Trailer Overview

I have looked at a range of horror film trailers in order to find any reoccurring features or common conventions throughout them. I made sure to watch trailers that liked in with my chosen supernatural horror genre.

After watching them, I noticed how clearly they presented themselves as supernatural horror films. All of the trailers had very dark lighting that helped to cast shadows, which sometimes helped keep certain things hidden and create fear of the unknown. They all feature horrific imagery like blood, creepy masks or deformed parts of the human body, but they also feature thing that sometimes can’t be explained e.g. moving shadows or things/people that are seen one moment and gone the next. In addition, the trailers all have sounds that have been amped-up to create tension, like whispers or the sound of a heart beating. These are all conventions that occur in horror films and can usually be seen in their trailers as well.

The trailers show patterns in themselves with things like strap lines that show up in between shots. Furthermore, they all seem to follow a similar structure with longer shots and softer editing at the beginning and as they approach the end the shots become much shorter and the editing speeds up. At the beginning, the first shots are usually the establishing shots followed by the film company credits. Some of them also have a sting at the end of the trailer. It either gets placed right before the film’s details are shown, or right after as a last ‘injection’ of horror.

All of the trailer will show the film’s protagonist, which usually tends to be a woman. This is because people find the film more realistic if it’s a female trying to overcome the trials in the film, since women in films are seen as the weaker sex are the ones that always need protection. The trailer will also usually show the antagonist, but only allow quick glimpses so that the audience is left wondering what they saw or they even saw anything. We also see other characters from the film; however their roles are usually less important.

All of the trailers use very dark colours. Typically, at the start of the trailer, we would see lighter and warmer colours and as the trailer plays, the colours turn much colder and become almost unpleasant, as if the characters are entering an evil and dark world. This may be done to show a contrast between the equilibrium and the disturbance. The dark colours also help to create more shadows which make it harder for the audience to see what exactly is going on. This could mean that they will want to watch the trailer again out of curiosity of what they saw of failed to see.

The most common colours that occur in trailers are dark blues. These colours make the trailer look cold and desolate. It gives of a feeling of loneliness and isolation. Dark reds are the next most common because they make the audience feel as though all of the horror is happening in hell itself. The reds can be a foreshadowing of blood and pain, and the colour red’s connotation is usually anger and rage.

Text is used in a few ways in the trailers. At the beginning we see the film company name which may also include their logo. Throughout the trailer, we see strap lines e.g. “He wants to be born now” – The Unborn, that are meant to give the audience extra information about the film. These strap lines start appearing after the definite change in music and sometimes during the fast editing montage at the end. It’s not uncommon for the strap lines to have the same font as the name of the film. Finally, at the end of the trailer, we have the film’s credits where we see the name of the film and usually some sort of realise date. This will give all of the basic information they may need to consider weather to find out more about the film and to watch it. Other optional pieces of text are also used like extra information about production staff, reviews or star ratings and the film’s website URL.

Common camera shots in trailers are point of view shots. This let’s us see what the character sees, which makes us temporarily feel as thought we have taken on the role of the character. This also makes us feel more vulnerable, as thought we are exposed to the world in the film. Close-up shots are also very common because it let’s us see the character’s facial expression and we are able to tell how their feeling.

The trailers use mise-en-scene to help them bring across the horror and sub-genre of horror the film is promoting. The most common technique used is religious iconography and things associated with religion, like exorcisms, cults and cult symbols or practices, churches, a priest character or something of the equivalent, demons and spirits. Possessed children are also a regular feature in supernatural horrors and will often appear in the trailers. The trailers might also include blood or bladed weapons to remind the audience of the film’s genre.

Sound is used in the trailers to create tension. At the beginning of the trailer, there is either no music or it is quite light and faded into the background. Then there is a sudden drop of low base and the audience knows something is wrong or that something bad is going to happen. Then the music becomes darker and more noticeable. It coincides with the fast montage of shots to help create tension. Then everything may go quiet, or how other trailers insert the sound of a heart beat. This leaves all the tension pent-up inside the audience’s body’s and raises their anxiety. We then may hear a sharp loud sound that scares us more because of the fear we have inside us. If they trailer has a sting, then at the end there may little noise that lulls the audience into a false sense of security which makes the sting that much worse.

The editing in these trailers is mostly made up of cuts. All of the trailers will have cuts during the fast editing montage because it helps to create the tension. Other common edits include fade to black. This edit may be used because once the screen has faded to black, the audience don’t know what their going to see next. This wouldn't be possible with just quick cuts. Dissolves may also be used at the beginning of the trailer because their much softer and fit in well with the feel of the equilibrium.

In conclusion all of these trailers follow the conventions of horror and the conventions of horror trailers to at least some extent. This is why they have been able to successfully promote their films through the use of things like tension, cliff-hangers or grotesque imagery.