The first thing that is made aware in the being of the film is that 'Scream' is specifically mocking 'Slasher’ films' like 'Friday the 13th' and 'Halloween' in which the killer goes around killing people one by one rather than say a monster like the old 'Frankenstein' and 'Wolf man' films, or films that have a bigger emphasis or drama rather than horror like 'Psycho' or 'Carrie'. This is made aware in the opening scene where a girl gets a mysterious call from someone who is spying on her and eventually ends up killing her by stabbing her to death and then gutting her... nasty. The main parody point of the ‘Slasher’ genre is when one of the characters in Scream highlight that there are specific rules to surviving a horror film like not saying 'I’ll be right back' or not having sex since these conventions appear in almost every ‘Slasher’ film and the audience knows exactly what ‘Scream’ is saying since every time one of the above rules is disobeyed in a horror film that character(s) dies shortly afterwards. This also happens during the film since whenever a character goes somewhere by themselves or has sex or even drinks a lot they die, which further emphasises the rules that 'Scream' mentions.
Another thing that makes Scream a parody is that it is self aware that is a horror film. What I mean by this is that there are various times in the films where characters will talk about horror films and their conventions often mocking them, for instance the main character 'Sidney Prescott' gets the same call as the girl in the begin from 'Ghost face' (the killer) and he asks her "Do you like scary movies?" she replies "no, I think it's stupid when a big breasted blonde girl who can't act is running upstairs to get away from the killer when she should be running out the front door" and then 2 minutes later she is attacked by 'Ghost face' and she then runs upstairs to get away from him instead of running out the front door. It’s moments like these where you can tell that Scream is self aware since anyone else wouldn’t be so stupid as to run upstairs or even bother talking to 'Ghost face' over the phone, what this does however is that it further mocks the conventions of horror films since the audience are made aware of these conventions and they are then played out in front of them to further emphasises how stupid they are. This is made more prominent towards the end of the films since when the killer explains his plan he references nearly every horror film and how he used their conventions and techniques to get away with the murders (e.g. he talks about using the ingredients that made the blood in 'Carrie' to fake his own death and even quotes Psycho saying "we all go a little crazy sometimes') and the character who explain the rules to survive a horror film acknowledges these since he is one of the few who obeys them (e.g. he states that "I'm so happy to be a virgin right now" due to the nature of non-virgins being killed in horror films).
So it's pretty obvious the 'Scream' mock horror conventions but in my opinion it also mocks horror theories, in particular the 'final girl theory' and the 'male gaze' since they are the most prominent theories in both horror films and 'Slasher' films. First of all the 'final girl theory' is used in almost every ‘Slasher’ film since it explains that the main girl is often the outcast out of her friends since she isn't loud, sexually active or confident, yet at the end of the film when she has to confront the killer she is the only one who is able to stop/kill him/her or it. Good examples of the finally girl theory are 'Halloween', 'Alien', 'A nightmare on elm street' and 'Texas chainsaw massacre' (all ‘Slasher’ films, expect 'Alien') since the main characters in those films are all quiet women at first who aren't that attractive compared to the other girls and seem rather weak, yet at the end they end up surviving the killer (e.g. Ellen Ripley is the only one smart enough to outsmart the alien and kill it). This Theory is mock in Scream in a very interesting a clever manor since the main character 'Sidney Prescott' is not as attractive as her friend or loud mouthed and confident, yet she is good looking and she has a reason for noting being sexually active since her mother died and ever since she has been unsure about sex, also from the get go she is a strong character rather than being weak like most final girls since she survives Ghost face’s first attack and even punches a news reporter in the face. What 'Scream' mocks about the final theory is that while Sidney is a virgin throughout the majority of the film, towards the end she decides to forget the torment of her dead mother and actually has sex with her boyfriend which is completely against what most final girls do and even the rules to surviving a horror film yet she is the one who beats the killer in the end (way to break the mould 'Scream').
The male gaze is another theory that Scream really takes the piss out of since out of all the different film genres, in my opinion horror films are the most likely ones where you're going to see people topless or fucking each other (Friday the 13th is guilty of this since in every film and I mean every film you see at least one couple having sex). Often this is used as a marketing gimmick since it is often rare to see naked people in films and horror films uses this as a way to get more male audiences interested in the film since even if the film does suck there is still nudity which is what most males want to see alongside the violence and gore. Scream mocks this in terms of build up and expectations since there are many times in Scream where you expect the characters to have sex or at least take their top off, but right before this happens the film will ether cut away or just stop the sexual interaction. For example in the beginning of the film Sidney's boyfriend tries to get in to her pants (literally) with a close up of his hand going up her leg and reaching for her... you know what, but she doesn't let him due to her being unsure about it, she then says "would you rather settle for PG-13?" And then she flasher her breast at him yet the camera is placed over her shoulder so we only see her boyfriends reaction. Another example is towards the end of the film where just as Sidney and her boyfriend start to have sex and she proceeds to take off her bra and just before she lifts it up the camera pans to behind her boyfriends back blocking the audiences view, but before the pan can finished it cuts away to the group of friends watching 'Halloween' and even then it shows the clip of when one of Laurie's friends is about to show her breast, but right before she does it cuts to the groups reaction seeing this. What 'Scream does it that it teases the audiences expectations since they expect to see nudity yet they don't get it but what this does is that it makes the audience keep watching (I'm guilty of this) since they expect to see something eventually due to the amount of post-nudity shots in the film, and it feels like the film is building up to something though in the end it doesn’t amount to anything.
So that's my take on how 'Scream' mocks the conventions and theories of Horror movies. Now to general movie goers they may not understand what 'Scream' is mocking due to them not being aware of all the different conventions of horror films, but that begs the question....
"DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES?"
"DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES?"
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