Genre analysis

How Wes Craven used Codes and Conventions to create one of the best horror
films to date.

At the start of the scene we see the girl on the phone and she starts to fiddle with
some knives on the kitchen table. Without looking into this in a deeper manner this
could look like a basic action by the character but I think it holds a lot more weight
than that. I think it symbolizes and foreshadows the danger that is about to come in
the sequence and tells the viewer that those knives will be used at some point. To
reinforce this we see the popcorn gradually getting bigger and bigger at time goes
on which also tells us that danger is near and that we are reaching boiling point.
These things are quite typical of horror films, they like to leave little hints to tell
the viewer what is to come and I think Wes Craven does it perfectly with a whole
host of different bits and pieces of foreshadowing

Later on there is a brilliant use of cinematography as the person on the phone says
that she’s looking at the girl. We get this slow zoom into her face as she questions
what the man has just said. This is a moment that makes the character's heart drop
but also the audience and I think the way the camera zoomed into her face and
showed the emotion change from being sassy and cute to serious helps us
understand this. This repeats a few times during the scene and I think it’s quite a
staple of showing danger and intent in horror films.

Throughout the sequence we get sinister sounding music which is a big stereotype
for almost every horror film in history. Around 5 minutes in to the sequence we see
the girl on the phone with the man saying her boyfriends name to her. As he is
revealing her boyfriends name (Steve) we hear this sinister music really ramp up
and suddenly drop as he says Steve’s name. I think this is a perfect use of the
music and the drop sound really gets you to feel what the girl is feeling and helps
you understand her emotions at the time.