Today scary movies have many things in common including events, settings, and the characters. Of course there are just as many differences used to keep the audience interested. The scary movies I am using in this essay are Scream and Urban Legends these two movies have many similarities, but they also have characteristics that make them unique.
             Scream and Urban Legends have similar introductions. In both of the movies a young girl is murdered within the first five minutes. This sets the mood of the rest of the movie. The audience gets a taste of the thrills and excitement to come and then the pace shows to establish the main characters and theme of each story. Although a girl is killed right away in each movie their relationships to the main theme differ.
             In Urban Legends, the first girl murdered, Michelle, is directly related to the killer. The killer wanted revenge on Michelle and that is why she was the first killed. However in Scream, the first girl killed, Casey didn't have anything to do with the motive of the killers. If one pays close attention it is state that the killer dated Casey and that she dumped him for Steve, who was murdered at the same time Casey was. I made the assumption that this was an act of revenge and was used to get attention.
             The movies have similar settings also. Both take place on a campus, Urban Legends on a college campus and Scream on a high school campus. Large parts of the movies also take place at parties held at the homes of one of the main characters.
             Near the beginning of each movie we are notified of an anniversary. In Urban Legends it is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stanley Hall massacre. One night a murdered knocked on every door on one floor killed everyone who answered then killed himself. In Scream it is the one year anniversary of Sidney's, the main characters, mother's death. Her mother raped and murdered. Sidney testified to send a man to prison, bu...