Codes and Conventions of a horror - Scream

We watched Scream as another bit of research for horror. The film is mostly dark light with allot of shadows. It is light inside the house but dark outside. The curtains are not drawn and the house is very open as it has allot of big glass windows. Scream can see her in the house but she cannot see him as it is dark outside. This builds up allot of tension. The house is posh and very big which shows the family is wealthy. It is isolated, in the middle of nowhere. This brings more tension. There are many props such as the knife. A knife is used nearly throughout of the opening in the film. Scream uses the knife to stab people but the girl pulls it out as she is on the phone talking about another horror film (Halloween) which has a knife in it. The girl is cooking popcorn on the hob on the cooker. As the popcorn gets bigger the tension of the film builds up to and the voice of scream builds up to. Scream is wearing a long black cloak and a mask so it covers up the identity of who he is.
There is a reaction shot of the young girls face as the phone rings a second time, this shows that she thinks it weird that the phone rings again just as she has put the phone down. There is allot of medium close ups and close ups. These shots show the expression on peoples faces. There are many point of view shots throughout the opening. There is one where the young girl looks out of the window to look in the garden. There is another one of the parents looking at the young girl hanging from the tree. The knife with the blood on it and the door lock are inserts to the shot. There is a shot of the girl when she is on the phone with allot of background showing, this shows that something is going to happen, or that someone is the in background but you can not see them yet. The camera follows her around the house as if she is being following, which is ironic because scream is watching her from outside. There is a shot of the tree while she is on the phone, this is significant as she is hung there. There is a long shot of the car coming down all the winding roads (this is what she can see when she is running away), this shot builds tension.
There is slow motion of the girl trying to run away. The way it is in slow motion is that the girl had a chance to escape but then the chance was slowly slipping away, it also draw attention to what is happening in the scene. There is a freeze frame on the knife just as he is about to stab the girl. This show you that he is about to stab her, and is focuses on the knife. There is a specific couple of shots which draw you. It starts with the mum screaming, then on the girl hanging from the tree, then on the mum and dad then a very quick zoom on the girl hanging from the tree. There are quick flashes of the character scream of him in the house. This makes you think what is going to happen next, who is he (unknown). The text 'Scream' is in red as this represents blood as many people get killed in the film and as it is a horror.
There is allot of different noises such as when the knife goes into the girl is makes a squishing noise, this makes it more gory. There is a heart beat which is a base sound which makes it more dramatic. The music builds up and then goes back down again, this is parallel to the action in the scene.