Perspectives | Why Is "Scream" Postmodern

"Scream" Poster

Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film shows Sidney Prescott, a high school student, who becomes the target of a mysterious killer known as Ghostface. The film combined black comedy and with the violence of the slasher genre to make fun out of the clichés from previous popular horror films. But why this film is postmodern?

1. Pastiche - The film borrows the violence of the slasher genre from horror films popularized in early to mid 80's, such as: "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th".

2. Irony - The irony in this film consists of the director of the movie “Scream” Wes Craven who is shown in one scene as Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street” even though he is not a killer as Freddy was.

3. Parody - The film was unique at the time of its release for featuring characters who were aware of real world horror films and openly discussed the clichés that "Scream" attempted to subvert.

4. Avant-garde - This film is a postmodern avant-garde. Not only it refreshed the slasher genre, but it also lead to brand new disscussions around the horror film ideology.

5. Meta-fiction - Even though the characters in this movie have a precise insight of the cliché course of events of former horror movies, they only joke about it instead of trying to avoid it. It seems to the audience that the movie is a meta narrative since the characters know the sequences in detail themselves and therefore know everything already.