Characters, Conventions and ‘The Rules’: Creating Scream’s Thieving, Whoring Ensemble

Abstract

This chapter reviews the scene from Wes Craven's Scream that establishes the heroine, Sidney, and her unconsummated relationship with boyfriend Billy Loomis. It recounts the traumatic backstory of the murder of Sidney's mother and her inability to sacrifice her virginity that reflect the film's reverential tone and provide the first hint of Billy's psychotic detachment from reality. It also talks about the immediate positioning of Sidney as a sensitive virgin with a tragic backstory that conveys to the audience that she will be the 'final girl' or heroine. The chapter discusses how Scream is about knowledge of the movies, in which the characters have seen so many horror films that they know what to do and what not to do. It points out how casting and characterisation played a major part in Scream's marketing and success in a way that performers and characters of a typical 1980s slasher film did not.