The opening scene to scream is a good example of a typical horror film as it follows the key conventions which add together to inform the audience of the genre and also create a realistic terrifying film. The film starts with the word scream smashing onto a black screen, the combination of music and effects are very effective: we hear a women’s desperate scream and the slashing sound of a knife at the same time as the word scream turning red, conveying blood. So before the film has even started the audience instantly recognise this film is a horror.
There is a very effective technical device during this scene, while the women is in the kitchen talking on the phone, there are a set of knives in the foreground, and she picks one up and twiddles it around in her fingers to emphasise them, this is extremely significant as it suggests that a knife could play an important role in the film and could be a potential murder weapon.
We are introduced to one of the characters; she is a good looking older teenage girl, who appears to be alone in a big house, showing she is vulnerable and open to attack. Not a great deal of her personality is revealed, I believe this is because she is “monster fodder,” she is there to show the power of the villain therefore the audience do not need to build up an understanding of her character as she is there merely to be killed early on. All we lean about her is she’s a polite naive young women, because she comes across very friendly to the random stranger on the phone but after she hangs up and the man rings again, she leads him on, and in a sense you could argue she’s a bit flirtatious. Most people would ignore the phone call after recognising it’s the same stranger ringing again but she invites a flowing conversation. After shortly talking on the phone about horror films, which is a clever device as it sends the audience into thoughts about previous horror films making them feel scared and uneasy, also its telling them to expect fright, we realise that the man on the phone is extremely strange and sinister. Dialogue is a key element in the opening scene, as it practically tells the story and reveals personalities of the characters. The man asks what the womens name is and she replies “why you wanna know”, the man says “because I want to know who I’m looking at.” Creepy orchestra music (which is typical of horror films) kicks in and the camera zooms in for a close up of the womens shocked and scared facial expression. Various action codes follow such as: locking doors and windows, flicking lights on and hiding in the corner, it’s from this point on we know she’s in danger. 
The setting is key for creating effective misenscene, its set in a big empty house miles away from the rest of civilisation, this emphasise the isolation the women must be feeling. There is a tracking establishing shot of the back of the house and garden which starts off showing the eerie moonlight through the over grown creepy tree, the camera slowly tracks downwards and we see the swing rope slowly swinging backwards and forwards sending us into a fausle sense of security, we are led to believe someone is swinging on it but there is no one there.
Typical devices specific to the horror genre such as red herrings are used on various occasions as they momentarily leave the audience in a state of suspense, an example of this is when we hear an enhanced flicking sound and see flames, which makes the audience jumps but turns out its just the women putting pop corn on the hob. A sense of the unknown is created through the mystery of the villain, as we haven’t seen him, only heard his voice it makes the situation scarier as we are left in suspense wondering who the villain is.
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