- Watch acting coach Scott Sedita review great, mediocre, and downright terrible screams from horror movies, breaking down what the actors did right or wrong in their performances.
- Sedita deconstructed some of the genre's most memorable screams, ranging from cult favorite B-movies like "Troll 2" and "The Blob" to bona fide classics like legendary Hitchcock thriller "Psycho" and Wes Craven's
horror satire "Scream." - He discussed some common mistakes actors make when they scream on camera and how slasher-film scream queens like Neve Campbell and Jamie Lee Curtis make their screams feel real and terrifying.
Following is a transcript of the
Scott Sedita: What's interesting about
Hi, I'm Scott Sedita. I'm an acting coach here in Los Angeles and we're gonna be reviewing some horror films, specifically screams in horror films, what works and what doesn't work, so here we go.
Arnold: Oh my God!
Scott Sedita: This particular actor who's supposed to be looking at trolls eating something is not looking at anything, it's very clear.
Arnold: They're eating her and they are going to eat me!
Scott Sedita: Oh God, in his line, "And they're going to eat me!" He seems to have a question mark on it as if he's unsure if that's a truth.
Arnold: Oh my God!
Scott Sedita: As far as the scream here, it's coming from his throat, Which means that it's not a strong, instinctual scream that has a strong emotional aspect to it. If you're gonna scream, it has to come from something instinctive inside of you with a strong emotional base. And that just seemed to be something somebody said, "Action!" And they went "Ahh!"
Arnold: There must be a logical reason for all this.
Woman: Shut up!
Casey Becker: Who's there? I'm calling the police.
Scott Sedita: The telephone call, I'm outside, all of that play on horror films that "Scream" was doing. I think it works really well with Drew Barrymore. What's interesting about Drew Barrymore's performance is that each of the screams seem to be a little different. I don't know if that was necessarily planned, but she's a good actress, so she probably put a different intention behind each of those screams. For her not to want to see the actor who was on the other end of that phone call, she was in it. She wasn't just listening to an actor over there. She was in the whole moment. She was in the character, someone answering a phone.
Casey Becker: Look, you've had your fun now, so I think, you just better leave or else...
Man: Or else what?
Scott Sedita: And that's why I think the screams worked so well for her, the realistic feeling of it.
Scott Sedita: This is a really interesting scream, because it's mostly done, it's all in the water, and it's also, you really hardly can see her face.
What's interesting about this is there's a symphony of a scream that's happening with the water. But if you look at it, I think some of those screams were added later, some of the screams were turned down turned up, made more intense, so I think the editor or the director had a lot to do with the actor's screams there, to give us that horror that needed to be in "Jaws"
Her gurgling sounds are really well played here. You kind of feel like the shark bit her and the blood is rushing all over the place, and I think that's what Spielberg wanted, he wanted that feeling of kind of like crazy real screams.
Fran: George? George!
Scott Sedita: Okay, Candy Clarks's a good actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for "American Graffiti", not her best work here.
-"The Blob" is a good old-fashioned horror film, and it's a remake of the original "Blob". So I'm not sure in some ways if they wanted it to feel kind of campy, but Candy Clark's performance here is a little campy.
That B-movie screaming, and her scream seem to be coming from some odd place, I don't believe that that is happening in the moment to her, I believe she's just screaming because the director said, "Now scream, action!" But it is the feel of the movie of the remake of the "Blob", it is the feel of it, so I'll give Candy Clark a little pass for that particular role.
Jennifer Love Hewitt is a really terrific actress. I think her screams are good as well. They seem to be coming from somewhere. They seem to be coming from the gut, from the core from the diaphragm and coming all the way up. There is a scream here though that is kind of wacky when her boyfriend reaches down his hand to hers and she lets out this weird scream.
But I think all the other screams work really well. Especially the last scream when the guy gets up- that last scream- it was timed to really well number one - but that last scream, that just came right up, and that was strong. Jennifer Love Hewitt was actually a child actress and one of the things that she did as well was sing. She's trained as a good singer, so therefore as a good singer, you're trained to use your diaphragm. So the voice actually comes from some place, the core, the diaphragm, so when she lets the scream out, it seems natural and honest.
The this, the old put the hand to the face scream. So that is because of the old time
Elizabeth: Yes, that's what frightens me.
Scott Sedita: It wasn't lady-like to rip out a scream, they kinda had to make it more gentle. So it had to have a softer quality to it. And I think Mae Clarke put that softer quality to it, but for the time, that was a good scream. Also, there's a close up aspect, and a lot of these people came from silent movies, remember, this was the '30s movies so 10 years prior to this there were basically silent movies.
Man: Elizabeth!
Scott Sedita: That was the style of the piece. The whole idea that a lady-like woman like Mae Clarke who's on her wedding day, all in white, turning around and seeing the greatest monster on film, Frankenstein right there, the whole idea of the damsel in distress is mocked in this time.
Elizabeth: Are you sure?
Scott Sedita: But during that style, she was great.
Elizabeth: I love you so.
Edward: What is that, what is that, what is it? Oh no, not the bees, not the bees
Scott Sedita: Okay, so this is a really difficult scene to watch, and the reason it's really difficult scene to change watch is because the acting that Nicolas Cage is doing- No, no, I mean, he's getting hit by bees. I mean, that's like a nightmare. As the bees are being pumped into his face and he's being stung, he's like, "Oh my God, "what's happening to me?" It's very reminiscent of the old movies back in the '30s of the horror films, and maybe that's what he was going for, I'm not sure.
Edward: All over my eyes, my eyes!
Scott Sedita: The whole idea of bees is so horrific that we all could just feel and empathize and feel the horror of it
Edward: Oh, no, not the bees!
Scott Sedita: He probably would have been better to say nothing or just to have this inner scream or what's... Or just feel them coming so it's just like that kind of thing but instead he's like talking through it, "They're stinging me on the nose!"
Edward: My eyes, my eyes!
Scott Sedita: Interesting choice, that's why I'm gonna say. It's an interesting choice. It's one that I don't necessarily get, but he's a terrific actor. I like Nicolas Cage, but that scene oh my God, oh!
Edward: This is murder, murder! You'll all be guilty!
Scott Sedita: And that, is a good scream. This is almost a little like what I talked about with Spielberg in "Jaws", is that the director definitely had a hand in the editing as far as the screams go We had never seen anything like that when this film came out Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make something that was seemed very real, we did like a million takes of that shower scene She had to scream a million times. Actors if they scream too much can hurt their vocal cords and get nodes on their vocal cords. These actors who have to do take after take after take after take, have to use their training. Janet Lee in "Psycho" was trained as an actress on the lots of Warner Brothers. Janet Lee was probably classically trained so she knew how to be able to do that
Hallie: So, where are you taking us anyway?
Man: Don't ask, don't tell.
Scott Sedita: After the first scream, they had to do another one, so they had the top the screams of Drew Barrymore and all the people in that film. "Scream 2" was supposed to be the self-aware slasher film, in the old bad B-movie horror films that we saw the screams are coming from from here that's not a real scream. Both these actors pull off the scream very naturally. As campy as their screams can be, the screams seem to be authentic to me. And it's constant. You imagine having to shoot this particular scene, with the smashing of the window, the scream. They have to over and over and over again, so they better be using the scream from down here and not the scream from up here. Both these actresses do a great job.
Hallie:Oh God, is he dead?
Sidney: Oh God, I think so.
Scott Sedita: I'm Looking at a classic horror scene. Is it over the top? Is she over the top? Yeah, she is.
Wendy: No, no, no! Jack, please!
Scott Sedita: Shelley Duvall's performance is kind of controversial. Some people think it's okay and some people think it's great. There's a lot of stuff going on the face, the bug eyes, the whole- it was really a little over the top, and I think a lot of this was Shelley Duvall didn't know what was going down. I think the director wanted everyone to feel the horror of what was happening, so when she saw the axe, she was definitely kind of being in the moment. Jack Nicholson was coming through that door. But I think it worked with the film. You watch it too closely, and you try to analyze the screams on it and you might be picking up stuff that might not be as truthful or you might be picking stuff up that there must have been a better take, but at the same time there's just one take going on there as the blades are coming through, the axe are coming through the door, she goes ah!. But it's a classic scene, it's a classic horror movie.
Jack: Here's Johnny.
Scott Sedita:
Laurie: Help! Somebody help me please! Somebody help!
Scott Sedita: When she runs out of the house and she goes, "Oh my God, oh my God." I don't necessarily feel like it's coming from anywhere. I think that they just shot the first couple of takes, I don't think there was a lot of takes going on here. It's kind of improvisational. Let's just, go, go, take and go, keep going, go! I don't know! Oh my God, what's happening here?
I think it was also how the film was directed. This is a whole new generation of horror films, so there was a kind of filming process, the kind of look of a film in the '70s in the late '70s. They wanted it real, they wanted it conversational, they didn't want it actor-y, and I think that's what Jamie Lee Curtis did in this film. But I will say that if you've seen the newest "Halloween", with Jamie Lee Curtis, she is great, her screens are great, they're centered. I'm sure she looks back at that first film and goes "Oh, wow, is that how I screamed?"
Paige: Blake?
Scott Sedita: It seems like the actress has a hard time reaching down and finding that truth to the scream, especially in a moment when you say "Action," and all of a sudden she has to let out of scream. I don't think she's necessarily prepared or trained to be able to be instinctive in that way. If it's true that Paris Hilton asked the crew to scream with her because she was "scream shy", that's because screaming is being vulnerable. In order to scream you have to really be vulnerable. I don't think she wanted to be vulnerable. For me, Paris Hilton is a celebrity, she knows how to be Paris Hilton. Going into a character is a whole 'nother story, that's being an actor. So the idea that she might of wanted the crew to scream with her is really a way because she felt uncomfortable expressing this horror that she's supposed to be feeling, which is understandable.
Vera Farmiga, first of all is a brilliant actress. And the screams that she does in "The Conjuring" are almost operatic. Those screams are actually something that she's rehearsed and practiced as if a singer had to sing big belty songs out loud. They have to know how to be trained.
Especially when she wakes up, and she has to do that incredible scream, that takes a lot of energy. She does this hysterical scream, which is so difficult to do. Not only is it so difficult because it's long and extended, but it's because she had to do it over and over and over again. Matter of fact, months after filming wrapped, she had swollen lymph nodes. Now even though she's classically trained, and even though I'm sure she understood that her voice is important to her, that and she tried to do the best diaphragm breath scream, it's really hard to do take after take and not get an injury like that. You do too much of something it doesn't really matter. Those screams are some of the best film screams you will ever see. Actors should watch Vera Farmiga in "