Isolated Setting is used in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 Psycho and Wes Craven's 1996 Scream, the films use this convention to set the mood and show us what kind of movie we will be watching. In these two particular films they use isolated setting to create a creepy mood. In Psycho isolated setting is used as the Bates hotel where the murders take place. The setting is hidden from the publics eye, it is away from the highway. Norman Bates tells Marian Crayne no-one comes here unless they get lost. The hotel therefore is an isolated setting. In the film SCREAM the isolated setting is a small town in California. Inside that there is another isolated setting which is Stew's house down a long driveway away from people driving by. He has a big house but after all the boys leave to see their principle gutted and hanging from a post it becomes abandoned with most residents who were inside murdered. This makes the setting alone, isolated and unsafe.
The convention was used in this way in the movie Psycho to create a dark and ominous mood, the audience could see something creepy about Bates motel straight away, with only two people residing there so you think. No-one ever visits Bates motel anything could happen there and no-one would notice. The Isolated setting is the Bates motel it has small rooms and the film being in black and white makes it seem more isolated The creepy house on the hill resembles what we know to be the classic haunted house. The house is big dark and intimidating. The house is seen in low angle shots to make it seem more dramatic and intimidating. The house is also surrounded by a swamp that is isolated, menacing things could be hiding there. Isolated setting is where Psychopaths may hide. Alfred Hitchcock had a very low budget for this film so the setting was low budget but cleverly done. Even in modern day horrors Psycho's isolated setting is used to create a mood and scare us with a foreign setting. Even in Psychos notorious shower scene the shower was a isolated setting a shower is usually a place where one stays by themselves. When Norman comes in and stabs Marian Crayne she is isolated no-one can her scream, she has nowhere to go she is helpless, and her fate is inevitable. After filming the shower scene Janet Leigh rarely took showers she said she never realized how vulnerable one is in this shower. The audiences reaction to this convention was a little fear the setting creates fear and makes the audience fell uncomfortable the way it looks allows the audience to notice something is not right. The audience had never seen a movie like this in 1960 it was new and terrifying the audience did not expect anything like this horror film. The setting scared the audience and looked very different. This convention created a tradition for horror films as films still use isolated setting, and when modern audiences see this convention we know something horrifying will happen at the setting. 
In SCREAM Isolated setting is used to get closer to home for the audience, there are a lot of small towns in America and the thought that a serial killer could come and terrorize a town is scary. Having the setting for a murders rampage in a isolated small town makes it hard to escape. The murder of Sydney's mum shocked the town and even after a year the towns people are not quite over it. There is no escaping it in this isolated setting. This convention links to the film as a whole because in a way the film is a mockery off other horror films so they used all the famous conventions from classic horror films. The isolated setting inside an isolated setting is Stews house. The audience responded to the convention with horror, the isolation is scary. There is no way of escaping the murder.
