Research Investigation

To what extent can Scream and The Cabin in the Woods be regarded as postmodern horror films?

The horror film genre has been ever changing since it was created and one of the most recent and most popular changes is a wave of ‘postmodern’ horror films. Postmodernism is "relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes." (Item 10). "That gives the movie a sense of reality as the characters are watching and talking about the horror films that we, the viewers, watch ourselves." This is a quote from a Scream review (item 2). This shows that throughout Scream (Item 1), there are references to other films that the viewers will have seen. This is post-modern because it is intertextual.

Slasher movies have been in production since the early 1930’s but they gained popularity in the 60’s and continued to gain popularity throughout the 70’s and80’s. “In the 1990s, the horror genre was almost dead.” (Item 3) it goes on to say that Scream attracted a new audience and was a critical and commercial success. Scream was the first film to really push the boundaries of horror at the time it was made. Scream had a lot to contend with when it was made, there were many, many other horror films that had already been made and these had already been smash hits, and they are still referred to now, for example The Exorcist. This is what makes Scream post modern; Scream often refers to other older horror movies, and actors that had iconic roles in the horror movie genre. It is also a parody of Halloween (Item 3). For example the scene in Scream where they are at the house party and Randy and a couple of other none-starring actors are sat around a TV watching Halloween, Randy starts talking about the rules of a horror film (Item 4). This is post modern because there is reference to another horror film within a horror film (Item 5) and also talking about the rules of a horror film isn’t done in any other film, the rules are none spoken, people just know them. This makes Scream different because it is telling you what is going to happen.

The Cabin in the Woods (Item 1a) is a film full of funny remarks, it is smart and witty but it is also a serious film. These are all postmodern sub-catergories; irony, wit, smart remarks. Like Scream, The Cabin in the Woods isn’t a typical horror film; there is a scene in the cabin after Jules has been killed and the remaining characters are in the cabin, where Curt says they should all split up (item 2a). This is when the witty and sarcastic character, Marty, questions this with ‘really?!’ (item 3a) This is an ironic and witty example of postmodernism within the film. This also shows that all the characters are typical (Item 4a), Marty being the sarcastic, witty and smart stoner, Curt being the ‘jock’, Jules being the ‘blonde’, Dana as the equivalent to Sidney from Scream and Jamie Lee Curtis; she’s the virgin, and Holden as the geek. These are all typical characters, just like in Scream, but Dana and Marty break the stereotype.

Throughout The Cabin in the Woods, there are intertextual references to other horror in the way of the monsters that are sent to kill the characters (Item 5a). For example: there is a man with saws in his head, this is similar to the killer called Pinhead in Hell Raiser. There is also a cobra which is similar to Anaconda, a ghost similar to that is in Poltergeist, zombies that could be from any zombie film like Dawn of the Dead, the angry tree from The Ruins, bugs could be from The Mist, the people in white masks could be from The Strangers, and the list goes on. All these killers are similar to them of all these different movies and more. This is post modernism because these different horror films and killers influence The Cabin in the Woods, and like Scream, it references different horror movies throughout (Item 3a).

Scream uses typical horror movie characters (Item 6) as well as The Cabin in the Woods; Sidney as the virgin, Tatum as the blonde, Randy as the geek, Stu as the joker and Billy as the jock. This is a clip of the scene in Scream where Tatum gets killed in the garage (Item 7), this proves that she is the blonde girl but also offers a different take on it because she actually fights back and becomes the victim. Having said this, Stu and Billy also have another side to their characters, they are also the killers. This is different to other horror movies, because throughout the film, hints are made towards Stu and Billy but there is also doubt about other characters even though it is blatantly obvious. This is post-modern because it is making fun of other horror films, it is breaking all the rules whilst, at the same time, making all the rules clear and obvious, it is being ironic (Item 5).

Scream is post-modern because it is a hybrid of horror and comedy (Item 6). A hybrid is where two genres are mixed together. You can tell that Scream is a hybrid genre because of the funny aspects in the film but also the horror aspects. For example when Stu is on the phone to Sidney at the end of the film and Stu asks if Sidney is going to tell his parents about what he has done, and then he says ‘they’re gonna kill me’. This adds an element of comedy to the film because it is ironic that Stu is the fool of the film and also that he is dying when he says it. An aspect of horror in the film is when the killer rings Drew Barrymore’s character Casey and says ‘do you like scary movies? …cause I wanna know who I’m looking at’ this adds suspense and disrupts the equilibrium.

The Cabin in the Woods is similar. Although it is not a hybrid, it takes reference and influence from other horror films and filters them in. This is intertextuality because it is one text referring to another text. For example, when they are in the glass lift going through all the monsters, there are many monsters that are in other horror films. "They offer a 'false realism', films about other films..." (Item 3a)  this supports the intertextuality because intertextuality makes a film slightly more surreal, offer a slight de ja vu effect - as if its happened before. Like the monster people in white masks – taken from The Strangers, the dinosaur could be from Jurassic Park etc. (Item 6a). The fact that The Cabin in the Woods contains reference to other horror films makes the film slightly unpredictable in the way that if you haven’t seen the films it references, then you don’t know what the monsters will do.

The music and sound effects in both Scream and The Cabin in the Woods (Items 8a and 9) are post-modern too because the same music and sound effects will be used in any generic horror movie; ‘A series of films that uses a short melody as a symbol for its monster is the Halloween series’ (Items 8a and 9). It is said that Scream is a parody of Halloween. This is slight intertextuality because it is one thing that is used in many things, past and present. Throughout both films, familiar sound effects are used, such as creaking floor boards and a long silence leading to a loud, startling sound. These are common horror movie conventions which are post-modern because they are featured in so many horror films. The sound effects and music are important in horror films to build tension and create a certain mood. Without the music and effects, horror films would be dull and the scary aspect of it will be lost.

Another sub-category of postmodernism is being reptetitive. The scream films are very repetitive, the sequels are all similar in story line and all the killings are along the same style. This is postmodern because it is copying a copy of a copy (Item 8). As similar as the killings are and as the sequels are, they have slight differences. This happens when things are recycled again and again; there will be more tiny changes with every copy. Similarly, Cabin in the Woods recycles regular conventions of horror; for example, when Curt says they should split up. This has been recycled and copied over and over again, throughout horror films and even Scooby Doo.

Paying homage is another sub-category of postmodernism. It means paying tribute or reverence (Item 9a). The Cabin in the Woods pays homage to different horror films in the way that it takes influence from different monsters (Item 7a and 5). Scream pays homage to a variety of different films such as Halloween, Friday the 13^th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Prom Night. All of these are in turn referred to at different times throughout the film. At the house party scene where Tatum dies, there are multiple occasions where you catch a glimpse of the TV, and there is a horror film playing. The horror films have Jamie Lee Curtis in them, because at the time Scream was made, Jamie Lee Curtis was a big horror film star. This is post-modern because it is not only intertextual but it is also paying pastiche to other films that have influenced it (Item 8). It is also ironic as Scream is poking fun at these horror films for being so predictable and ordinary.

An example of irony in Scream would be the clumsiness of Ghost Face, the killer. It is playful and ironic that the killer is as stealthy as the typical killer in a horror film. The killer is not a typical murderer. Typical killers are perceived as having super human strength and are meant to be un-kill-able, but Ghost Face is not super human. In typical horror films, the killer never dies either, so when Ghost face gets shot, he doesn’t die straight away, he gets up again and again. Gale shoots Billy Loomis (Ghost Face) when he is attacking Sidney, he is on the floor with Randy, Gale and Sidney looking down at him and he sits up as if to attack them again, Sidney shoots him in the head (Item 10). This is ironic because Ghost Face gets shot multiple times but because he keeps getting back up, this is making fun of the convention that the killers don’t die.

The Cabin in the Woods is an example of simulation because it is an example of the influence television has on every day life (Item 3a). Television is a massive part of the film because the film has a very ‘Big Brother’ feel to it. This is proved by the amount of the unrealistic things that happen in the film and by the effect of the two main characters in the offices that overlook what is happening in the Cabin. Quoting Jean Baudrillard (Item 3a): “the dissolution of TV into life, the dissolution of life into TV”, this supports what I said because Baudrillard studied simulation and he too came to the realization that “It's a perfect example of life imitating art imitating life” (Item 11). That is said in Scream two, during a film class. This relates to Scream and The Cabin in the Woods because both of these films strongly focus on the fact that life is televised to the point that there is no longer any difference between what’s real and what isn’t.