Horror Conventions

How are cinematic horror conventions challenged in "SCREAM"?

Perhaps the most apparent challenged convention, is the main character and how they are percieved by the audience. Drew Barrimore appears as the typical vunerable, sweet, blonde American girl. She is home alone, and from this the audience will excpect something sinister will happen. Inevitably it does happen, however the opening of the film ends with Barrimore dying and let mutilated hanging from a tree. Normally the heroine/victim would survive the onslaught as the audience would excpet yet this is not the case.

There are many intertextual references made, in the first 10 minutes. These all stem from the horror genre, making homages to films such as Halloween. This can be seen when Barrimore takes firstly plays with a large carving knife then when she is being terrorised she uses it in self defence. Yet this again contradicts horror conventions, as it is normally the serial killer (Micheal Myers) armed with a monstrous weapon yet now it is the defencless victim.