Trailer Analysis

Trailer Analysis 2 - The Haunting in Connecticut

The Trailer Opens with a voice over the opening line states ‘Why do bad thing happen to good people’ already we are intrigued to know what has happen and how it has unfolded.  The opening line is smart in not giving away the plot, but deliberately making the audience want to know what is going to happen, this is then further enforced with the voice over stating ‘well the house does have a bit of a history’’ again this draws in the audience, wanting to find out what the history is. We then see several shots showing us the location of the film, in this movie it has been placed in quite a stereotypical ‘suburban’ neighbourhood as often associated with horror films. Then through the use of inter titles we are told that the film m is ‘based on a true story’ again this is a massive selling point for a film especially in the horror genre.  For me the contrast between light and dark is used to its full potential in the trailer this would have a big impact on an evening TV at home or in a cinema, also making the film scary, jumpy and have a big impact on the audience. As in most Horror trailers sound is a very important tool in creating a good trailer, the film uses an original score for parts of the trailer consisting of a creepy piano tune which is the main riff in which runs throughout most of the trailer, and deliberate use of sounds which will annoy the audience, for example the use of ‘white noise’ is used around half way through the trailer a deliberate painful sound in which the audience will be familiar with but also know it to be scary and mean danger. The tile of the film is not shown until the end part of the trailer and slowly fades in and stays for around 0.4 seconds, to be remembered, then as you think that’s it a last shot is show from the film in which a face appears making the audience jump and also shocked, this is done for one last effect on the audience encouraging them to go and see it.

Initial Group Ideas

1. Myself - Popular guy gets all the girls, girls go missing, guy gets bored of hot girls and goes for a 'geeky' girl, takes her to his house in the woods, she realises he is not normal and he has killed all the missing girls and has to get out and escape from Him and his ‘troubled’ family before they kill her.

2. Joe - Friends go to the woods for a camping trip, see a masked man one night, then when they wake up one of the friends is missing, they then see the masked man again and he 'kills' another friend. All the other friends notice that the killer came when the other friend was absent so they kill him but it turns out that the friend they killed was working with another friend who he 'killed' and then he hunts them down.

3. Lewis - Group of friends go to a theme park for Halloween, just before the theme park closes, they go to a newly opened horror maze, 4 come out and 2 are left in there, they then wait until the closing time of the theme park, they’re still not out so the 4 friends are forced to leave, the next day the 2 friends are still missing and the other 4 realise they’ve been killed.

4. Steven - Geeky teenage girl/young adult is accidentally invited to a Halloween party at the end of the week whilst standing in with the wrong group of people, she then has visions and night terrors of people being kidnapped and brutally murdered by some old man, when she comes to, these people have been reported missing, no one believes her stories, and she is scared that this man will come after her. She does not want to attend the party but is forced to by her friend, and whilst at the party, the killer attacks, killing off the rest of her classmates, leaving her to fight off the killer, being the stereotypical virgin female heroin in the horror genre.

Trailer Analysis

Trailer Analysis 1 - Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Begging 

The First Horror Trailer I chose to analyse is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The begging, having already see the film I have to say that the trailer definitely works well in making this seem an epic horror film! At first glance the trailer straight away shows the audience that the setting is in the middle of nowhere, showing help will not be on it's way! Sound is always an important feature in Trailers especially in Horror from the offset the Song ''Mockingbird'' is being sung by one of the bad characters, the use of this old classic song is to add a creepy dark feel to the trailer, also later on in the trailer the use of another old classic song ''Amazing Grace'' again this reinforcing the creepy feel to instantly attract their target audience. As for the plot the trailer doesn't give too much away unlike a lot of other horror trailers, from the trailer we can gather a basic outline to what might take place in the film, the location seems to be made key also showing how they end up in the bad situation! As for Editing the editing at the begging is in time we the song ''mockingbird' later as the intensity of the trailer builds the cuts become more frequent to add drama and tension to the trailer.
Overall this trailer sticks to a lot of the conventions of horror trailer's. I like how the trailer does not give too much away, inviting the consumer to go and watch the film!