Horror Trailers

I worked with my class mate Lewis Cook to investigate conventions of horror trailers.

Rob Zombie's remake of the 1980 film Halloween.

Trailer Conventions

• 
  Production value

- Director Rob Zombie is a relatively well known director, therefore his name is in the title as well as the trailer as this is a USP to his fans. This illustrates how directors can attract a specific TA based on their reputation.

• Genre specific music

-The eerie, monotonous piano notes connote mystery and a sense of something unknown about to happen. There is no real crescendo from the music however the sound mix does build various digetic sounds to build tension.

• Voice over

-The sentences are fragmented so that the feeling of wanting to know more is built up within the audience. The voice over has an authoritative male voice which is generic of trailers. The dialogue and visuals back up what the voice over is saying.




Horror Conventions

• Technical codes

-Fast cuts are used creating suspense and tension. Also cuts use a bleeding technique which sees footage fade to black quickly before the next shot bleeds back in. A shaky hand held camera and point of view shots are used making the audience feel involved in the shot, increasing empathy with the victims and therefore making them want to see the characters story unravel by seeing the film.

• Lighting

-Most of the trailer uses low key lighting, using shadows and darkness to connote the unknown. This leaves much of the storyline also unknown as not you cannot distinguish all of the action, however as the original "Halloween" is so widely known not much of the storyline needs to be revealed in order to hook the audience, the title itself should do that.

• 
  Iconography

-Knives are very iconic of the horror genre as the antagonist has to be physically close to his victims to use it, whereas a gun is less personal and less graphic. Masks are also iconic of horror as they protect the villains identity, making him unknown , allowing for a "big reveal". Horror lovers will look for these iconic features and may be more inclined to see the film if the include the typical iconography.

The Last House on the Left

Trailer Conventions

• Inter-titles

-Inter-titles are used rather than voice over to link the trailer together as there is a lot of digetic dialog in the trailer. The inter-titles use rhetorical questions to involve the audience, "how far would you go to hurt them back", this is emotive and leaves a lasting question in the audiences head that they will want answered by seeing the film.  

• Music

-Eery piano music begins the sequence which is an indication to the audience of the genre of the film, the unsettling music builds suspense making the viewers feel as though the film will follow suit. The music stops to allow for dialog, however at the end the song "Sweet Child of Mine" by Taken by Tree's is played. This is very emotive as the story line revolves around the death of a daughter, however this is unconventional of the horror genre as songs with lyrics are not normally used in horror as the role of music in horror is normally to build suspense not to provide emotion and meaning. The emotive music makes the audience wants to know the full story as they are already empathising with the characters.    

Horror Conventions

• Setting

-The film is set in the isolation of woods, this is a horror convention as it means there is no help for the victims. The setting of the lake is also generic of horror films as water connotes death as well as peace, the binary oppositions horror often plays with.

• Characters

-Most of the characters are teenagers which is a classic character type in horror as they have an ideal mix of venerability, sin and ignorance that allows them to become victims of horror. Also the target audience of horror is mainly young people, therefore they can identify with the characters, making them more likely to want to see the film.

• Todorov's narrative structure

- Equilibrium is established at the beginning as the family are happily smiling on their way to a new location. Disequilibrium occurs when the teenage girl gets shot, there is then a series of events to a new closure, however this isn't reached as the trailer leaves you wanting to know the end. Will there be closure?

The Ring



Trailor Conventions:

• Dialog acting as voice over

 -Dialogue from the film acts as a voice over explaining the plot "have you heard about this new video?". This immediately engages the audience with the characters in the film and the plot itself. The dialogue is interrogative which also directly involves the audience and makes them feel as though they are being addressed. This all makes the audience feel involved in the film making them want to know more.

•  Music

- The music begins eery and slow paced, signifying the genre and therefore targeting the audience. As more of the plot is revealed, the tension builds and so does the pace of the music. High pitch sounds resembling the sounds of scratching knives are played as another sound layer further indicating the genre.

• Non-action based clips

-Many of the shots are of objects rather than action in the film, such as the fuzzy TV screen, the image of the ring, close ups of a pupil dilating etc. By doing this little of the action in the film is revealed, however the themes and ideas within the film are evident. This is effective at making the audience want to know more by seeing the film. 

Horror Conventions

• Binary Oppositions 

A young child is used connoting innocence, however he appears to be linked to the suspicious events supporting Levi-Strauss ideas of binary oppositions. 

• Disorientating camera techniques

Close ups and unusual editing techniques such as the blurred and stilted progression of a close up at 1.30 create the disorientating atmosphere of horror. Close ups and unusual framing creates a feeling of the unknown as the audience can not see the whole picture.There are as oblivious as the characters themselves, making them empathise with the victims.

• Colours

The colour red is used at 1.31 to connote danger and death. The red filter distorts the action and adds to the drama and carnage. Red is one of the colours often used to symbolise horror.