Scream: Cover Analysis

Denotations: in the background of this cover there is a pale-faced and blue eyed woman looking scared/shocked with a hand over her mouth (it is not clear whether this is her hand or someone else’s). In the foreground there are four young adults, two males and two females, and then one older looking woman. They are all wearing black and have rather calm expressions. In front of these people is the title of the film, Scream, in white, bold writing. The ‘m’ of Scream has been pulled down slightly. Around the edges of this cover there is a blurred, black border.

Connotations: the scared woman represents the fear that will be experienced by so many of the characters in this film. The black and white colour scheme may be there to show that she is cold and lifeless, and, as black and white are boring colours, it could also mean that she is unimportant to the killer, possibly because he has killed so many already. The young adults and the older woman are on the cover as they are the main characters and will be involved in most of the action that goes on in the film. I feel the girl with the blond hair is right at the front as she is the person who is killed first, and is also an iconic element of the film (most people are aware of her death even if they haven’t watched the film). They are wearing black in order to compliment the horror genre of this film (which is rather dark and bleak) and the black also hints that this film is not going to be bright and cheery, but instead sinister, possibly with bad fates for these five characters. The connotation of the calm expressions is of a calm and peaceful time, but, as the storyline does not treat these characters well, I’m not sure why they have this look. However, these expressions do create a rather eerie effect (considering the fact that most of them are killed) which works well with the scary and unnerving genre. I feel the white writing is there in order to represent the killer, Ghostface, as he wears a white mask for the majority of this film. It may also represent the innocence of the characters on the cover, or it may just simply be there as a contrast against the black background. I think that the sunken letter ‘m’ may represent the long and lingering screams of the characters that are killed in this film, and the sunken part of this letter also looks very sharp, possibly signifying the sharp dagger that is used to kill in the movie. The black border is indicative of the bleak and gloomy nature of the film.

Is there anything missing from it that would make it better?: I feel these five characters should have more frightened expressions, due to their unfortunate storylines. The calm expressions are very confusing if you are in the know of the plotline of the film, as it is not as calm and as peaceful as these expressions suggest. Additionally, whilst I think it is clever to have white writing in order to represent the killer in this movie, white is usually associated with goodness and purity, and so is again confusing considering the plotline of the film. I think the title would be best in red, which has much more to do with the horror genre and has connotations of blood and gore.