You’re Next (2013)

By Ashweenee Beerjeraz

The trailer starts off with a close-up of a CD and immediately as an audience you would ask yourself what might be on the CD, as it may be the key object that starts the whole story of what were about to watch.

It then moves to an establishing shot of a car in the middle of nowhere and there is just one road that takes you to the journey. This already suggests a mysterious thought of where this car might be heading to.

‘’The Perfect weekend’’ slowly appears onto the screen and it shows a black background suggesting evil with the quote leaving us to figure out what does it really mean by the perfect weekend.

As you can see here there are two different shots, the first one is a close-up of the mask and the second is a low angle-shot of the mask. Here already we can see that this is the main villain in the movie. The reason why we notice that this may be the killer is because of the scenes that are used to make like it look suspicious. Binary oppositions are used as we are able to identify that the person in the mask would be the antagonist, and the group of people are the ones who are fighting the man in the mask. The idea of murder and solving who the killer is, conveys how the genre is horror, as there is this constant fear of who’s going to be killed next, and whether or not the characters are able to get away from the murderer. The genre can be a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations. This can be seen in most horror films where groups of people go on holiday and something happens which causes chaos in the film. For example Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring. Whereas in this fill a group of people go on holiday where to a house where they end up being attacked and the concept is used of moving somewhere.

There is a lot of close shots of the characters in the scene which may suggests how they’re each trying to fight for their lives, although the 3rd and the 4th image appears to show how frightened the females are. In these images the male characters are presented stereotypically as, they are seen as taking in charge. The women are also shown stereotypically at the fact that they seem to be the ones that are screaming and panicking. However the roles do reverse as one of the female characters who’s covered in blood carry’s a weapon which suggests she’s the one trying to catch the murderer.

High key lighting is used at first, it gives a sense of happiness, though towards the end of the trailer low key lighting is used. This gives the horror/mystery effect, and makes the audience feel scared.

The characters are dressed casually and they are not wearing much make-up, this gives a sense of realism, which will grasp the attention of the audience and make them feel closer to the action as may make them believe how it could possibly happen to them.

In terms of the props used, it is all very homely as there are close us of photo frames, which again makes the audience feel closer to what’s going on. Other things include weapons such as knives, axes and some sort of gun, which relates to the genre of horror.

EditingThere is a sense of very closeness at the beginning between the family when they are all sitting at the table and holding hands which shows a connection and it is also shown at the very start of the trailer where they’re all in the car travelling far. There are straight cuts mainly used throughout the start and slow pace when a sentence appears and also towards the end slow paced is used when all of the weapons drops on the floor with a dramatic blurred background of the character but with the camera focusing on the weapons. The trailer progresses as it increases to ensure the excitement of the horror genre.

SoundNon diegetic sound is used, as the song at the starts is being played and it is slow rather than cheerful and mentions ‘’just a perfect day’’ which links to what title ‘’the perfect family.’’ This indicates how happy they all are. Other sounds are used which sounds like drum and siren sounds which gives the trailer a more sinister tone, indicating something is not right. There are also a lot of keyboard sound which adds to this creepy effect. Towards the end there is the same song that be being played ta the beginning but sounds much cheerful which suggests it’s happier now that people have been killed. Diegetic sounds are used, which are dialogues of the characters saying things. Other sounds include glass,= breaking, doors creaking, which are sounds that relates to the genre horror.