Research Into Horror Trailers 8

 

 

Cube is a Canadian Sci fi, psychological thriller and horror film. This film has five different genres; I decided to look at this trailer because I can vaguely remember watching it. The film mostly received positive reviews, from what I can remember the film had quite a lot of bloody scenes. The director obviously focused more on the blood and the gore.

The film is about being trapped in a cube maze that has traps. Seven people get stuck in this cube we don’t how they got there or why. But they try to work together to find a way out. 

• The trailer starts with an extreme close up of an eye; anyone who is a bit jumpy will not like to see this. The next scene is a shot of the room, which is white with different doors to choose from. We see him opening all of the doors to see what’s inside, they are the exact same rooms but in different colours. 
• The camera shoots inside of the different room so we can see the room and him looking inside it. We see the guy going into one of the rooms and he freezes up at this point the camera moves right into his face. And we see text; the next scenes are of the rest of the people that are stuck in the cube we see them trying to get out. This is a very claustrophobic film.
• Scenes of engraved numbers are inter cut with scenes of traps going off in different room, this adds to the sense of mystery and menace
• Character dialogue is continuous and portrays group conflict, 
• by inter cutting with other scenes from the film, the dialogue changes from diagetic to non-diagetic, 
• The music used throughout is eerie and foreboding, 
• lighting and camera angles accentuate the sense of claustrophobia



Research Into Horror Trailers 7

The Cell is a psychological thriller directed by Tarsme Singh. The film was released in 2000; the plot is about a child psychologist asked to help with a criminal patient who has slipped into a coma. She is asked to go inside his mind and find out where he has put his last victim, because the police think she is still alive. 

• The trailer opens with a wide to close up shot of Jennifer Lopez in a desert. We see the machinery that enables them to go inside their patients minds to see what’s wrong. We see her agreeing to help the police, she goes into his mind and its weird for her to see what a criminal see’s, it’s a different environment for her. She tries to help him at first but doesn’t succeed. 
• In this trailer the production logo is introduced later on instead of at the beginning. Because this is a psychological film they had to have a Mise-en-scene that didn’t look normal to the viewers. 
• This trailer also uses a quick succession short cuts to give the viewer as much of the film as possible that the short length of the trailer allows.
• This trailer gives almost the whole plot away, this in contrast to the previous trailer I looked at "Hellraiser" which gave almost nothing away.
• The sound is interesting as all the sound both diagetic and non-diagetic, sound as though they are being played in a pipe, there is a strange echo to it, this may be deliberate and designed to add to the feeling of strangeness which the trailer clearly wants to create

Research Into Horror Trailers 6

"Hell Raiser" is a British horror film that was released in 1987. The film was based on the horror writer Clive Bakers book the "Hell Bound Heart". The film is about a traveler named Frank Cotton who buys a puzzle box from a sales merchant in Morocco. Unfortunately for him he solves the puzzle box which unleashes hooked chains that rip him apart. With the hooks come humanoids to torture him and then drag his remains back to their realm. Frank tries to get himself back together with the help of his sister-in-law. She brings back men to her house to die so he can use there remains to build himself up again. 

• The trailer starts with a quote from Stephen King, which praises the work of Clive Barker, the trailer cashes in on that kind of endorsement.
• The first scene is of a man sitting surrounded by candles and holding something, the mise-en-scene has connotations of witchcraft or paganism, the whole scene is dark lit by just the candles
• non-diagetic eerie music is used throughout interspersed with diagetic sounds of demons and screaming.
• The trailer relies solely on scenes of demons, screaming women and dark misty shadowy mise-en-scenes and gives no indication of the plot synopsis of the film given above.

Research Into Horror Trailers 5

 

The next trailer I looked at is called “the devils backbone” this film was directed by Guerrilla Del Toro, this guy is known for making scary Spanish films. 

• The trailer begins by showing a long shot of a car driving towards an orphanage the next shot is a mid shot of a boy stepping out of the car. We find out the boy is there until his farther is back from the civil war, 
• in between the scenes text is shown adding to the narrative and giving further plot  details, particularly with "what is a ghost?", we now know the supernatural nature of the film
• The next scene shows a bomb falling in the middle of the playground but failing to explode. While the boy is in the orphanage he keeps seeing a ghost of a boy as reflections in glass but he keeps disappearing.  
• Later we find out that there are secrets in the orphanage. 
• The mise-en-scene is an old run down building that is used as a home for children. The building is in the middle of some fields. 
• The period seems to be World War 2 as the clothes and other props seem to resemble that era, not to mention the giant bomb

Research Into Horror Trailers 4

 

Grave Encounters is an American – Canadian film. The film is about a crew of ghost hunters being locked up in an old hospital, they come across many supernatural spirits. The way the film was recorded is very simple and it was first person point of view. 

• The trailer opens with their production logo which then carries on showing the rest of the crew wanting to go to a psychiatric hospital to see for themselves if it is really haunted. 
• The film is basically filmed like a documentary they find people who used to work there and they will interview them to find out why this hospital is haunted and what occurrences happened to them. 
• The Mise en scene is an abandoned hospital with supernatural beings it creates the scary atmosphere. 
• The lighting is mostly dark so they create a hallucinating environment for the viewer. 
• The film mostly makes you jump at something that isn’t there. This is all down to good filming and editing techniques used. The techniques used are reminiscent of "The Blair Witch Project"
• The trailer uses diagetic sounds of screaming and non-diagetic sounds of heavy synthetic drums to make the audience jump. This is where the trailer nails its colours to the mast and informs the audience of the type of experience they can expect from the film.

Research Into Horror Trailers 3

 

Death Bell is a South Korean film about teenage students taking their midterm exams. Something goes wrong and it’s like the “SAW” atmosphere they are all stuck in the school and they have to answer exam question correctly to save their own lives and secure their friends lives too. 

• The trailer begins by showing the teenage students enjoying themselves. Mise-en-scene is that of a school, people wearing school uniforms.
• Non-diagetic sound of calming piano music adds to the sense of security. 
• The next thing we see are the students about to take their exams when suddenly the announcement caller gets turned on and the announcement TV is turned on and they see one of their classmates in trouble and her life is dependent on the answers they give. 
• The Mise en scene suddenly becomes much darker, there is some hint of the supernatural through the use of demonic faces for split second

Research Into Horror Trailers 2

This film is called the entity which means something with distinct and independent existence, something that is alive and separate. In the context of the film The Entity is something that is unknown. This film was released in 1981 and it is based on true events. They actually went to this woman who was experiencing some kind of paranormal activity, she tried to seek help but no one would believe her, she was labelled as being crazy. This film was made before “Paranormal Activity” and the “Exorcist” and what makes it even scarier is the woman who gave them the rights to this story is still alive. The main actress is Barbra Hershey who plays the character who experiences the entity. 

• The trailer starts off with the production logo and shows us a mother who is happy and loves her children. 
• It’s like nothing is wrong, the Mise en scene helping with the atmosphere and the music is soft and smooth. 
• There is also a narration talking about the woman that comes across weird events, 
• the next scene shows her room shaking violently and the next scenes she is trying to explain it to some people but they resolve her idea by calling it an earthquake tremor. 
• The following scenes are quite violent showing her getting attacked and raped by something that can’t be seen, she seeks help from psychologists. The music is fast piano playing in the background like the “X files”.
• The style is like that of a documentary, adding to the realism, almost all the sound is diagetic save for narration and background music

Research Into Horror Trailers 1

To help me with brainstorming some of my own ideas I thought it would be best if I did some research into different types of horror trailers. This will help me take notes for my own horror trailer project. I intend to look at horror trailers from different countries, how they are told, based on true events, etc. I also want to look at the simplicity of these trailers so I can have reassurance in the fact that mine will have no money put in to it. I will also be looking at Mise en scene, props, costumes etc. 

 

I came across a horror trailer, it is a Spanish trailer called “REC 3 Genesis” and was directed by Paco Plaza. This trailer is so different from the ones I have seen, but the summary of this film is that zombies have infested a wedding party. But somehow it is a religious outcome. This film was released in March this year, 

• the trailer begins like a wedding video it shows a sequence of  wedding photos of a happy couple and family and friends having a nice time.
• This is accompanied by calming civilized classical music

• The target audience for this film is 18 and above I would only recommend this film to people with strong stomachs because it is full of gore.  
• As the sequence starts to change and we start seeing people throwing up and panicking, the non-diagetic sound of classical music goes out of tune, diagetic sounds of screaming begin to emerge
• then the sequence stops and we emerge into the reality of it. 
• Then we see the bride fighting her way through the zombies. 
• Mis en scene has a wedding background with celebratory decorations which clashes with the zombie gore, chainsaws and weapons. 

I Have Chosen....

I have chosen to do a trailer around the horror genre. I do want to create a hybrid with some comedy infused in it. It’s given me a lot to think about, for a better understanding I’ am going to do some more research into horror trailers. Maybe do some comparisons, I will also be looking into horror film posters and magazine covers and there conventions.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaahhhhh finally a long holiday, I don't think I'll be able to carry on blogging seeing as I'm going abroad but this might help me to think of ideas for our trailer. But I will try to do some.