Horror trailer analysis

Christelle Elwin

“Jessabelle”In the early part of the trailer we are shown Jessabelle being pushed in a wheelchair up a ramp and a fade to black before she reaches the top. This was done to represent that for Jessabelle life is going to be an uphill battle from here as she was fatally injured in a car accident crippling her.

All the females in this film have been dressed in flowy or flowery dresses – the “classic” representation of women as they are normally seen as soft and weak.

Throughout the entire trailer Jessabelle is portrayed as handicap and always in need of assistance. This looks at John Berger’s theory of women act and men appear. It also looks at Jessabelle being the damsel in distress especially when in one part of the trailer she is being carried like a baby by her uncle in the rain. This obscured image of a

forest is done intentionally to make you feel disorientated in order to make you feel scared.

The trailer opens with the sound of a phone ringing to show the characters’ isolation followed by eerie music (soft playing of the piano) and continues with the angelic chant of a choir after we are shown a flashback to Jessabelle’s boyfriends death. This was done in order to show that he has passed on into another life but that evil is soon about to consume Jessabelle’s life. The diegetic sound of talking is then input to explain the story to the viewers.

There is a lot of sound of interference throughout the trailer after we are shown Jessabelle putting the tape of her dead mother into the tape recorder. This is done to keep the theme of the film as the evil all starts from the video tape and that is also when the trailer begins to evil things happening to Jessabelle.

There is a high angle shot of Jessabelle on the phone making her look like a little girl, vulnerable and weak as she is made to look like throughout the trailer with low angle shots on all the men in the trailer.

The trailer seems to have a dark or blue filter after the horror starts to take place in order to make the film appear cold and give it a more chilling effect. There are many fade to blacks throughout the trailer after Jessabelle moves into the house almost as though something is watching Jessabelle, blinking.

There is a motivated cut to the mom (sic) when the father says “The thing on those tapes is not your mother”, however this time a close up of Jessabelle’s mother shows her as a frightening creature. This again shows the men in this film as being correct and therefore being in control.

This film keeps to the generic conventions of the horror genre as the horror takes place in an isolated house by a lake. Its target audience is teenagers, young adults and fans of horror flicks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoBCEdt_BC8

“Perfect Sisters” The play opens with upbeat guitar music as we are shown the car the main characters are in driving, before the diegetic sound of the mother talking takes place. The filter being used to film is at first bright but then becomes dark as the mood changes in the trailer after the mother says “I lost my job”.

The editor has used plain a plain font to write “based on a true story” to represent how life is plain .

The music changes from upbeat to slower music in order to create suspense after the mother says “I lost my job”, and that is the turning point of the trailer also, as from that point the trailer begins to show horror such as abuse, glasses being smashed and general chaos.

The meaningless scenes in the trailer that are there to show the sisterly connection are sped up, because they are less important but sort of set the mood of the film of the tight bond these sisters have, which is probably why they were able to plot to kill their mother together.

Pans and master shots are used to show the suburban location of the house the sisters live in. This location is shown because suburban neighbourhoods are usually seen as quiet and a good place to raise children, but the film acts as a juxtaposition because it displays all the chaos and evil that can take place in a supposedly lovely neighbourhood.

We are shown the reflection of the sisters in a mirror as at this time they are trying to make an impression on their “first day of school”. Therefore this was done as representation in order to show their untrue surface personalities of what they want people to see.

“Perfect Sisters” Many two shots shown quickly follow the sentence “I lost my job”, ending with a single shot of Abigail Breslin screaming “I’m so tired of her dragging us down” right before a shot where the sisters’ mother drops her head on a steering wheel in what looks like fatigue. This is shown with rule of thirds as Breslin and her mother are put on the left-hand side of the screen representing that the mother is really dragging her down. The quick two-shots ended with the shot of Breslin screaming “I’m so tired of her dragging us down”, is done to foreshadow the death of her mother, showing that one of the sisters has actually done something about the mother.

Mise en scene of black gothic make-up is used to show actress Georgie Henley as the more evil sister. Evidence that this sister is more evil is shown with the trailer’s ending of just Henley sitting in the classroom centre frame which could indicate that she may have killed her own sister as well her mother.

The main target audience of this film are horror lovers and those who love mysteries. Also this film is probably targeting teenagers or those still in school.

This film goes against generic conventions because it has 2 main leads, instead of one main character that the story focuses on. This means we get two point of views. The film touches on Dick Hebdidge’s theory of subculture, because the film looks at 2 girls wanting to belong to a group or subculture (popular and emo) on their first day of school. The film also touches on Giddens' traditional theory because the film goes against the traditional ‘norms’ of having a male in the lead part.

Creepy sounds that match the sounds of whispering accompanies the last part of the trailer as the gothic sister (Henley) directly addresses the audience with her eyes. This may have been done to represent the madness of this sister and how she may hear voices in her head, or the voices of the people who may have pushed her to kill. Also the whispers could be of the people she has killed.