Analysis of 5 horror film trailers

Mother! (2017)


When I first watched this trailer I am drawn to the fact it stars Jennifer Lawrence, as she is a very well known actress. The trailer contains a few mild trick jump scares. You can see the film is mainly set in one house as you see no scenes in the trailer that take place outside the property, which seems old-fashioned rather than modern. The different clips show contrast in lighting, some high key and some low key, but all high key lighting seems to be- to the audience- natural. Added in between clips are titles in a bold red font against a black background, these tell us information about who it stars and when it is being released.

The Paperboy (1994)


This trailer makes the film look very cheesy and badly made, but that makes me want to watch the film to actually see how bad it gets. It starts off showing very friendly scenes and then changes about halfway through showing the more violent and “frightening” scenes. Similarly to Mother! there is a contrast between high key and low key lighting, with hardly any artificial lighting. The film seems to be set in a suburban American neighborhood.   

Jeepers Creepers (2001)


It seems like most of Jeepers Creepers is set outside, looking at the clips in the trailer. The trailer has diegetic sound of music of a fast tempo in the background.  It starts off with seems in broad day light but as the trailer continues most of it has low key lighting, telling us that it is mostly set at night. This trailer also has some jump scares in it.

Let Me In (2010)


This trailer starts by showing us a school assembly. The atmosphere feels cold and eerie as we hear who we infer as the principle tell them about the murder of a recent graduate. We then see a mid-close-up of a boy, who we infer as the protagonist. Compared to everyone else he looks small and vulnerable. We are then told through a series of clips that a girl has moved next door to this boy and that he is bullied at school. We see the boy hears strange noises from her flat and that there has been another murder. We see her tell her that she needs blood, which we interpret as her being a vampire. The beat of the music in the background of the trailer goes along with when the clips change.

 Childs Play (1988)



We hear a cheesy movie trailer voiceover and then see a boy receive his Christmas present whi9ch is a doll called “A Good Guy”. We see the doll commit murders and nobody believes the boy and his mum when she finds out the truth behind ‘chucky’. The voice over continues throughout the entirety of the trailer. 

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