GENRE:
The style featured in this film is typical of horrors, the dark eerie setting, trapped protagonists, and screaming and running all add to the atmosphere of terror for the protagonists. This supports Andrew Sarris' theory that the genre draws on existing audiences with a recognisable style, in this case the audience will know they are going to be thrilled and scared, and that the content will keep their adrenaline high.
REPRESENTATION:
The stereotype that the villains are deformed and ugly in horrors is continued here, with the ugly monsters tightly framed in a close up, making them seem very overwhelming and powerful, much more so than the protagonists who are being shown as weak and fearful.
There is also a stereotype that women are weaker than men and are passive, here the women are shown as fun loving when one of them jumps on the bed, and weak and fearful where she screams and is sent flying across the room.
NARRATIVE:
The narrative in this trailer appears to follow Todorov's theory, it begins with an equilibrium where things seem fairly normal, then strange occurrences happen such as the falling stack of cars, then the peaks and troughs will continue throughout, though in a trailer, as is the case here, there will be many more peaks shown.
AUDIENCE:
The uses and gratifications that can be taken by audience here are different for each viewer. For example a younger viewer may see this trailer and be scared by it so presume the final product would be for an older, less fearful audience, and not want to be so scared. This can also work with any other audience member, for example a girl fearful of horror films who rarely watches them because she has nightmares may see this as terrifying and steer clear of the film, yet perhaps a male horror fanatic would see this as a thrill with lots of twists to excite them as they watch a film, and so would watch the film.
MEDIA LANGUAGE:
The trailer is filmed in almost entirely low key lighting, keeping a dark and eerie atmosphere, designed to scare and audience and keep them agitated and worried, anticipating a thrill or scare in which they know is right around the corner.
The trailer has a blue tint over the majority of it, with the exception of when the protagonists are not in the same place as the ghosts. This could be to link the blue tint with the supernatural, and shows that there is safety until they enter the ghosts realms.
The victims of attacks and scares are mostly shot from high angle medium close-ups to show they are both fearful and weak in comparison to the villain ghosts they are being terrorised by.
There is a non-diegetic voice over, with a typically deep voice, creating the atmosphere, telling the audience of the plot, in which the protagonists are trapped in the house with ghosts. This adds to the atmosphere and also entices the audience to find out what will happen to the protagonists.
There are lots of fast editing transitions, especially dissolves, which provide continuity, as well as suggesting there is a lot of action and that the film is crammed with excitement to thrill an audience.
Pans and Tracking Shots are used in very short one or two second clips in order to create an eeriness about the location that is used, in this case the house. They are repeated to keep the fear of the place there even after multiple viewings.
Slow zooms are also used to continue the theme of an eerie, dark setting, keeping the audience hostile and building their tension for the thrills which will be within the film.
Non-diegetic background music is also used to keep the excitement, at the start of the trailer it sounds fun and slightly upbeat, making the film seem quite fun, which is appealing, then as the trailer progresses it becomes slower and eerier yet keeping the fun sound, which allows it to link to the horror theme, whilst maintaining the idea it would be enjoyable to watch the entire film.
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