Textual Analysis of

Carrie, Movie Trailer.

Will Kearse

The GenreThis 2013 remake of the original 1974 version is a horror story surrounding the young Carrie white.

We can tell it is of the horror genre as it contains certain iconography usually associated with the typical genre. It contains themes like religion and demonic possession and also has typical aspects like a house or area of safety, but in this instance no wear is safe. Another common factor telling the audience that it is a horror is that it involves a sort of innocents, in this case it is Carrie herself but usually it is a family with young children. As then there is the contrast between good and evil making the horror even more effective on the viewer.

The Narrative

The story is of a young girl named Carrie White, who lives with her deeply religious mother in the a typical suburban house, in America. She is portrayed as having some sort of power, maybe due to a demonic presence or something holy. She is constantly treated as an outcast amounts her peers, and so bullied and tormented for it.

The story follows her through high school, dealing with the bullying, the almost sadistic beliefs of her mother and trying to discover the truth behind why she is so different, and how she can control it. The trailer gives us little clues about the reasoning behind her abilities, it only shows us how over time she becomes able to use them more easily. And how she is trying to understand and search for answers. All whilst surviving high school.

Camera angles/shots,

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound,

dialogue, pace and special effects.

The opening shot is of the trailer is an establishing long shot of a typical American suburban house. Which fades in using editing. The fade in effect being a common trait of horror trailer. The camera pans up and slowly fades to black again. This slow transition of shot creates a peaceful, tranquil setting for the viewer. This gives the starting equilibrium which is at this moment stable.

This serves the purpose of establishing the location of the story, or the home of the main character. More importantly in this section is the sounds in the background. Edited over are the sounds of birds tweeting in the background, another common trait with horror or thriller movies to lure the viewer into a false sense of security to make the scares, or more suspenseful shots of the trailer even more effective. Also in the Diegetic sound we hear a mothers voice singing what sounds like a lullaby. But when listened to closely, she says the words “Our fathers mercy” which can be linked to maybe religious themes

in the movie. This sound of her singing continues over to the next shot when the screen fades to black.

The trailer also uses interties to tell the story “In every neighbourhood there is one family” fades in on the black screen, with a slow zoom. This text is cleaver in the sense that it makes the view think about their own street, in their own town. This is a way of connecting with the viewer to draw them in closer to the trailer. When relating to the movie its saying that in every street there are secrets and horrors that should never be uncovered.

The suspense in the trailer begins to increase, as the viewer is now intrigued to what the meaning behind this is. And questions begin to form, creating a code of enigma that need answers.

Editing then fades into the next shot which is tracking through a part of the house seen in the last shot. Unlike the previous establishing shot of the house, this one is a lot darker, we see the curtains drawn with little natural light being let in, and some props including a cross, linking to the religious themes in the movie. But the house alone shows no noticeable differences than that to the average family home. Again like the shot before it fades to black.

During this shot the singing from the mother continues, but then we are introduced to another diegetic sound of screaming. This starts quietly and builds through the shot, carrying on through and even when the shot fades to black the two sounds continue. Then, much like the second shot in the black screen text is edited in to again break the two shots of the home. This time it reads “With a secret”, adding to the original text and the sounds and visuals given the view now starts to see the shift in equilibrium to a more unstable negative spectrum.

The next shot fades in from the text to the same dark room but now with the woman who was singing the lullaby. The camera pans upwards at an angle to the woman. Before reaching her face we see she is cutting up some ragged pieces of paper, this suggests that she almost has a sadistic nature, that something is making her ignore her daughters screams for help, and instead sing softly to herself while performing seemingly normal tasks. Editing then cuts this to the woman's face which the camera tracks around as she is cutting the paper.

Again between the shots another fade to black with text, now reading “No one talks about” which when added to the other two forms the sentence. “In every neighbourhood there is one family that no one talks about.”

Towards the end of the edited in text we begin to hear banging, adding to the two diegetic sounds, which follows through to the next shot which is a medium close up of a door as the camera tracks in on it cuts to the next shot which is a close up angled shot of the padlock on the door, which is violently being hit against on the other side. The camera cuts quickly zooming further in on the padlock in time with the sounds. Shortly increasing the trailer pace.

Along with the banging from the first shot of the door, to the next, the woman's soft voice fades out, leaving just the girls screams, the banging and also an added no-diegetic sound. This occurs in time with the bangs against the door and intensifies the sound which is probably produced by a synth. The editor has done this to disrupt the equilibrium further, as it gives a feel of increased speed to the section with the fast banging, quick cutting between shots and louder edited in sound.

Cutting to black the production companies and studio used to produce the film fade in on screen for a few seconds then fading out to another establishing shot. This time it is of a public school, we can see this by the front end of a school bus appearing in the left hand side of the shot, with a large intimidating building centre with children walking beneath. The main sound track for the trailer begins here, which is composed of synth and electric guitar plucking single notes in a clean non distorted sound.

The camera cuts to the next shot of which is the mother and daughter in the car with the camera on the daughters side as she gives her a kiss on the cheek. It cuts again to the medium shot on the opposite side of the car showing the daughter leaving the car to go to school. The atmosphere in these shots shows that the mother and daughter relationship is under threat due to some sort of demon or religious reason possessing the young girl, but we see that she kisses her on the cheek showing she does love her and that locking her away was for her own safety.

We are then introduced to the school in which she attends. The opening shot being a tracking medium shot following her through the halls of the school. We see from this shot that it is set in the modern day as the costume of the teenagers and Carrie suggests so. We see her clutching her bag tightly as if she is nervous and she has her head slightly down as if not to attract attention to herself. But unknown to the viewer is why she is like this, as the two teenagers, on male and one female, are laughing at her. Suggesting that maybe she is an outcast or has been humiliated or is different to the rest and so is ridiculed for it.

Over this shot we hear the diegetic voice over of Carrie from another shot in the movie saying “The other kids, they think I'm weird” even though she seems like the average teenage girl when in public.

The next scene fades in with the same theme music in the background of guitar. Starting with a medium close up eye line match of Carrie in class. Who is being questioned by her teacher also shown in a medium long shot eye line match. It then cuts to the two girls laughing at her, again suggesting she is an outcast.

Cutting to the next scene we see two students of the school making out, whilst the diegetic voice of Carrie saying “I want to be normal” “Before its too late” So we can take from these hints that the film revolves around her trying to fit in amongst her "normal” peers. Having friends, relationships etc. And if this doesn’t happen then she knows that she will eventually snap.

Then cutting to a medium two shot of Carrie and one of her classmates, who intimidates her by getting right up in her face and says “wipe that grin of your face.” Through the majority of the middle section, the camera angles, shots and meaning behind the story shown, remains the same. We see Carrie constantly being laughed at and humiliated and slowly getting more and more aggressive due to this.

The next few scenes follow the same structure, when in one location they cut between shot but when switching they fade to black then back in. The shots that follow are of Carrie being humiliated by her school mates, for instance in the shower rooms where they take a video of her. In a wide medium shot.

And again in the sequence we see that her mother although seems as if she is harming her daughter is only trying to help her as we can see in this low angle tracking shot after the changing room incident.

The equilibrium in this trailer does not follow the typical trend set by others of its similar genre, The thriller or Horror. It rapidly changes throughout, aided by sound and editing that cuts between shots quickly. It is very effective on the viewer as we can see the two sides to the character, the one being the girl who just wants to be normal and fit in and the other that is angry and wants to find out why she is like the way she is.

at this point in the trailer where Carries mother is quoting the bible to her. Carrie is shown at a high angle when compared to her mother which is shown through a low angled shot. This shows that although her mother has more authority over her, being the mother, Carrie has the power over her, due to her ablilities And again her mother reduces to locking her in the closet, which Carrie fights against. “Go to your closet and pray” At this point. The non diegetic soundtrack stops completely when the door is opened and Carrie is forced inside.

Instead it is replaced by a slow pace drum beat, with a reverbed effect to make the sound echo. And from this point this beat continues, not growing faster but slowly adding in more sound like singing, which the words are hard to make out but it creates a eerie feel, and the pace building towards the end is created by the cuts alone.

As the trailer moves on we start to see these two sides to Carrie become closer and closer. In one shot we see a close up of her face, smiling with a light peaceful background, creating a more positive mood. But then it cuts to quick short shots of her at prom night destroying the hall and sending people flying through the air.

We see the transition between this kind hearted young woman to this hate filled teenager who just wants revenge for humiliation and bullying she received.

Other shots that show significance in the trailer include this close up of Jesus on the cross, as blood runs down the statue. This tells the viewer that there are definite religious themes in the movie and the cause behind this girl having the powers and abilities she has is maybe because of some sort of demon or higher being possessing or giving her these gifts.

The most commonly used camera shot in this trailer would be the medium shots of the pupils, Carrie and her mother. Another common camera shot or technique in the trailer is a panning or tracking movement around the characters and locations.

Towards the end of the trailer we are introduced to the actors and actresses who play the lead roles followed by a shot of them, for example a close up of Carries mother. Also the pace of the cutting and transition between shots becomes quicker, but does not follow a set beat. Instead it occasionally slows down but speeds up again, this can be seen in the final shot of Carrie surrounded by flames, the camera cuts multiple times in the same shot each time getting closer.

The trailer ends on the title “Carrie” which fades in and out. The font and colour of the text represent quite a calm peaceful feel maybe relating to

Carries innocents as a young teenager. But then the white text is then joined with blood dripping of the letters highlighting the malevolent side

to Carrie that is released.

Code of Enigma

How does the trailer excite or hook the audience? And what is its unique selling points?

The film features well know actresses such as Julianne Moore, and in particular Chloe Grace Moretz, who plays the leading role. She has been the lead in other big films like Kick Ass, and Kick Ass 2. And so she is well known amongst the target audience which is teenage, maybe 18-25 year olds. This can also be seen as its unique selling point, but that which will make people come to watch the film will most likely be paying to see it as it is a remake of the classic based of a book written by one of the biggest names in horror, Stephen King.

Also the trailer does a good job of giving the viewer enough action and mystery without giving away all the story. This means the viewer has unanswered questions that can only be solved by watching the movie.

Shots in trailer?

Due to the fast cuts towards the end of the trailer I counted 110 Shots.

How long is the trailer?

The trailer is 2.35 minutes, slightly longer than the average horror trailers that are from 1.45 to 2.10 usually. This may be due to the editors wanting to show as much action and thrills in the trailer as possible to draw a larger audience.

The mood and expectations of the film?

From the trailer the view will expect the film to involve a side of mystery and discovery. Also the flashes of carnage towards the end show a side of action and thrills to the movie, so the trailer tends to people of different tastes.

Why has the film studio used a trailer to advertise the film?

A film trailer is most effective as it engages the view more than a magazine article or radio trailer. It offers visuals, so a sneak peek into what the film will contain, and does not require the view to read or apply effort to see.