Explain

The convention of isolated settings in Psycho and Scream was used to make the movie more suspense filled and scary, which helps the film as a whole because these two things are nessecary to have a good horror film.

One of the tag lines for Phsyco was "The master of suspense moves his cameras into the icy blackness of the unexplored!" This idea of the unexplored, icy blackness is portrayed using the convention of an isolated setting. It's isolation from the main road and closest town makes it practically unexplored. The first murder happens at night time, so this is where the icy blackness is included. The darkness creates a more scary feel to an unknown location, because if it is dark and the viewer cannot see much in the unfamiliar setting. This makes the cinema  patrons less likely to predict what is going to happen next, not that being predictable was a problem of Hitchcock's. Phsyco's use of an isolated setting help establish this conventions usefullness, maybe even help make it become a convention (even if isolated settings had been used way back in Nosferatu).

The isolated settings in Scream continue the refrencing of other movies, but it was mainly used to make it harder for people for people to die, so the twist ending is more effective. Because everyone is so seperated, it makes more sense that there is a tag team type murder happening, otherwise movie watchers would get very suspicious as how one guy can move around so quick, and make so many costume changes. There is more than one isolated setting in Scream, which like in Psycho makes the viewers uneasy and unsure of where the next attack will happen, as there are many possibilities when everything is far away and no one will hear the screams. The use of this convention in this film definitley conforms to tradition, as it refrences many other traditions. The fact they chose such an American looking house also conforms to tradition, as similar houses were used in Night of The Living Dead and Psycho.