This is my analysis of existing horror trailers, as creating trailers i needed to analysis three different horror genre trailers and understand the codes and conventions used throughout. The idea of analysis the three trailers was in order to find out what the shape or form of a typical trailer is. The three trailer i analysed where Dead Mans Shoes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween.
Dead man’s
shoes trailer analysis
Dead man’s shoes came out in 2004 and is directed by Shane
Meadows. It is a strange example of a
slasher film as it is about the revenge of Richard who returns home to terrify
the bullies, who bullied his brother; he one by one picks on the bullies to
make them pay for what they have done.
He turns into the monster for taking revenge for his brother who killed
himself.
At the start of the trailer, the production companies logo
and name are shown to tell us who the film is made by and gives the audience
background information, this is formulaic of trailers. The logo and name is
shown as a formal aspect as it helps the audience to recognise they are
consuming a trailer. The trailer then goes into the opening scene of an
establishing-shot of a deserted forest, at the start of trailers they start with
establishing shots, as they conventionally show the area of filming. This shot
is for showing the audience the area in which the cast are going to be when
they are first seen and an idea of the setting. The shot goes into a two-shot
were we see two characters, brothers Richard and Anthony. We see one of the
brothers with an army rucksack on his back, conveying he is on his way back
from the army. The other brother wearing dark blue, casual clothes showing a
binary opposite between both characters as it shows the difference of both
characters. We see both the characters walking along two separate paths in the
same directions, this illustrates that they are both travelling in the same
direction but they both have different lives but will always be side by side.
There is non-diegetic music of folk music playing in the background resembling peace
and British Reunion. The music does not suggest that the trailer is from the
slasher genre. The way the form of the trailer is shown is formulaic however
the genre is not yet coded into it. This is the equilibrium at the start of the
trailer, where it shows the beginning and the introduction of the two main
characters within this trailer it is Todorov’s theory. The first scene of the trailer
starts in a slow pace, as it introduces the narrative and characters within the
trailer. It allows time for the audience to get used to what they see and
understand the emotions.
The scene fades into a wide-shot of a landscape viewing of
the whole location they are travelling in. while changing into the shot, there
is a voice over of ‘people who commit crimes are evil’, this is a small hint of violence and a sense of genre
into the trailer. You see that Richard in this scene walks in front of Anthony;
this represents him as the older, powerful and wiser character. In the
landscape, on top of the hill there is a lonely tree, this shows Mise en scene
because it represents solitude, as well as because there is two characters, one
of the main characters will be lonely and loose the other. As Richard is at the
front, it is a hint that he will be the saviour. In the next shot it changes
into the brothers walking through a shadowy woods, where they are surrounded by
trees, however again Richard is shown as walking in front of his brother, Richard
is the main focus, as the camera is set to blur his brother out. This
represents to the audience that Richard will be the main character in this
trailer.
There is a caption which is shown of ‘A brother’s love’ this
conveys aspects of the narrative so we have a clear understanding that they are
brothers. It confirms their relationship of being brothers. We then go straight
into a flash back footage to reinforce the caption and to show the relationship
of the two brothers when they were children. This allows the audience to grow
emotion and get to know the characters the film will be about. We see Richard
sitting down in a broken stripped down house, gives a look into a psychological
landscape of the character that he is in a cracked home and he is surrounded by
a negative place. We see a close up of his face so the emotions he shares are
clear, the emotions he shows are depressed and worried looked. We finally can
see the brothers face, the brother is mentally impaired who has learning
difficulties, this close up of the brother gives off British social realism as
it in beds the struggles. This is done by it showing a story about the
relationship of two ordinary boys who look like working class children, it is
just about them and has no major narratives like saving the world e.g. superman
Hollywood films.
When the scene changes there is caption the caption is ‘a
brothers VENGEANCE’ this betrays a typical horror film speech, this introduces
the first hint of horror genre within the trailer, this done by the word itself and the style and colour of the typography. Vengeance
is when punishment is inflicted on those who are wrong; this shows the audience
that there will be some evil within the trailer. This caption has subverted the
expectations of the audience as we did not see that it is a horror film until
the caption. While the scene changes the non-diegetic sound also changes into
creepy, loud music which starts to create tension within the trailer and
reinforces the horror genre. We go into the scene
and the voice over dialogue says ‘what did you do to him’ this suggest to the
audience of what Richard is thinking at that present moment it is the way the
camera is working together with the audience, wondering what did happen. We see
a medium close-up shot which doesn't just show Richard but shows the background
so we know he is in a different place; we don’t see his brother anymore telling
us he is alone. We then see a black and white flashback; this has introduced
the audience to a non-linear sequence by telling them what happened before. As
we know all trailers are in a non-linear format, there is flashbacks involved
within this trailer. The conveyed meaning of
‘Vengeance’ is showed as it was used because we see loads of people bullying
Richard’s brother so we know that they were in the wrong so they need to be
punished. We see the camera work by a flash of bright light after the bullying
took place this makes the viewing difficult and conveys the disturbance of the
scene. The camera has also changed from a smooth viewing to a chopped up and
fast shots showing the action and tension in the trailer.
The next scene cuts to the
people who bullied the brother but we are in the present and they are conveyed
as laughing and having fun, it is juxtaposition where we see the grief of the
brother and then the humour of the bullies. This is a binary opposite between
the two shots the happiness of the bullies and the grief and anger of the
brother. Even though they are not laughing about the flash back the way the
montage editing has put together the two shots it shows that they are evil and
bad because it makes them the bullies and shows what they did was heartless to
bully a disabled person, this shows aspects of society and how people treat
others relating to real life. We then see the first of the slasher/killer; he
is wearing a mask which is a usual connotation of horror movies. When the slasher
is shown we see a flash of red, this conveys death,
evil and blood. The edits of the shots build up causing anxiety within the
trailer it conveys the drama, whilst he’s running up the stairs shouting. The
camera now becomes handheld this is causing more fear, wonder and drama. We see
an over shoulder shot of the two bullies talking this is representing the
dynamic of the character and the conversation they have having. We then go into
a mid shot of Richard and his brother; we see Richard is jumping up and down
showing his body language to be quite nervous and worried of what is going to
happen next. We also see his brother here and by looking at his face and
posture from the shot we can tell the character has a disability. The non-diegetic
sound at this point is more jumpy and nerve-racking like more glory/death will
happen, this because there is action building in the trailer. At this point it
is parallel with the pace of the shots, as the sound becomes more jumpy the paces
of edits become quicker making tension build. This is conventional in trailers
because when the main characters come to harmful situations the shots build up
pace.
We go into the next scene starts with a cut of a three shot
of the main gang leader and Richard with his brother at the back of the main
gang member who is a bully, we see the car the main gang leader came out of it
was tacky and old looking we can see a sense of British realism and the working
class side of this trailer. In the shot
we can get a sense of the relationship between the characters but in this
trailer we can see the gang leader feels threatened by Richard. The big close-ups
the camera changes to and the pace gets a lot quicker shows the anger represented
by Richard and how much he wants to get rid of him fast. Richard say’s how he
will ‘hit them all’ so we know that the slasher is now him, this is not a usual
convention that the slasher is given away in the trailer but we have not seen
him yet under the mask. After his line we see typically the slasher again and
it is in extremely fast shots and the quick movement of the camera where we see
the slasher and flashes of bright light and red connoting sins and trouble. He
is carrying an axe which is a usual convention as the killer will always have a
weapon in their hand, and axe is a usual one used in horror movies. This is
Mise en scene as it conveys death will occur from the prop we saw. As we don't
get to see the ‘person’ actually behind the mask it is more scary and
frightening for the audience. We hear the diegetic loud sound screams while the
attacks are happening as we don’t see the actual person whose being hurt we can
still hear the pain, we are not shown what happens as it’s a trailer and not
everything will be shown. The pace of the editing makes the attacks sound and
look more chaotic, as it goes back in time to when the gang are forcing the
brother to eat something, the shot is in black and white to represent that we
have gone back in time. There is a close up of Antony, which is in a washed out
blue colour we see the emphasis of his face and how he feels guilty/drown
because of what’s happened. ‘God will forgive them and allow them into heaven’
this suggested that he had to do something to the boys and get revenge for his
brother, as he cannot leave it in gods hands. The shots at the end of the
trailer start to slow in pace, this because it is coming to end of the
narrative and the trailer is ending. This conventionally follows the formulaic
features of going slow at the begging building the story and characters, going
onto fast shots building tension on screen and with the audience. It finishes
with slowing down the pace of the shows, but leaving the audience wanting to
watch the movie.
The caption which conveys the convention of introducing
narrative come up ‘Disrupting and utterly gripping’ it attracts attention of
the audience and also the four star rating at the bottom suggest it is a good
movie the trades to getting a wider demographic. As it is a film that needs help
with distribution they use the captions and credits to attract a bigger
audience. The shots become gore and Gross with more blood and flashes of black
and red showing that deaths were erupting, the music changes in the trailer
from coral music to horror music this suggest the change in atmosphere. There
is another caption to suggest the success of the film, engaging with the
audience and finding a way to gain the attention. With the typography it has a
fire type of writing suggesting the hell and the burnt story of the brother’s
revenge, this creates senses of horror. We then see the name of the film with
Shane Meadows as he is a popular director in Britain the British audience with
want to watch his work gaining wider audiences. The end card of the trailers
shows extra information such as the website and companies involved, this is
formulaic at the end of trailers as it gives the audience information about the
film at the end, allowing them to get the names and release dates.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2013
This movie is
directed by John Luessenhop, and stars ‘Trey
Songz’. A young woman Heather travels to Texas to collect an
inheritance, a mansion given to her by her grandma. She travels with a group of
friends and little do they know that an encounter with a chainsaw-wielding
killer is part of the reward that is in hiding in the basement that she and the
friends discover. The film is a remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 film
which was directed by Tobe Hooper.
The trailer starts
off with a green screen, showing the preview information of the restrictions
and usually done for Hollywood movies. Then goes onto the film logos and
production companies giving background film information, this is an expected format
that is conventional in trailers as at the start logos are introduced the
makers of distribution and production companies. At the start of the trailer the
pace of the footage is slow as it is introducing the narrative of the story and
the characters that are within the story. The first scene starts with a maroon
small truck driving along a bridge; it’s an establishing shot showing a long
car journey. The next shot is of this small truck again, but the back of the
truck so the audience can see the view ahead, it is still in an
establishing-shot showing the audience that the cast are going on a long
journey and gives them an awareness of the journey and setting. In the background
there is non-diegetic sound playing for mood music, it is song that is peaceful
and something that would be listened to on a long journey. This represents the
equilibrium, which shows the begin; it is the narrative pattern by Todorov’s it
shows the personality of the characters and gains interest of the audience. The next shot goes to a two-shot of a couple in
the back of the truck the boy lying down and the girl putting her t-shirt back
on, this is the ‘sexually active girl’ who is blonde and is a conventional
slasher film character. This two-shot is a mid-shot, just showing the upper
body actions and the background of where the two people are. While shown these
two characters the girl speaks about the place there going too ‘Do you know
anything about this place?’ Diegetic sound from
a character, from this we are being introduced to the different characters
within the trailers at the beginning. It is a formulaic convention of trailers
to do this within the start of the trailers as the audience get to know the
characters within the story. The question asked by the girl puts the audience
in suspense and curiosity feeling the same with the characters as they do not
know about the place they are going too. As the audience are watching a
trailer, they need to grow interest with the trailer as well as the characters
this is a way they can understand the characters feelings and actions. From
this we are getting a sense of the story/narrative behind where they are going
and the sense of the horror genre as it is a remote house trope, which is a
typical convention. The innocent, pure girl - a binary opposite from the blonde
girl - is now shown in a medium close-up showing her shoulders and above her
head, she responds to the questions ‘Only the address’ this shows that the
characters who are a group of teenagers are irresponsible and outgoing to go to
a place they do not know much about, this is the first and only hint so far of
genre and that the place they are going to relates to a horror film, as
teenagers are typical characters within slasher films because they are
stereotyped as irresponsible so prime suspects that fit the roles being a main
convention in slasher trailers. The next shot is where they're all still in the
truck shown from a high angle shot, making them vulnerable while they are going
into the gates of the mansion. We see the truck behind the gates showing they
are going to be trapped within this house, conveying ‘similarities’ with prison
cell bars this creates Mise en scene making the narrative.
The next scene
starts with the group of friends walking into the house shown by a point of view
shot, as if someone is looking at them behind the banisters in the house making
the characters trapped in. This could have been the directors first
introduction of the slasher/killer that he is watching the teens come into the
house from the stairs. The camera changes to a mid-shot of the boyfriend from
before opening the doors to a room in the house, the camera shows the excited
body language of the teen to what he sees this converts the genre as it seems
like the mansion they are in is lovely and showing the audience an opposite to
what the house is actually like. There is continuity editing within these
shots, the next shot is the introduction of the ‘black’ friends another
convention of the genre, he’s have a joke about the dead grandma ‘seems like
granny liked to play pool’ this gives off sense of his character to the
audience showing them he is the funny jock character. The next shot is of all
the characters looking around the house, all five of them there is diegetic
sound of dialogue where they ponder of how the grandma got this ‘amazing’ house
and the main girl the innocent one does not know. This creates enigma within
the audience as they are uncertain and wondering questions about this house.
The main girl is upstairs in the house in the next shot its close up of her
looking into an image on the wall, supposing of the grandma see there’s a
mirror reflection where the main girl is shown within the frame as well showing
a relationship between them both. The lady within the picture is presented
scary and unusual suggesting wonder about the house they are in. The next shot
is the ‘sexually active’ girl smoking as she is represented as the bad girl of
the group this is an expected stereotype of her. We see it in a mid-shot so the
focus is mainly of the cigarette and the smoke coming out of her mouth. The
camera fades in on this shot from the last shot of the picture on the wall of
the camera the blonde girl fades onto the picture on the grandma making montage
editing showing something will happen to this blonde girl. Behind the girl
there is the boyfriend shown in the background imprisoned by windows he walking
around a bathroom looking very confused and anxious. It then goes into a medium
shot of the boyfriend, who has found a secret door you can tell this as he
first puts his ear to the door then moves it to the side slowly to the side
making enigma within the audience behind the door is just dark conveying the
horror genre. Within this sequence there is a sense of narrative giving us a
little bit more information about the key characters and it positioned them to
empathise with the characters. This is done in trailers because when the
characters are in harm or need help the audience feel the emotions and are more
dragged into the trailer.
The next scene
starts with a caption this is a convention which is used in trailers to give a
sense of narrative and understand for the audience, ‘in 1974’ starting to
create the narrative, ‘A legend’ with non-diegetic sound of a chainsaw, with
black and white flashing images of people getting killed or harmed. The picture
are in bright flashes and in black and white to show it was before and was
tragic and then followed by ‘was born’ showing the chainsaw slasher was born.
The captions which are used throughout this trailer are referring to the original
film in 1974 by Tobe Hooper, which allows the new film to trade of the success
and notoriety of the first version. This targets the olds fans so they are part
of the new audience, as well as attracting a new audience with the gore of the
Chainsaw. We then see a close
up of an old music record player, followed by an extreme close up of someone
washing their bloody dirty hands in a dirty basin. There is mainly extreme
close ups of a man, known as Leatherface the ‘slasher’ this is because it is
the first proper introduction of this character. A killer is convention not to
show their face because it makes the audience more suspicious and more anxious
for the characters. He is getting thread out a box and putting it through a
needle, with this you can hear the music diegetic sound of the record player. Then to close up of the slasher putting on his
mask but as it’s a trailer we never see the face of the slasher, to make it scarier
and suspicious for the audience, this makes the effect of the audience of being
scared when they see the character as they will never know what is under the
mask. It then shows an establishing wide-shot of the chainsaw, this is a iconic
sign within the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre because the audience who see the
image will understand instantly when the chainsaw is shown, the emotions of the
audience can be excited at this point because the chainsaw iconic image. It shows the audience this is the weapon and it
conveys meaning of the name of the film. The camera goes into a medium-shot of
a girls kneeling and her hands are tied up this shot conveys that she is next
to be harmed by the chainsaw, this is done by the montage editing of the two
shots, it’s a dark shot which gives senses of the atmosphere which is dark and
scary and conveys this girls is alone. There
is a chainsaw hovering over her shoulder and you can hear diegetic sound of the
girl crying, this represents her fear and the emotions of that character to the
audience. The camera cuts to a close-up of the
face of the girl from the front view, she has tape around her mouth showing
she’s struggling, this build emotion between the audience and character as they
feel the same empathy as the girl who is being harmed As the trailer is of
different shots of what happens within the actual movie and is non-linear it
does not show every moment of each scene. When showing the close up of the girl
there is subjective sound of the girl screaming,
we hear this to understand the pain that is being caused within that shot. We cut
into the next shot with someone walking downstairs into a dark room like a
basement, but it is very dark so you are unable to tell which one of the groups
of friends is walking into this doomed looking room, creating anxiety. The
scene ends with the final girl alone in a room, the camera goes from focused to
focusing out the background of the place the girl is in, this is the throwing
focus, where the camera throws focus between two things, it cuts into a Extreme
close up highlighting her extreme emotions in her face as it turns from a
medium shot to a close up.
There is another
caption starting off the next scene of ‘This January’ telling the audience when
this film will come out. There is a wide shot of the inside of the house
looking out through the front door looking at a police officer coming inside
with his torch light flashing through the door to show he is in the dark, and investigating,
creating a sense of narrative. There is then a high angle shot of a police officer
who is shown to not have power, which is subverting his role playing as a
binary opposite. He is carrying a
gun but the main focus is on the flashlight shining showing a glance of him
walking around the house. We then see a high-angle shot of the location with
someone walking through an empty forest, another convention of a slasher film
which is the location because many slasher films are filmed in dark forest, they are alone and the shot conveys them as
defenceless as it is in the dark and high-angled showing he’s next. ‘It
happened before’ we see the final girl hiding in the truck in a mid-shot, with
the chainsaw killer going around the truck trying to cut through the truck. There
is a focus of the flashing lights when the saw is cutting through the truck.
Within the trailer at this point the shots become quicker to build the tension
within it, this is a formulaic convention is trailers that the pace increases
so shots are quick, making anxiety for the audience. There is a medium close-up
of the two girls who are hiding under a table, the main girl is trying to keep
the blonde girl quiet so who they are hiding from cannot hear them, being a
close up the emotions are felt that they are scared. We go back to the chainsaw
breaking through the truck window; its subjective sound of the breaking window
so it sounds louder on scene then it would be making more tense shots. we cut
into a point of view shot from the killer, we can see the chainsaw in focus
and in front of it a out of focused shot of the two girls moving around from
the chainsaw screaming. There is a
long-shot of the black character running into a barn topless, as he has the
nice body he is shown in the scene topless to attract attention of ladies
watching the trailer. He is running away from someone but it is conveyed as the
slasher. We go into a mid-shot of the girl moving around in a graveyard dragging her around trying to get far away from the killer, as she is alone in
the graveyard this shows he is after her and something terrible will happen. It
shows a high angle shot of her getting into one of the graves into a coffin and
shutting the lid, it is shown in a high angle shot to make her look weak and
helpless as this is the only place possible to hide but one of the worst
places. It goes to a few seconds of a black scene making the audience
suspicious and waiting for the next terrifying moment. We see the final girl
moving around screaming in the coffin and a chainsaw cutting through the top of
this coffin. She is lying down on a red silky material conveying the blood she
will be bleeding when that chainsaw hits her.
We then go to the
ending of the trailer where the name of the film is shown but through the name
there is bleeding cutting through showing the group have been harmed. The showing the end card which is convention in trailers which shows the websites,
logos and promotion companies which have worked on this film. This happens at
the end of trailers to show it’s a trailer and to give information of release
dates, name of film and synergy methods. This trailers is typical slasher
trailer which I would expect, what it conveys with similarities to others makes
is formulaic, it subverts the conventions with a chainsaw however it is iconic
with the title of the film.
Halloween
1978 trailer
Halloween is a slasher trailer directed and produced by John
carpenter. It is about a psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for
the murder of his sister, who escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her
friends while his doctor chases him through the streets.
As a convention of horror trailers, they have a tempo of how
fast or slow they go through out the trailer, at the begin of trailers like
this one it starts of slow introducing characters and a story line. Then tempo escalates
to create atmosphere and tension, in horror trailers like this it is the
killing and the fast shots. It then ends with the tempo slowing down, and
ending the story making the audience want more. This trailer’s first shot
starts with the logo of Halloween the orange hand with in a silhouette of a
knife and a pumpkin already resembling the genre of horror embedded in the
trailer, this conveys genre as there is iconic nature of the pumpkin, and the
horror embedded in Halloween. Also having a knife in the pumpkin going through
is a typical convention of horror films, as knifes are the typical weapon, the
repeated ‘stabbing’ motion of the hand makes up the body craving of the
pumpkin. It has text saying ‘the one’ ‘the only’ ‘the classic’ ‘Halloween’
suggesting what happens in the trailer is to do with Halloween, Halloween is a
night where ghost and sprits are set free, a night of horror this is connotations
of what happens In the trailer.
The first
scene begins with a wide establishing shot, showing a house from a handheld
camera point of view getting closer and closer to this suburban house, isolated
house, on a quite dark night. The location is busy through the day but quite at
night making it lonelier and creepier. While the house is shown there is
non-diegetic sound of high squeaky noise of sound effects to make the scene
more dramatic. There is a voice over of non-diegetic sound which tells the
audience that’s its ‘Halloween night’ it also says the location and time of the
year which in America is Halloween a well celebrated event of horror it suggest
that immoral behaviour will take place on this days. Having the camera hand held it makes the scene
build more tension as it is trembled, shakier and the movement is quicker, usually at the start of the trailer there should
not be tension built but the trailer starts in a linear format. We then go into
a point of view shot, in view of the killer; we can see he is wearing a mask as
the view of what is happening is restricted, the audience can only see a knife
going up and down. A knife is a convention which is displayed in most slasher
films as the weapon to kill. There is sound of a girl screaming and getting
hurt so we can tell that the killer is hurting her, this is diegetic sound as
its voice of characters. We then go outside the house from a reveal shot of the
little boy still behind the mask and the father reveals the killer by taking
off the mask as it is his son Michael at this point we are back to the point of
view of the audience he is in a clown outfit and it is a mid shot of his body,
clown outfits usually scare people. We see a the knife in the little boys hand
showing us that he was the killer and this was what he used to kill the girl,
who know is his sister.
As we go into the next scene we are shown the a caption of
the film first ‘Halloween’, the title is relevant to the time of year in the
film and also the colour theme of the title represents Halloween because it is
in orange this is Mise en scene also when watching other trailers like this
having captions through-out the trailer is conventional as it pursues the storylineline of this trailer, helping the audience understand.
The scenes starts off as a close-up with a man who looks very important
from the way he is represented and the way he is speaking he speaks as a upper
class, older gentleman, he is the doctor of the killer and suggests that
Michael is ‘evil’ suggesting that he is not finished with what he has done. We
then go to a nurse in the car who has a good representation whereas the binary
opposite of Michael who we have been shown as evil who attacks the nurse in the
car. He breaks the glass of the car window but we hear exaggerated subjective sound
as it needs to show his evil and how powerful he is when hurting people. We
then cut into a shot of three girls walking down the road, but the camera wipes
onto them as soon as the doctor says ‘I think he'd come back’, this can convey
that his next targets are the three girls we see, the meaning is created by two
shots placed together this is juxtaposition. The opening shot introduce the
main characters through-out the trailer, the reason why the shot these
characters first is to convey a sense of narrative. This is conventional
within trailers as the audience are positioned within the trailer and are able
to understand who the characters are. This relates to Todorov’s theory as it is the equilibrium, where characters are
shown in their everyday life. When we are shown the three girls, two girls are
represented as usual teens smoking and joking about while the other girl Laurie
is shown as innocent with her school books showing them represented as
experienced, this conveys that Laurie is the least likely to be harmed as she
is innocent and in the film industry the virginal girl survives conveying genre.
The camera cuts into close-ups of the three girls, the camera changes from a
two-shot and then a close-up of Laurie by herself showing the emotions and
conversation between the three. There is juxtaposition created between two
shots by the montage editing, this is because the shot isolates Laurie from her
friends, a shot of them two and a shot of her, this creates a sense of
difference between the three girls, Laurie is not like them, this helps to
represent her and conveys aspects of the narrative.
We see the shock and worry in their faces which are done by a close up
so we can see the emotions built. But we do not see what they see as it is a
hanger so the audience are attracted to watch the movie so it starts to build
the tension of the trailer.
There is a caption of the title to the changing of the scene
and also relating to the story as it is Halloween in the movie. We are in point
of view of someone else who is lying down on a bed and we see the door open
slowly, while the door is opening we hear the sound that the door is old as it
creeks loud making it creepy, the creaky door is a typical convention of horror
films. We see a person dressed up as a
ghost, this is intertextuality as in the horror movie ghost the killer is a
ghost. In this trailer John Carpenter is playing with theses clichés, the
predictable formats of horror trailers and adding them in to convey the sense
of genre. We see one of the teenage girls in
the bed she is represented as promiscuous and as the ‘sexually active’ girl,
the one who is not decent, and a convention of horror movies is that they get
hurt/die which is shown in this trailer. We then cut into the next scene of seeing
a door and a hand going straight through it this is showing someone trying to
get through to the person on the other side, the way the hand comes through
shows the aggression of the person and how strong they are. Then to a mid shot
of Laurie shocked off what she has seen, the way her hands are by her mouth and
the gasp she makes, conveys what is there is not pleasant. We see a girl on the
bed who looks half naked and a grave tomb on top of her head. This is Mise en
scene as the prop on top of her shows she is dead or going to die. We see on
the side of the bed the Halloween pumpkin this represents the name of the film
and also reminding us it is Halloween in the movie, the face that has been cut
out on the pumpkin is terrifying. The background non-diegetic sound of a high
pitched ding is representing that death has just occurred and horror
conventions. We then see a guy looking in a fridge the lights in his face then
when he shuts the fridge it is dark and a dull blue, this represents what is
going to happen to him as it represent loss of life colours. The sound of when
someone is being killed is back, the high pitched noise of non-dietetic sound. At
this point of the trailer the pace of the editing has increased as this is
where the tension and scary atmosphere is built, people are being killed and
the main actress is running and scared of the killer, this is done in fast
shots, a fast sequences as the audience feel the tension of the character.
The camera changes into the next
scene where we see a mid-shot of Laurie, this shot is showing her body
language, the way she is clung up against the door shows that she is scared, we
slightly see Michael the killer fade in from behind her, he wears a mask so we
just see the white mask coming in and the suspense of the killer is kept hidden.
We then see Laurie falling down the stairs we see the shadow of the banisters
over her, this shows that she is trapped behind the stairs and cannot escape
from the killer conveying Mise en scene the creating of a story. We see this as
high angle shot of Laurie this puts her in a lower position to the killer, it
represents that he is stronger when he is shown at a low angle than her and she
has less power. We then go to a low angle of the killer this is showing the
audience he has strength over Laurie and that he is after her. We can hear the
sound of Dietetic piano in the background it is the low keys playing; this is
the music is put it to conveys evil and suspense to the audience. We see her
running buts is at a wide shot so the audience can see the location she is in
and can see how she is being followed by the killer. The voice over then says
‘Halloween the night he came back’ this suggest to the audience after all they
have seen the killer is back from the start of the trailer the little boy and
he is after Laurie. The camera is still hand held because the tension is
building as she is getting followed. Showing that he is getting closer and
closer after her, we see an over the shoulder shot of the little girl, to see
what she is doing we see she is very interested in what she is doing and cannot
hear the door in the background making more anxiety for the audience as they
have built feelings for Laurie and want her to be safe. We see a long shot of
Laurie trying to get into the house this shows the loneliness and isolation of
her as she has no one around her to help and she cannot get into the house while
the audience can see the killer in the background. At the end of the trailer
the pace of the tempo has decreased as it is coming to the end of the
narrative, this is because it is the end of the dramatic shots throughout the trailer
and it shows it is coming to an end.
We see the title of the film again as a
caption in the film this shows the audience the movie they should watch after
seeing the trailer, they are aware of the name as they see it three times
through-out the trailer. We see the credits at the end and who the movie is
made by, giving the audience back ground information this is done on the end
card a traditional convention of trailers as it conveys it’s a trailer the
audience are watching. We also see the restriction shot again showing viewers
who can watch the film. Within this trailer there are logos, captions and an
end card. This is a sense of information to the audience and convention that
needs to be followed when making trailers.
