney is a virgin and she is pressured eventually into having sex with Billy. Then there is also Tatum who is the complete opposite of Sidney, she is the slutty best friend that is seen in every slasher movie. She is extremely sexualized by her body language and is always wearing tight form-fitting clothes. The whole movie has a lot to do with sex, Billy's who motive, after all, was because of Sidney's mom and Billy's dad's affair causing the separation between his parents.
there is also the fact of Sidney being a virgin for most of the movie, and not to forget the typical "slutty" character Tatum (Sidney's best friend).

Sidney Using a gun to kill Billy

While slasher movies don't normally contain guns as a weapon of choice, this is just another small twist that was included in Scream. Her Body, Himself states that "guns have no place in slasher films." however guns are shown and used several times in this film. Again not straying too far from the slasher movie script the killer's main weapon is a knife used to kills his victims. In slasher movies, knives and other weapons like it are used because they are phallic symbols, and guns are seen as weaker according to Clover. However, guns are shown many times toward the end of the film, in fact a gun is what Sidney uses to kill Billy for good at the very end. At one point Billy is even shown holding a gun threatening to hurt Sidney with that rather than the knife. By using a gun Sidney represents her more feminine side by not using a phallic symbol, but that is not something to be ashamed of because she saved herself from the killer and proved that not all femininity is such a bad thing.

Overall, this film is a great twist on the slasher films, it makes sure to get all the parts of the genre in but adding a bit of a twist to it. This film also contains so much gender and feminism topics for discussion towards the end of the movie with the final girls defeating the killer together and taking back their lives.