Horror trailer conventions analysis

Horror Trailer conventions analysis

Freddy vs Jason (2009) Freddy vs Jason combines two of the most classic horror film characters: Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees as they both return to scare neighbourhood of Elm Street. As Jason kills the teens of the street's, Freddy starts to become stronger.

But Freddy soon wants Jason dead as he starts to kill the people that he is after, so he turns his attention onto Jason trying to kill him. While all this is going on the group of teens they are both hunting down figure out what happens and try to resolve the situation by setting Jason on Freddy.

In the trailer you start out with an introduction by having the dates in which both character were introduced to the audience, this allows people to guess who the film is about by creating a slight enigma. They then introduce the character Freddy and Jason, showing them both ready for a fight with Freddy saying ‘Welcome to my nightmare. You then see a brief snippet of their fight scene but it doesn’t give too much away as they want the audience to feel excited about the unexpected so they start to watch the film. At this point the music gets quicker but unlike other horror film trailers the music is not scary or creates tension, it has similar links to music found in a action trailer, this could suggest that the film isn’t meant to be that scary and has more focus on the action side of things. As the trailer plays out you slowly get to see the other characters that will play a vital role in the film, having popstar Kelly Rowland, who will bring a certain audience to the film that are a fan of her work.

After you see the characters it focuses back to Freddy and Jason as it says Evil will battle Evil, showing them both in a red factory with Freddy saying ‘Why won’t you die?’ showing the hatred he has for Jason. The audience then see a montage of the dreams the Freddy put the characters through, showing that his is up to his normal tricks again, it also shows to the audience that they haven’t broken tradition of the characters that many fear and love.

You then see clips from the ending of the film so the audience can see what will happen, this builds up tension and makes the audience want to see the film to find out what happened.

Everytime time the beat of the music drops the scene cuts quickly to show enough of the film footage to get the audience engaged, they focus longer on Freddy jumping out of the water to increase the tension. The trailer finishes on the main protagonist saying ‘Place your bets’ which makes the audience think about who they think will win or who they want to win, which again makes the audience want to go and watch to find what happens.

Fright Night (2011) Fright Night is a remake of the original in 1987, Charlie Brewster guesses his next door neighbour Jerry is a vampire and has linked him to the recent deaths in his town. When he tried to tell people what he has found out nobody believes him so he gets the help of a vampire hunter called Peter Vincent who helps him hunt down Jerry when he takes and turns his girlfriend into a vampire.

At the start of the film you are introduced to all three of the main characters, Charlie, his girlfriend Amy and Charlie's mum Jane.The scene they show is from the end of the film but it allows the audience to see the relationships between the characters, this also leads nicely into the equilibrium of trailer where the audience see the town in which the film will be set, and the high school where we quickly learn that a student has gone missing which leads Charlie’s friend to believe that there is a vampire town.

As soon as it gets to night we then get to meet the villain of the film Jerry who is played by Colin Farrell who is a well known actor to get people into watching the film. You then get to see the setting for happens towards the end of the film as they try to escape Jerry.

The audience is then introduced to another main character, Peter the vampire hunter who you learn will help them throughout the film.

At the end of trailer to see a scene from the middle of the film where Jane runs over Jerry, this is seen as the scary scene from the film so it's used at the end of the film to create suspense and try to engage the audience into going to watch the film.

The last house on the left (2009) At the start of the trailer we get the equilibrium where the audience get to meet the main characters and see the setting that film will be in. The setting is very typical of horror film as it's in an isolated area, with only one house, this suggests to the audience that if something does go wrong they won’t be able to get any help. The two girls Paige and Mary, then meet the family that will be killers in the film, it all seems very innocent at first as the girls flirt with his son, but when the family come home they realise they need to get out. The music in the trailer changes when this happens, at the start its light piano music but as soon as the family walks in the music dramatically changes to show the audience that these as the people that will cause trouble. We then also learn the backstory of the killers, that they are on the run for committing a previous murder which instantly shows to the audience that the girls are in danger.

It then goes into a quick montage of clips, showing Paige being locked in the bathroom, trying to escape, but then we also seen her cutting thrown around, the editing blacks in and out so it doesn’t give much away to audience. The next scene we see are the girls being walked into a forest by the family, the audience don’t find out what happens to the girls, which creates an enigma for the audience so they want to go and find out what happened. You just seen Mary running away and the main villain saying ‘Bring her back’ with a gun firing into the background.

The killers end up believing that she is dead.

It then goes to the superposition of words on the screen saying ‘It was BRUTAL crime’ which then follows on the scene of Mary floating in a lake with only her top and knickers on, which allows the audience to make assumptions on what happened to her. A Storm hits and you see the family making their way towards the house which Mary and her family are staying in, then comes on the screen ‘It was a place to hide’ which suggests to the audience that the family take them in and look after them, the son of the family, spots a picture of Mary on the fridge and starts to panic, which shows the audience that one of them know the girl lives their which could put them all into danger. But this it then contradicts itself by saying ‘But it was the wrong house’ which shows the the killing family are the ones that are in danger.

We then see Mary crawling out the lake and then a rocking of a rocking chair on the front porch with Mary laying down. The music then changes into something softer as the father carries her into the house, when the father says ‘Can you tell me who did this to you?’ it cuts to the scene of the villain getting into bed, to anchor that he was the one that did it to her. We then learn that the parents figure out who was responsible to happened into their daughter and it focuses on a gun and a knife which suggests the audience that they will try to kill them.

The background music then introduces a soft female voice singing ‘Sweet child of mine’ which is contrapuntal to what is happening in the trailer as the mother attacks one of the men that see the daughter on the table, the audience also see a gunshot go off and also someone falling from the landing. It them come up with the words ‘ If someone hurt, someone you love… how far would you go’. This suggests to the audience that the family want to avenge their daughter's attackers and they will do anything it takes, as they show a montage of the family in different situation throughout the trailer showing what might happen to them. The main villain then goes ‘Do you want to hear what i did to your daughter?’ which is followed by actions scence of someone sticking a knife in someone's head but the audience don’t get to see who it is which makes them want to go and watch the film.

The title of the film then appears which the music still playing behind it, but before the trailer end we see the main villain laying down saying he can’t move, with his head in a microwave, we see the dad turn it on and walk away but it fades to black before the audience can see anything which entices them to finding out what happens.