After being informed of our task I went away and independently researched into successful horror trailers. I did this in order to gain an insight on what elements of horror trailers make them successful and how I could apply these features and themes to my own horror trailer.

I researched into a variety of different sub-genres of horror that I found may be possible themes that I could use in my horror trailer for the audience to experience.

The most effective trailers that I found are shown below:

Viral (2016)

I found that the theme of isolation was an important factor in making the Viral(2016) trailer as effective as it is. I feel that this idea will be extremely effective for my trailer if I were to use a space such as a school or home to isolate my victims in. The Victim’s could be trapped within the building and have to find a way out before the infected get to them and they die.

The Bye Bye Man (2016)

The psychological elements of this trailer give it the most effect on its audience. When the individual in the film states “don’t say it, don’t think it”, the audience automatically go against what the character is saying ands think of the antagonist which increases their fear. It is easy for the audience to relate this to their real lives by thinking about The Bye Bye Man, which makes them more fearful in general because it is more believable narrative.

The Suffering (2016)

The use of sound and repetition made The Suffering(2016) an effective trailer. An example of repetition is the use of the sound of the protagonist’s lighter flicking back and forth. This is heard at the beginning of the trailer and is picked up by the antagonist who continues to flick the lighter back and forth. This means that the lighter evokes tension and association with the antagonist throughout and is repeated to ensure this tension is maintained within the audience. I may use this theme of sound repetition to also build up tension in my audience whilst they are watching my trailer.

Rings (2016)

I found that the narrative of the Rings(2016) Horror Trailer made it most effective. The 7 day narrative not only allowed the trailer to be structured so that the audience were aware of what was going on but also caused tension to build up at a considerable rate. This is extremely important because it left the audience with enough information to keep them petrified but also left gaps on what would actually happen to the victims on each of the seven days before they died.