Analysis of 3 Psychological Horror Film Trailers

1980 2005 2012 Analysis of 3 Psychological Horror Film Trailers

Trailer 1980 URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S014oGZiSdI

Starring Director- Stanley Kubrick Writers- Stephen King (novel), Stanley Kubrick (screenplay), Diane Johnson (screenplay) Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann Barry Nelson as Stuart Ullman Philip Stone as Delbert Grady Joe Turkel as Lloyd Budget $19,000,000 Opening Weekend $622,337 - 26th May 1980 Runtime 142 minutes

Sound: The first 35 seconds of this 1:27min clip uses voice over and eerie music to create the setting. The music is slow and the notes drawn out to elongate the idea of fear and creates suspense. The voice over is used to introduce the story and give history to the setting of the film. It slowly builds up until the character attacks the door with the selective sound of the axe. Drum beats link to a persons heartbeat making the viewer feel intense. The voice over style changes making it seem like the audience is inside someone's thoughts rather than actual speech. This is effective for the psychological horror genre as it is getting inside a persons psyche. The dialogue includes the famous line “Here’s Johnny” among others to appeal to the audience. The drum beats build up faster and faster until the trailer ends with the characters psychotic laughter. Non-diegetic sound is used in the trailer to create the atmosphere of the genre as slow music that crescendos is a convention of the horror genre.

Cinematography & editing: The trailers opens with an establishing shot showing the location and setting. Then several shots follow in fast pace editing to compliment the voice over and to show more of the plot. A long shot shows the interior of the house and a medium shot introduces the character. Tracking shot follows a woman running in the snow with a knife creating suspense and mystery as the audience does not know why she is running. The editing cuts to the voice overs persona of which is sat in an office with the main character. Again more cuts are used in quick succession to show the setting and introduce more characters and their actions. The child's face is seen in a close up to create suspense with the addition of his voice asking “is there something bad here?” The editing cuts to each character quickly to show their emotions. This continues on to show the actions and reactions of the characters and the way the psychological house is affecting them. A high angle shot is used to show the power the female character is attempting to assert over the male but he still has the power in the scene as he is the antagonist. The camera cuts several times again with a close up zoom on the door saying ‘red rum’. Another montage of shots are seen with characters holding various weapons. The trailer cuts to the title of the film, the antagonist laughing like a maniac then ends with the female screaming when the axe hits the wood.

The costumes are of an average person from the 1980s/late 70s. The child is wearing a red jumper and jacket that has the connotation of danger and gore, the antagonist is wearing blue jeans and a dark jacket showing him to be the bad character and the female is wearing a checked grey shirt and a light scarf to show her innocence in the story. Mise-en-scene & plot: The plot of the trailer follows a man moving to a house with his family where a man before went crazy and killed his entire family. The character (played by Jack Nicholson) believes the same will not happy to him, but ultimately does. The trailer shows this plot effectively and shows the antagonist with an axe pointed at his family but does not show the entire film and the ending. This is key for trailers as they are used to advertise but not to tell the entire story. The pure whiteness of the snow shows that they cannot get away as whatever evidence of footprints is hidden by more snow. It also shows a blankness like the protagonists will not be safe and they have no one to turn to. The house itself is shown as large and grey mansion at the foot of a large hill/mountain which is snow capped. The interior is lit with several lights and the flooring is wooden paneling. This shows it to be a wealthy house, still in use and modern as the light are run by electricity. It is scary for the audience as it is mostly empty and full of secrets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvx0m2SeOSk Trailer 2005

Starring Director- David Slade Writer- Brian Nelson Patrick Wilson as Jeff Kohlver Ellen Page as Hayley Stark Sandra Oh as Judy Tokuda Budget $950,000 Opening Weekend $58,049 – 16th April 2006 Runtime 104 minutes

Sound: The trailer begins with diegetic selective sound of typing into an internet chat forum. This creates a sense of realism for the audience as it is a literal action that is taking place. Sound effects are overheard through transitions to link to the antagonist (camera clicking sounds and flipping through a stack of pictures). Eerie wind whispering sounds are heard over the visuals to create a sinister atmosphere and the sense that the audience cannot pinpoint an exact moment as they are distracted by the sound. Contrapuntal sound is used to elongate the takes and juxtapose the meaning of the visuals. It creates confusion to the audience as they do not know who the antagonist now is as the music also focuses on the young girl. The eerie music begins to build as the central character ,Hayley Stark (Ellen Page) begins to uncover answers around Jeff (Patrick Wilson). Voice over is then used against the visuals to change the sense of place. Hayley tells the suspected paedophile Jeff that “Play time is over” making the appearance of an innocent young girl dissipate.

Cinematography & editing: The trailer opens with a POV shot of Hayley as she is chatting to Jeff online. This introduces the characters before visuals so the audience doesn’t know what the characters look like. The shot reverse shots show the change in power as Jeff is a 30+ year old man and Hayley is a young teenager, this creates an audience response of anxiety as it is illegal to pursue a minor. Both characters are in the corner of the shots creating a literal space between them. The editing is slow paced in the introduction with several cuts to affect the pace of the editing and the reveal of the characters interests. Close-up on the light and dark dessert Hayley is eating shows her to be both good and bad in the narrative. The editing is non linear to show the characters progression and to keep the whole plot hidden as too much information will give away the whole movie. The long shot of the car at 1:00 shows them to be alone and shows the peril the innocent young girl may be in. At 1:50 the editing quickens to create suspense to the audience as the visuals use close-up, high angle and mid shots to reveal the characters actions and show the audience that Jeff is actually the one in peril, going against genre and gender conventions. A series of handheld shots are used to make it look like the characters point of view and hold a certain realism to the events. It ends with a long shot of the two characters before the main action had happened.

Jeff is wearing a simple tshirt, shirt and dinner jacket combination to show his relaxed and arrogant attitude, showing to the audience that he frequently does this to younger girls. Much of the mise-en-scene is the two characters alone together without anyone to help the girl. This is shown in the lift, car park and his house. Even the café they meet is has very few bystanders. This makes the audience fear for the young girl as she will not be able to physically fend off Jeff. This then changes towards the end of the trailer when Jeff is tied up in his own house, creating a false sense of security as he is no longer in control and a prisoner in his own house. Mise-en-scene & plot: The plot of the trailer follows an adult man preying on a young girl through social media but shows the girl to be undercover to find the truth about the victims of the pedophile. The two characters venture to the mans house before they are involved in their own power play to see who will be victorious. Much of the trailer uses colour to show the innocence of the actions. Hayley Stark is in baggy clothes in primary colours without make-up to make her look much younger and innocent. Her jacket is red to connotate danger and has no pattern to show her simple darkness.

Trailer 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgYxydrVlDk

Starring Director- Scott Derrickson Writer- Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill Ethan Hawke as Ellison Oswalt Juliet Rylance as Tracy Fred Dalton Thompson as Sheriff James Ransone as Deputy Clare Foley as Ashley Nicholas King as Mr. Boogie Budget $3,000,000 Opening Weekend $18,007,634 – 12th October 2012 Runtime 110 minutes

Sound: Diegetic sounds of critters to set the location of nighttime and rural housing as well as a voice-over of a news report to create a sense of realism as it is set in home, which audiences can relate to. Dialogue is then used to inform the audience of the characters in the Oswalt family and their apprehensions of moving into the new house. Diegetic sound is used without other effects to create the tense atmosphere as the audience knows that something is about to happen. The sound begins to take a more sinister path as it has non-diegetic scratch sounds to change the shot, the abruptness of it terrifying the audience. The spectator is also in fear of their own imagination as they try to piece together the sounds and the narrative. The sound is quiet until the antagonist is seen then is suddenly loud as Ellison also sees him. A flickering of sound is heard before another crescendo as the still image of the antagonist suddenly moves.

Cinematography & editing: The trailer opens with a house at night in a long shot with flashing images of the occult to already show the audience the film is a thriller. The time changes to show the house in the light through the same shot as through no time has passed. The character of Ellison (Ethan Hawke) opens a box left from the last inhabitants and through the use of an over-the-shoulder shot the audience can see its contents. The OTS shot create the idea that something is looking over his shoulder at his findings, creating an eerie atmosphere. The use of POV makes the audience feel the same as the character as they are seeing what he is seeing, as he leans in closer so do they so they get the same thrill. The camera shows a mid shot of Ellison on the floor after witnessing the hanging of the old family creating the mystery around the plot. The editing uses quick cuts between shots to show the mind of Ellison and what he is thinking of the murders. This is effective to create an emotional response to the character as the audience wants him to live and to save his family. The editing makes more cuts to show the footage the character found as well as to show the symbol that is following him around. More shots are cut quickly to make the audience get inside the characters psyche as the editing begins to pick up pace. The editing continually cuts to close-ups of the projector to remind the audience that the characters are watching movies as well as the audience, making it more terrifying as it could happen to them also.

Mise-en-scene & plot: The plot of the trailer follows a house that several families have died in that a crime writer moves his own family into so he can write up the case. He then finds old videos in their attic of the old inhabitants deaths as well as several other families. He begins to investigate by watching all the movies and researching by asking other people for help. He then unleashes the evil upon his own family as his daughter sees ‘Mr Boogie’ and they become the next targets. It ends with him finding the group of children Mr Boogie has taken. The mise-en-scene shows a typical American house with a few neighbours but an otherwise ‘nice’ neighbourhood where nothing bad should be happening. The characters are a stereotypical family of a mother and father, daughter and son but the daughters innocence is reflected throughout with her costume. The lighting is frequently dark and eerie with many shadows.

Eleanor Wemyss www.eleanorwemyss.wordpress.com The Shining http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S014oGZiSdI Hard Candy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvx0m2SeOSk Sinister http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgYxydrVlDk

Analysis of 3 Psychological Horror Film Trailers