The success of a horror trailer is determined by a variety of factors: Camera, Sound, Editing, Mis-en-scene and conventions. In order to understand how these factors can be used successfully to create a high quality horror product I decided to analyse four different existing horror trailers to see what they have done to draw their audience in. This will help me to apply to my own trailer what successful horror institutions have done to make their trailers so applicable and popular to a wide target audience.
I am going to be analysing the following points:
- Camera
- Sound
- Mis-en-scene
- Editing
- Conventions
In order to contrast and compare a variety of horror trailers effectively, I have chosen to analyse two old film trailers and two recent films that have been released in the last few years.
Lights Out (2016)
The first horror trailer that I have chosen to analyse was made for a film that was released in 2016. Lights Out(2016) is a popular supernatural horror film and was created due to the success of a previous short film created around the theme.
This is the Official Lights Out film trailer:
Camera, shots, angles and movements
At the very beginning of the trailer an establishing shot of a textile warehouse is shown. There are lights around it making it seem as though the scene has equillibrium. Despite this, the lights create many eary shadows and due to the scene being set at night these two factors both complement the idea of something being ‘wrong’ or something is lurking in the shadows. The next shot then goes on to introduce the audience to the inside of the warehouse and shows a variety of broken mannequins that seem to not have been used in a long time. This disorted image shows the audience that the warehouse is empty and something is going to happen.
A shot from behind the victim shows her walking into the darkeness of the warhouse which again highlights the isolation of the scene and also reinforces the audiences childhood fear of the darkness. Why is that woman walking into the darkness on her own?
Our fist sight of the villain is viewed from an over the shoulder shot of the victim. The full length of the villain can be seen however they are disguised by the darkness. This shot suggests that antagonist is going to unexpectively creep up on the victim when they are least expecting it.
A close-up shot shows the main character of the film and represents her fear and acknowledgement of distruption as the young boy tells her that he has saw the villain. The fact that the shot shows her higher up over the young boy represents her authority and responsiblity over him which makes the audience fear more for her as they have already saw the antagonist.
The fast movement upwards of the camera acts as a form of a jump scare to the audience. They assume that the villain is weak at the start of the shot and it sends them into shock when they discover that the antagnoist is definitely not weak.
This low angle shot of the villain represents it as superior to the victim because it is now aware that it holds fear over her. The victim seems vunerable and defensless and is therefore seen from lower down on the floor in the over the shoulder shot.
Sound
Non-diegetic: this ‘real’ sound adds to the realism of the trailer during dramatic scenes, for example, during the warehouse scene the sounds of footsteps and light switches are heard. These sounds draw people in as they are often heard through the silence which makes the trailer generally more creepy and effective.
Mise-en-scene
Use of lighting: At the start of the trailer the use of lighting is used to its full advantage. Low lighting is constantly used to represent the constant presense of the villain which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats whilst watching it. The low-lighting within both the warehouse and the house also create many shadows, which makes the audience question whether there is anyone or anything lurking within them. The use of this kind of lighting fits well with the theme of ‘lights out’ as it focuses on the evolutionary childhood fear of the dark.
Later on in the trailer LED lights are used to further emphasise the theme of the dark. Bright red flickering lighting is used to not only to show the disortion of what the character is feeling, but also to further imply the extreme danger that the victim should be avoiding. The colour red signifies danger, blood, and death, and therefore the fact that this colour has been used as the only sorce of protection for the victim it clearly implies that she cannot escape at all and has to face the empending darkness that awaits her.
Setting/props: The use of the manequines in this trailer is extremely effective because it foreshadows that the villain is similar to the dummies. Throughout the trailer, we do not get to see the villains face and it is simply a shadow. This is very much like the disorted and broken mannequins that are all scattered around the warehouse. This is extremely creepy and suggests that the villain could be anywhere at anytime and could be lurking in any corner.
Editing
At the beginning of the film match on action shots are used between the young boy and older woman who are having a conversation about the villain. This type of shot represents that they have a connection to one another due to the shots being so close up and personal. This helps the narrative run smoothly and also adds tension for the audience because they now know that the woman is responsible for the young child and will need to protect him as well as herself
A significant amount of fast paced editing is used near to the end of the trailer and this stategy effectively reflects the extreme emotion of the characters. For example, at the beginning they are calm and have equillibrium, however once they start to investigate and experience what is going on with the villain they are distrupted and the editing gets quicker to show their panic and distress because of how much they fear the villain.
Jump scares are also used in this horror trailer when the villain jumps out on the victims and vanishes due to the light being switched on.
Conventions
Within this horror trailer the final girl theory that was proposed by… has been shown. The typical blonde, blue eyed girl is the last girl to die or experience the villain in the trailer which represents females as stronger and more independent as the rest of the characters in the film
The typical character conventions are followed in this horror trailer. For example, the main female character with blonde hair can be seen as both the princess, protagonist and hero, whilst the evil spirit is the antagonist.
The convention of the horror institutions being shown at the start is also followed in this horror trailer which is effective for setting the tone of the film straight away.
Insidious(2013)
Insidious is a supernatural/paranormal based horror film that focuses on the story of a family who are being haunted by a variety of ghosts. They discover that their young son, who is in a coma, is drawing these ghosts in and they must only get their son back by searching for him in an alternate world.
This is the Insidious trailer that I will be analysing:
Camera, shots, angles and movements
Dolly: Zooms into one of the main characters whilst switching to other scenes. This draws the audience in and makes them feel even more uncomfortable as they approach the main character. The audience are made aware of what is wrong due to the cross cutting to distrupted scenes between full length of the dolly shot. This technique suggests that these shots are what the man has experienced and what he has seen is uncomfortable and distressing due to how extremely close up the shot takes us to his face. During this dolly shot, we see a mid-shot, and mid-shot/close-up and an extreme close-up, which all gradully make the audience feel more and more uncomfortble which as we are aware is the purpose of the horror trailers.
Establishing Shot:
Once again an establishing shot of the setting is shown near to the start of the horror trailer to set the scene. The shot is quite wide, and could represent how the neighbourhood seems fairly ‘normal’ and at a state of equillibrium.Despite this, the dark shadows that are created by the surrounded trees create lines in front of the house, which could possibly suggests that this families home is a prision and they have no way out due to the darkness that it surrounding their home. This is supported by the movement of the camera due to its movement around the house whilst this shot is taken. This type of shot reinforces the idea of isolation and being trapped in your own home which is relatable to the audences lives and could mean that they would believe that this could happen to them in real life.
Over the shoulder shot/high angle shot:
A shot from behind the victim who is looking at the baby monitor is shown near to the middle of the trailer in which she hears strange noises coming from it. This shot represents how something could be creeping up on her from behind, making the scene seem more eary. The shot then quickly flips using the 180 degree rule and shows a high angle shot over the woman with the baby monitor focused out of the shot. This shot emphasises the womans fear of the thing on the other side of the baby monitor and it also makes her seem significantly inferorior to the villian. Not only does the angle make her seem less powerful than the antagonist but the framing of the shot makes the baby monitor seem physically bigger than it actually is, which could suggest that the characters are in for sudden terror that they were not expecting.
Sound
Repeated sound/Sound bridge:
At the start of the trailer a metronome is set off that creates a constant ticking sound. This initially sets the pace for the trailer and triggers a sense of tension in the audience because the sound acts as a build up. The sound is bridged between scenes and gets louder or quieter depending on what type of scene it is.
Ambient Sound: at the very beginning of the trailer the sound of the wood fire burning can be heard in the background over the ticking of the metronome. This background sound suggests realism and also the idea of the demons who the man are about to experience are beginning to burn through.
Non-diegetic dialouge: the sounds that are heard through the baby monitor are disorted shouts of the spirits in the house that have been created by getting an actor to make the sounds and then edit them and disort them to make them sound inhuman.
Mise-en-scene
Low lighting:
Throughout the horror trailer low lighting is constantly used to create shadows and add to the notion of isolation. This low lighting creates an eary atmosphere around the house and suggests to the audience that the spirits haunting this family are everywhere; they could be hiding in every corner.
Clock:
The use of the old fashioned clock in the centre of the house represents the lack of time that the family have before they are taken by the spirits. This is forshadowed by the previous use of the metronome that also creates a ticking sound. Both of these props make a similar sound which shows the idea of the spirits constant scratching of the demons on the back of the families knecks.This becomes quite creepy to the audience and draws them in. Many of them have ticking clocks at home
Props: many childhood props such as the rocking horse are used to represent the supernatural theme. The rocking horse acts as a signifier to show that something is wrong with the children.
Editing
Title editing: the title at the beggining of the trailer appears disorted as the electronically produced words appear to flicker on and off the screen. This could reflect how th villain will appear to the characters and audience- by appearing and dissappearing and creating sudden panick in the victims.
Grayscale on clips: a grayscale tone is present on the clips to make the setting appear ‘dead-like’ and drained of life and colour, which further emphasises the constant presense of the evil characters.
Eyeline Match: Eyeline match is used to cross between shots of the innocent victim and perspective shots of what they see. This is a significant technique because it represents to the audience not only how vunerable the character is but also how terrifying it must be in that situation. This editing stategy makes the audience feel like they are part of this families experience which makes them want to see more of the overall film to disocover what happened to them.
Fades: many fades are used between the clips that fade to black before going to the next scene. This reinforces an idea of darkness and the speed of the trailer at the start. At first, it is relevently quite calm and so fades are used, however later on when the distuption occurs no fades are present a clips are cut to one nother instantly, causing shock an panic to occur in the audience.
Conventions
Villains: the supernatural genre often makes use of religious themes and demonic figures as villians and insidious has followed this convention. By creating a variety of villians that are all quite different they effectively reflect different levels of fear in the audience. For example, one villain is a small boy who runs around the house and torments the family – he represents the idea of the ghosts never running way. Another villian we see in the trailer is the demon standing in the corner of the boys room. This is also a common villian in this genre and provides fear in the audience because they are aware that is not human and could do absolutely anything to hurt the family.
Children: in this trailer many children are shown in the house and this is significantly creepy because the audience assume that they are innocent and should be protected however the juxtaposition of this not being true throws them off and makes them feel vunerable in the real-world. This draws them and makes them want to know more because it is so abnormal for the children to be the ones causing fear as appose to an adult or a ‘Monster’.
Setting: typically, horror movies are set in a ‘normal’ house that the family or couple have just moved into. This is exactly what insidious have done and this as an effect has made the audience aware that this could happen in their own home which adds tension whilst they are watching the trailer and makes them want to know even more.
Scream 2
Scream 2 os the prequel to the orignal 19– version of the film. Following the same storyline of characters, it shows the return of scream to the terror of the teenagers in the local high school.
Here is the trailer that I have analysed for Scream 2:
Camera, shots, angles and movements
The opening shot initally shows a canted angle close-up of the scream mask displays. This initially sets the tone of the film and reflects that the terror is going to start straight away. The fact that it is also at a disorted angle also foreshadows that distruption is going to occur at this setting straight away which builds up the attention of the viewers at first sight and pulls them in without hesitation.
Wide Mid-shots of the first people we see show them in a cinema that is seen to be quite rowdy and full of teenagers in dark black clothing just like the min villain. This implies that the villian is back and could be anywhere. The fact that all of the teenagers are framed into the shot at static level also shows the mass of people in danger from this killer and how they all have just as much chance as one another.
The first shot that we fully see a character is the first jump shot. This implies the killer’s fast faced killing spree and that he is unstopabble because of how discretely he works. In the shot there is a focus pull onto the wwho is being stabbed. This is done to show that despite all of the teenagers around them, the woman isolated from them completely making the audience fear the killer more because he is able to kill even in a public place.
Tracking: a fast paced tracking shot using a dolly is used to show how panicked the characters are when they are talking about the killer. The shot frantically turns the corner as the characters do which shows their lack of control over the situation which makes the audience feel extreme stress and fear for them.
The main female character is shown in a static mid-shot as she reacts to the phone this sis framed perfectly to show the darkness behind her, which foreshadows the darkeness of the killer soon creeping up on her. The next shot is also a mid-shot but gradually zooms closer to her face. This shot reflects the isolation that she feels and the idea that she is the most important victim because of how close the audience get to her face.
Focus pull: as the camera zooms in on the girl holding the phone the flowers behind her go out of focus and blend into the background whilst her facial expression of fear becomes more prominent. Thisreflects that she is getting further and further away from youth(the flowers) and closer to the darkness of death.
Sound
Screams: not only does this diegetic sound reflect the theme of the film but it obviously implies how tragic the evens that are going to occur will be. As the trailer goes on the screams become more and more promiment and distraught making the trailer seem more dramatic and terrifying overall.
Ringing: each time the phone rings, silence often surrounds it which represents it as a signifier for the killer being close.
Stabbing sound: jump scares are often accompanied by the sound of the killers knife stabbing someone. An example of this is at the very start of the trailer where the first victim is taken. This signifies the audience when distruption is about to occur because of how isolated the victims are.
Mise-en-scene
High-school: usually, high schools are seen as safe public environments, therefore by setting it there it reflects how discrete and sudden the killings will be. The audience as a result are shocked more easily due to the unpredictable nature of the villian.
Flowers: during both phone calls with the villin the girls are stood infront of or at the side of flowers that are often out of focus. The flowers represent their feminity and delicate nature, as well as their lack of power over the villian. By them being faded out, this suggests that they are close to death and moving further way from their youh as they speak to the antagonist on the phone.
Clothing choice: many of the characters who are being victimised wear light feminine colours such as white or pink to suggest innocence or vunerablility (like a damsel in distress) or wear red to signify the danger that is ahead of them.
House: Once again, the use of an isolated house is used to represent the idea of the comfort of our own homes no longer being safe.
Lighting:at the start of the trailer the lighting is very dim and at night which is when the first killing occurs. The light then returns to day and windows of light can be seen to the audience to represent the charcter’s equillibrium, after this point the ligh gradually gets darker due to the distuption of the killer. This is done to show that the brutal killing happens when you are least expecting it and you are in the dark and vunerableto anything, which further makes the udience believe that this could happen to them in real life.
Editing
Fades: Quick fades are put into the trailer at the beginning to show the progression of time, and this could reflect how close the victims are running out of time before the villian takes their life.
Fast paced editing: between scenes of the characters talking about the villian, fast paced back and white shots are shown of the victims’ deaths. As they are repeated or more appear, the editing on them gets faster which suggests the extreme terror tht the villian brings on the victims. The editing is also too fast for the audience to fully see what went on which makes them want to watch the film to see wht happened in full. This is also supported by the black and white editied clips that suggest that the killings that the audience are viewing happened in the past. This makes the audience feel connected to vticitims because they have looked back on their deaths. This gives them an obigation to continue watching.
Conventions
Propps charcter theory: the use of young attractive teenagers is a typical horror trailer convention. They re represneted as the damsels in distress whilst the villian is male, and there are male sheriff’s and students ttempting to figure this out. This is done to make the women feel even more vunerable when they are being attacked because they are represented as weak and therefore act weak as a result.
News Report: In typical horror movies, news reports are used to notify the victims of what has hppened which initally sets off their path to death. The news report is flickers and is a disorted image which notifies the audience that this is the distuption that will cause harm to the victims.
Louise Richardson 