Horror Film Trailer Analysis and Research

A young married couple's lives are thrown into a harrowing tailspin when an acquaintance from the husband's past brings mysterious gifts and a horrifying secret to light after more than 20 years.

When a young doctor suspects she may not be alone in her new Brooklyn loft, she learns that her landlord has formed a frightening obsession with her.

Mise-en-scene

Setting – Location.• Both films show where the plots are

located which is quite normal locations, which creates a more realistic storyline, making the audience more fearful because of the normality of the setting. This makes the audience think that it could happen to anyone, by playing on the minds of the audience the fear is intensified.

• The locations aren’t shown right at the start of the trailer, but tend to be shown after the introduction of the characters. This is to help show that everything starts off normally and again making the audience think that the storyline to the film could happen to anyone.

• Both of the films introduce the main characters as having quite ordinary lives and not really having anything particularly unordinary happening or going on. They tend to be portrayed as being happy and content, contrasting with the main plots of the films.

• ‘The Gift’ starts by introducing a couple who are moving into a house together and shows them as being very much in love with each other.

• ‘The resident’ introduces a single female as wanting to rent out the loft space to live in.

• Each trailer shows a shot of the characters at their jobs which helps to portray how ordinary the lives of the characters are, this is done to increase the fear in the audience by reflecting on their ordinary lives and making them feel like it could happen to anyone.

Introduction of the “good” characters.

First introduction of the stalkers.• In stalker thriller films the stalker

character tends to be introduced in the trailers at the beginning close to the introduction of the other main character/s. In these first shots of the stalkers they are portrayed as being quite ordinary men just wanting to be kind and generous.

• In ‘The Gift’ the stalker character is introduced as being an old acquaintance from school with the male, he is shown to be round their house having dinner and leaving a series of gifts.

• In ‘The Resident’ the character of the stalker is portrayed to be a hardworking male, working on the apartment he is wanting to rent out. He is also shown bumping into the female at a party where he appears cheerful and polite.

Change in the stalkers.

• About half way through the trailers there is a change in the presentations of the stalker characters and the audience sees them become the stalker and begins to feel on edge regarding the character.

• The stalker in ‘The Gift’ starts to be represented as evil after the other main male says he should stay away from his house. Its at this point that shots portraying bad things such as the dead fish change the perception of his character.

• The stalker in ‘The Resident’ isn’t shown to be the same guy at first because of the series of events that happen don’t show a person directly causing them. It is later on in the fast cuts where we spot him as the stalker, for example when he is stood behind a door.

Information about the stalkers found.•In both of the films, the protagonists (both as females) find out information from and about their stalkers. •‘The Gift’ shows a file found about the stalker with a mug shot being the most clear part of it, this intensifies how bad the situation is and makes the audience increasingly aware that he shouldn’t have been trusted.•‘The Resident’ shows video footage of the stalker actually in the females house, watching her as she sleeps. This clip is added into the trailer to again intensifies the situation. However the clip doesn’t show the face of the stalker so it is at this point still unclear as to who the stalker definitely is, this adds a different kind of fear for the audience because of the lack of knowledge and element of mystery left by the trailer at this point.

Props used.• There is shots in both trailers during the

quick cross-cutting and editing that shows knives being picked up. In both shots the knives are originally being used to cut food which shows how the lives are continued to be ordinary.

• By showing that the knives were already in use the moment of horror is intensified by representing the moment as tense and the knife being the first defence mechanism to be thought about, this plays on the mind of the audience and makes them more fearful.

Ending scenes to the trailer.

•Both trailers end with a climax to the film as a way to persuade the audience to go and watch the film. •‘The Gift’ ends with the male protagonist watching a final gift from the stalker, the facial expressions portrayed shows the fear and terror on his face as he watches it and then the audience is shown a part of what he is watching which intensifies the fear being a climatic point in the film.•‘The Resident’ ends with the stalker actually grabbing the female protagonist through the mirror as she tries to hide away from him. This scene is added because it makes the audience jump in fear as it is unexpected, this would make the audience want to watch the film because they have a feel for the horror it portrays.