Horror film trailer analysis

Alien Trailer analysis

At the beginning of the Alien (1979) trailer. The camera appears to be hurtling through space. We can see this as we can see stars fly past. This gives the audience the idea that this film is about space. The Background is black and the stars and planets are a bright white. These colours give a lonely feel to the trailer as there is nothing but planets. The sound also enhances this feeling as there is no sound which makes it seem like you are on your own travelling through space. As well as this it also gives a dark and scary feel to it as the colour black connotes darkness and is a common colour to see in horror films as it gives a scary feeling as you don’t know what could be in the darkness. This clip also suggests that you are travelling far away and going on a journey. It then cuts to a image of what seems to be the ground of a planet and the camera is moving down the ground. This suggests that the film is going to be based on a planet. There are also some white lines at the top which are slowly appearing. There is still no sound in this clip which reinforces the idea of being alone.

The camera then cuts to a quick take of what appears to be the top of an egg. This could suggest some form of life on this planet. This gives the audience the thought that it could be an sci-fi film with aliens. The camera is slowly panning down this egg. A series of quick takes interchanging between the egg and the ground. As these clips are played, more of those white lines at the top of the screen appear. Soon it becomes letters and a word. When the word finally is spelled out to be ‘Alien’ we see a full long shot of this egg and the camera pans down the egg and into the ground. This gives the effect that this egg is an alien egg as the font moves down the screen with the camera. The font is a sans serif and quite a bold white colour. This is a typical trope of the science fiction genre to use this sort of font.  The sound in the clip is also escalating. It’s a strange sounds that gets higher in pitch. This builds suspense for the audience as we don’t know what is going to come out of this egg. The camera cuts to an extreme close up of the egg and we can see cracks forming and then the camera quickly cuts to a medium shot of the egg as it cracks open. As we see this a bright white light comes out of the egg. This gives the effect that this is no normal egg and does reinforce the thought of an alien egg. We also hear a high pitched siren noise. This is immediately played after the egg cracks open. This could suggest that this is the sound of this alien. Or the siren noise could be a siren. This connotes danger and fear to the clip.

After this, the camera quickly cuts to a person holding a torch. This gives the effect that they are in darkness and are searching for something. The torch is a trope to horror films as it gives a dark and scary feel to the scene as you can’t see what’s in the darkness. The escalating sound is still playing which is still building suspense. The camera then plays a series of quick takes. One of which is a strange which can’t really be recognised as to what it is. We then see a extreme long shot of a group of people in suits walking into two holes. This camera angle gives the effect that they are being watched. Also the fact that they are wearing suits reinforces the idea that they are on an alien planet. After this we see a close up of one of the stars, Sigourney Weaver, running down a corridor. The camera angle gives a good close up on her face. This shows that she is scared and maybe running away from something. We then see a POV shot of her running down this corridor. This is a dark clip as we can’t see what follows in the corridor. This gives a scary felling to this clip as anything could be lurking in the darkness. The siren noise is recurring which suggests something is with them on this planet. The escalating sound is continuing to rise in tempo which further builds tension. As well as this a heartbeat sound begins to play and its beating really fast. This gives an exhilarating and fast pace to the trailer. Both these sounds seem to be building up to a climax and builds suspense.

The camera then cuts to be following Sigourney Weaver as she runs down this corridor. This camera angle suggests that something is chasing her and we as an audience are interpellated to feel scared for her as we think something is trying to catch her. This gives us the idea that there are ‘Binary oppositions’ (Levi-Strauss). 

The Shining Trailer Analysis

The Shining (1980) is a classic, psychological horror movie starring Jack Nicholson. The Trailers vary from 1:30 mins to just over 2 minutes. For this analysis I will be using a trailer that lasts just under 1:30 minutes. This length of time for a trailer seems to be the normal amount of time when you compare it to many others. The Trailer as a whole does give away quite a bit of the storyline. At the very beginning we hear a man telling a story of a family who was murdered in a house by the Dad. This could give away the storyline of the film. Jack Nicholson is shown as the antagonist as we see him holding an axe and trying to kill his family. We see some establishing and ELS to display the location of a film which is a large mansion which seems to be in the middle of nowhere. This is a trope to horror films as an old building seems to be quite eerie and scary. We do see some sort of normal equilibrium as we see the mother and son in the kitchen. We don’t see the agent of change throughout the trailer.

The advert shouldn’t be to frightening as we don’t want to see all of the scary moments. As well as this we don’t want to be scared every second. We need a break period in between the jump scares. If the audience is constantly being scared then they don’t have enough time to process all of the information from the trailer. However the trailer does need to be scary and so by putting in a couple of jump scares throughout the film will scare people and some people do enjoy feeling scared. This would then attract people to watch it. Some examples of this in the trailer is when the piano key is played and an exe is hit through a door. The piano key really emphasises the jump scare as the sound comes as quite a shock to you.

The sound and music in this trailer is rhythmically edited to match the camera shots. The music is a slow drum beat and every now and then a sharp piano key is played. When this key is played, the camera cuts to a scary shot of something for a split second. For example when the piano key is played, the camera cuts to an axe smashing through a door. The piano gives a sharp and quite shocking feel to the trailer and can be a jump scare sometimes. The music speeds up later in the trailer as more action and violence occurs. The editing becomes faster and quick takes are used to build speed and tension to the trailer.

The use of captions in this trailer is used to give information about the film. There are a total of 3 captions in the film. The captions are in a black background with a white bold serif font. The black background gives a dark and scary feeling to the trailer which enhances the genre in this trailer. The white serif font really stands out and looks sharp. This could connote a knife or blade which is dangerous and a typical thing to see in a horror film. Two of these captions are used to show the actors in the film, Nicholson and Kubrick. These are two big name stars that would attract their own fans to come and watch the film. Jack Nicholson is a highly credited star and would make people want to watch the film to see if he lives up to his status of being a good actor. The last caption is used to show the name of the film, The Shining. This gives audiences the name of the film so they can research it and find out more. Captions are important as they give audiences information about the film. If there were no captions, the audience would be left confused as to what they just watched.