Sunday, 30 September 2012
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Analyses of Horror Movie Trailer: The Devil Inside

By dressing and looking like an average mother, realism is
created for the audience; they can put themselves in Isabella’s shoes. Isabella
then sets the scene of the trailer by telling us that her mother is in a
hospital in Rome, long connotated with Christianity, religion and the Vatican,
and states that it is her goal to save her mother. The term exorcism is said,
linking in the religious imagery to the storyline that is featured throughout
the trailer as iconography of the paranormal genre as the music begins to grow
more tense. There is an establishing shot of a panning view of Vatican City,
emphasising the heavy religious aspects within this movie and the fight between
good and evil, before Isabella is seen walking through a bleak courtyard in
warm, winter clothing in a low angle shot, meant to make a character look
intimidating, but actually just portraying Isabella as a main character in the
plot, just as the zooming in of the picture did for the mother. The setting is
seen to be during winter, as it represents the death of nature, and within this
film: the death of a soul.
Isabella
is shown in a medium two shot with a doctor, as presumed by the white lab coat,
in a blank, white hallway. The colour scheme not only represents a lack of
life, but almost heavenly, as if her mother is already dead. Their reunion is
paired with eerie music of violins, and by preceding this scene with CCTV style
footage and providing a panic button; the feeling of danger is enhanced. Whilst Isabella is dressed in normal, average
clothing that the audience would recognise, the mother, Maria, in a zoomed in,
over-the-shoulder long shot, is dressed in a hospital gown, cardigan and socks,
contrasting Isabella and soon to become her key “look”, and is presented as
dazed and confused, bringing forth connotations of mental asylums and
illnesses. The bland colour scheme represents the theme of a lack of life that
was previously hinted at through the weather. Her messy hair reflects her crazed
state of mind, and her make-up is designed to make her look sallow, with sunken
eyes like that of a dead body. This and the genre of supernatural is confirmed
by the close up of crosses carved upon her arm and inner bottom lip, through
special effects make-up, and her innocent, child like beckoning as the soundtrack
goes silent before screaming. Eerie music begins again as the image then
flickers, as if on CCTV and flashes in and out of black, featuring the
antagonist screaming and gesticulating wildly.
This continues until
the series of shots ends with a close up of Isabella sobbing hysterically.
Religion is then once more brought into the film with the reappearance of the
priest from the beginning conversation who tells Isabella that she must watch
an exorcism to gain understanding. The scene then cuts from a small, enclosed
room with warm, peach coloured wallpaper and brick to a cold, blue tinted
tracking shot of the three walking into a house. The house that they are
welcomed into is very bland in colour that reflects the lifelessness of the
human inside. The group are led downstairs in a high angle shot and through a
series of hallways to where the victim lays, reflecting how deep down the
possession can reach, and just how much protection the house owners need from
the victim. A sheet is removed to see a long shot of a disfigured young woman
on a hospital-like bed. The
young woman is dressed in a seemingly innocent, white bed clothing, that is
used to highlight the grotesque positioning of her limbs and that her innocence
has been violated by the demons possessing her.
Her bones pop out of their sockets with amplified sound as
the shot cuts to a shocked and terrified Isabella, before cutting to a priest
turning on a machine of some sort and then flickering to an extreme close up of
an eye, which when the scene cuts back to the priest by the machine, turns out
to be from the camera the priest holds. The feature of science mixed with
religion is unconventional to supernatural films, but by pushing the rules of
conventions, the writers draw the audience further in. In a close up of the
victim, Isabella’s name is mentioned in a hoarse, demonic voice, and from the
subsequent reactions of Isabella, the priests and the victim, more intrigue is
created in the audience. Multiple angles, including a bird’s eye and worm’s eye
view, of the victim’s suddenly levitating body are shown with a stab of sound
before the first strap is shown, “This January”, to increase the audience’s
heart rate and to maintain their attention Distorted marks on this strap are
reminiscent of the shape of crucifixes, emphasising the religious imagery once
more. Close ups of the technology are used; however it is every day technology
that the audience may have used at home. Four voices are heard on the
recording, meaning that the antagonist is possessed by four spirits, deepening the
plot further. A quick cut of a time-lapse of a church is shown with a stab of
orchestral music, reminding the audience of the religious theme of the trailer.
A
hospital room is shown as they work on the antagonist, where she yet again has
a demonic fit. More conventions are shown by throwing a man against a wall with
inhuman strength and singing a lullaby to her daughter over eerie music; a
contrapuntal sound for this genre, and then holy water. “Between science and
religion” is shown, reaching out to atheists, spiritualists, Christians and all
faiths over a background with more defined inverted crosses; signs of the
anti-Christ. The straps are also used to tie the shots together into a more
cohesive narrative as well as increasing the fear in the audience. The
quick-cut montage is then featured with the contrapuntal lullaby being sung
over the top, with conventional images of possessed people hidden in the
shadows behind a character before a strap, “between hope and fear”, a medium
close up of a possessed man (the priest), the antagonist grabbing at someone in
another demonic fit, before another strap, “No soul is safe”, and then another
series of quick cuts; getting attacked in a car, running to a hospital room and
the young possessed woman having demonic fits, and climbing the wall.
The
quick cut montage is ended with Isabella leaning closely to her mother, telling
the demons to let her mother go. They respond; “You’ll burn” with multi-layered
voices, creating a demonic tone. A stab is then showed with the mother flying
across the room, then screaming in a close up before a dimly lit, quick cut
shot within a dark room of the young possessed woman grabbing for the camera,
adding further realism. The fast paced nature of the quick-cut montage is to
raise the audience’s heart rate and entice them to watch the movie, something
this trailer does masterfully. It is through the range of sounds played over the
shots of lullabies and eerie noises paired with the emphasised heavy breathing
and screams of the clips that the audience is pulled in. As the title
information plays, Maria is heard in a non-diegetic soundtrack, linking the end
of the trailer back to the beginning. The
editing for this trailer is effective as whilst is does stick to the convention
of slowing increasing to the fast cut montage, there are instances where the
trailer will slow down at seemingly random before a big scare in order to
recapture the audience’s attention. The quick cuts and those that seem to
flicker in the style of a VHS tape are conventional to this genre as it
enhances the distorted, possessed feel of the narrative, and is used in
congruence with the soundtrack and pace of the scenes. This trailer is, overall, very effective in
capturing and retaining the audience’s attention in a way that we hope to
replicate within our trailer. We plan to take much inspiration from this text
due to its successful execution.
Analyses of Horror Movie Trailer: Last Exorcist

The trailer tells the tale of Reverend
Cotton Marcus and a documentary crew visiting a man and his daughter in Louisiana,
2009, to exorcise the devil from the man’s daughter; however the demon proves
to be much stronger than he anticipated. The trailer begins with the Reverend
and his companion driving through a derelict town, soon named Ivanwood,
Louisiana in 2009. The characters stop to ask for directions but the man purposely
directs them away from the area and then attacks their car by throwing mud as
they frantically drive away. The dilapidated nature of the area is shown again
and then the audience see the cause for the characters’ travels. In an
interview, the man they meet, Louis Sweetzer, tells them of his wife’s death
and how his daughter, Nell, has struggled to cope and has “the devil” within
her. The Reverend then decides to try and exorcise the demon from Nell, however
something goes wrong and the demon takes over Nell’s body. The audience then
see Nell kill a white cat, and then stand at the end of a darkly lit hallway
before approaching the crew. The scene changes to the crew filming in a pitch
black room and the Reverend tells them to turn their lights off. Nell is
sitting on top of a wardrobe and staring down at them, straight into the
camera. The scene cuts to black, and then, presumably Nell’s, feet are seen
walking along hardwood floors, the boards creaking under her and chains around
her ankles. Nell is then suddenly outside of the house and the crew are filming
her and she watches as she walks, watching them like prey. The editing gets
quicker and the scene cuts to the Reverend and the girl in the barn as he
slowly walks to her, then quickly cuts to her breaking her own neck. Louis then
decides to “save his daughter’s soul” by shooting her, and the scene cuts to
Nell on the porch steps and she launches at the camera, making the audience
believe that she attacked her father. The quick cut montage shows the reverend
trying to help a flailing Nell, the crew running frantically from something
into the safety of the house, Nell crawling across the ceiling, the Reverend in
the ceremony of exorcism with the reactions to the process from Louis, Cotton
and Nell, her father trying to save her, a cross being raised, Nell screaming,
the barn being set on fire, more religious imagery and crosses, and then Nell
bending backwards with the sound of bones crunching. The movie title then fades
onto screen with an edited image of Nell standing in the hallway, the image
distorted and the layer of it moving around before institutional information is
shown.
The trailer hasn’t got a set structure, and
the beginning isn’t even tranquil. The start of the trailer is unsettling for
the audience, who can tell that something bad is going to happen through the
foreshadowing of the man throwing mud at the car and warning them and the neglected
house and bus featured. The disruption occurs after the Reverend tries to
exorcise the demon from her, and then the scenes following jump time periods
back and forth within the time line of the film to give a frenzied sense to the
events after the exorcism. The editing speeds up from the fades at the
beginning of the trailer eventually to the quick cut montage at the end.
Sound
This is a vital element to horror films
as it creates a tone for the film and enhances the fear through silence or loud
noises. The first scene has the non-diegetic soundtrack of eerie choir music
with a ghostly gasp as Rev. Cotton turns the page of The Bible. This music
continues until the scene cuts to him in a car, driving, and ends with a slight
boom from a drum before an unnatural electrical sound occurs after the
character mentions the devil to scare the audience by using a sound then sounds
like metal upon metal, and makes the hair stand up on the backs of the audience’s
necks. A drum sounds as the first strap appears to mimic a heart beat before
the soundtrack cuts back to the eerie choir music. Another unnatural electrical
noise is used after the man threatens the Reverend and the crew and then the
sound of the mud hitting the car is emphasised to again mimic the heavy beat of
a heart and scare the audience. The electrical sound is then used again as the
scene transitions to institutional information and repeats as the scene moves
between each company, and then again as the next strap appears. A new
soundtrack of non-diegetic sound appears now with an electrical sound to it and
a ghostly inhale mixed with a roar as exorcisms are mentioned. This stops with
the effect of the sound being ‘sucked away’ to tense music for the meeting with
Louis Sweetzer. As the scene is inverted with a red colouring, the electrical
sound is repeated to show danger to the audience. A beat and a light wind howl are
heard over the strap and continuing on very faintly into Louis’ interview and
then the interview with Nell. Towards the end of Nell’s scene, a crescendo in
orchestral music sounds, ending with the electrical noise and a strong drum
beat. Nell’s heavy breathing and a ringing noise is heard as the reverend begins
to perform the exorcism and gets louder until it ends with the same electrical
noise that gets ‘sucked away’. Another boom and eerie orchestral music is heard
as a strap is shown and continues as the demon takes over Nell’s body. The
soundtrack cuts out as the scene cuts to black and returns loudly as the scene
returns and Nell’s neck snaps and persists until the scene cuts to black again.
The sound of heavy breathing is emphasised as Cotton talks to the girl and
orchestral music begins to swell again before ceasing as Nell responds; “In the
fire”. A different electrical sound is heard, like the sound of helicopter
blades, to match the quick cutting of the scene to show the destruction of the
Nell the audience met towards the start of the trailer. Creepy orchestral music
is played in a diminuendo as the camera moves closer to the house in a point of
view shot as the possessed girl, and then closer to the white cat when the
music ends and stabs of sound are heard along with the cat screeching. The
music then is a crescendo again of tense music as Nell appears in the hallway
and walks closer to the crew. The crescendo gets higher and higher to make the
audience’s hearts beat faster and has an over laying unsettling electric sound
until a stab of sound. The audience then hear the heavy breathing of Nell, the
creak of her footsteps on the floor boards and the chains around her ankles
before a stab of sound intended to scare the audience. Straps appear on stabs
of sound as another crescendo is played until Louis says the he will save his
daughter’s soul and cocks his gun. As Nell jumps at the camera another stab is
heard and a scream to make the audience jump and emphasise the action. As the quick
montage plays, unsettling sounds like a metal saw are heard as drums beat and
this gets louder and faster, increasing the audience’s heart beat until it
stops suddenly, and then returns in a stab with a roar to scare the audience.
The only sounds heard are a light sound of crickets as heard in the southern
states of America and the fade in of the text. The recurring use of metal upon
metal and electrical sounds are used to set the audience’ teeth on edge and
make them feel disconcerted. The drums and stabs of sound are to emphasise the
action in a clip and the orchestral music gives fear to something that is
supposed to be beautiful and calming.
Mise-en-scene
Nell and Louis Sweetzer are dressed
conventionally for a southern family in old style farming clothes. Louis in
worn jeans, a grubby undershirt and a denim button-up to show that they don’t
have much money and he is an average man and Nell is first dressed in a plain, simple,
childlike grey cardigan, grey shirt, pink below-knee skirt with frilled socks
and basic shoes, and is the dressed in a white night gown. The white gown is
usually connotated with virtue, but the nature of the character alters that,
and as does the grimy look to it. Her clothing reflects her soul; it should be
clean and virtuous, but is soiled with the devil. Rev. Cotton’s white suit also
reflects this, but with him it says that his nature of work is virtuous, but
those that he works with are not. By removing his shirt and rolling up his
sleeves, the audience see that the line of work is hard and that this case is
incredibly difficult. The costumes of the sub-characters are conventional to
the setting and time-period with the man in the beginning in a worn tee and an
equally worn camouflage cap and the barely seen crew members I conventional jeans
and tees. The average, every-day nature of the clothing makes the film seem much
more realistic to the audience as it may be what they wear.
The hair styles for the males in this film fit
societal conventions of short, or thinning in the case of Louis. Nell’s hair,
however, makes a transition from the clean, neat hair of the beginning to the
ratty, sweaty hair towards the end showing the alteration in her character from
sweet, normal daughter to possessed by a demon. This is also the case in
regards to make-up. The males all have make-up that isn’t noticeable on camera,
just enough to make them seem more lively, such as foundation, in contrast to
Nell. This character begins the trailer looking youthful, but slightly tired,
possibly from the stress and lack of sleep from her mother’s death that still
troubles her, but after that scene, there is a visible change in her appearance.
As her clothes get messier and grimier, so does her hair and make-up. During
the exorcism itself, she has a sheen of sweat coating her face which could be
in relation to the pain of a demon within her or fear of forthcoming pain of
the exorcism, but the audience would connotated her sweat with that of a fever
and see her as sick. Her bruising around
the eyes also add to this, and that shadowing and the pale make-up used on her
face creates a lifelessness, as if the demon has sucked it all out of her.
The setting for this trailer is
contained in an isolated area of southern America in Louisiana. The majority of
the trailer is filmed on the land of a farmhouse including the house and the
barn. To begin with, the house is filmed in available lighting, but as the
trailer goes on, there is only background and foreground lighting used to
imitate the evil within Nell, as if the house is as possessed as she is. The
barn is the location for the exorcism and is returned to multiple times in the
trailer to emphasise its importance. Within the barn, it is almost as if there
is a spotlight on the opening where they perform the ritual, like a performer
would have. By focusing the light and camera on this area, it creates almost a
stage for the exorcism. The land around the house, including the shack and the
rusted bus at the very beginning of the trailer, is very barren to add to the
effect of lifelessness that surrounds the Sweetzer family.


The only other prop used in this trailer is
Louis’ gun that he intends to use in order to kill Nell and save her. Each prop
featured in this trailer is intended to save her, but seems to not be able to.
Camera/editing/straps
The camera angles and shots in this trailer vary
to make it more interesting for the audience. A wide assortment of angles and shots are
used in order to create a certain atmosphere for the audience. For example,
this shot has been used to focus on the religious imagery of praying by placing
the character on the right hand side and within a single window pane. This is
for two reasons: firstly, the window pane frames the character and contrasts
against that of the left which is practically empty, and also it gives the
sense that someone is watching him pray, and that it is something that is worth
watching. Another type of shot used is a medium
close-up to give the audience a full view of the action and thus increasing the
terror. This is also true in regards to a close-up.
This type of shot is used frequently
for the red filter/contrast effect on the short cut scenes. This is to not only
scare the audience, but let them see the evil right up close. During the quick
cut montage, long shots, high angle shots, and medium shots are used to make
the audience feel like a bystander and that they have no control over the
scene. When Nell is clutching her head and screaming, a push in is used to make
the audience feel that loss of control and to also make them feel as if she is
screaming at them. Closer shots are used to make the audience feel as if they
are in the action, and long shots are used to make the viewer feel like the
problem is large and insurmountable.
The editing used in this trailer
evolves as the clip continues. When the trailer is being established in the
opening scene, fades are used often to show the calm before the storm, but
contains flashes of inverted colours or the red filter/contrast effect to
foreshadow the danger to come. The editing technique used makes it look as if
the video tape they are filming on is faulty or broken, thus enhancing the fear
factor because it makes the audience believe that all of their filming equipment,
and possibly other electrical items, is faulty and that the protagonists aren’t
safe. As the trailer moves forward, the filter/contrast effect is used more often
to make it seem as if the demon is infecting the video as well as Nell, and the
cuts become faster and faster. In the quick cut montage, the cuts are joined
with something that sounds like a shutter and a strong beat to make the
audience’s hearts race and increase their fear. By suddenly stopping the
montage with a cut to black, the audience feel safe that it is over, but the
use of a sting with quick cuts makes the audience scared all over again.
The straps change in this trailer due
to their relevancy and meaning. To begin with, the straps “Ivanwood, Louisiana
2009”, “Reverend Cotton Marcus has
performed over 47 exorcisms” and “This will be his last” all are in the same
font and with the same fade in effect as they are all narrative establishing
straps. These ones need to draw the audience in and make them curious about the
film by using a worn font and a simple colour scheme. The strap lines change after
Louis says “the devil got in her” to a white, formal serif font with a red glow
that contrasts the simple white typeface font of the previous straps. This
change represents the importance of the strap by making it bolder. Eli Roth is
a big name in the horror industry, as is the movie “Dawn of the Dead”, so the mention of them in bold writing is to add
credibility to the story and make the audience intrigued to see it. After this,
the straps all relate to the title and release of the movie with “Coming Soon”,
“He Preys”, “On The Flesh”, “Of The Innocent”, “The Last Exorcism”, “Written by
Huck Botko & Andrew Gurland, Directed by Daniel Stamm” , and “Coming Soon”.
By splitting up the strap, the creator makes it more memorable and striking
within the audience’s mind. The
repetition of “Coming Soon” does this also and convinces the audience to keep a
look out for it. The mention of the writers also adds an element of credibility
to it as the audience may be horror film buffs and know the names.
Lighting
The
purpose of lighting is to create or improve the atmosphere and tone of a scene whether
that is using natural lighting to create a realistic feel, or low lighting to
make it seem scary or mysterious. The beginning of this trailer uses natural
lighting until we reach the disruption scene; the exorcism. From then on out,
the lighting is much darker creating a scarier scene for the audience. When in
the barn, there is light coming from above Nell and the Reverend, leaving a
pitch black shadow underneath them whenever they move suggesting a darkness that
is close to them, that is within, or will touch, each of them. By using
lighting from above, the sweat on Nell’s face is highlighted, and also it makes
her brown eyes look almost completely black, so that even before the exorcism
has begun, the audience can see something lying under the surface. There is a
very short cut to a long shot of the house, and the only lighting used is
available lighting on the porch or indoors, leaving the rest of the scene in
darkness. This creates a haunting, foreboding feel for the house, and makes it
look almost like a face, the whiteness of the porch being teeth. What seems
like a cracked pot in the foreground of the scene gives an ominous feel for the
destruction and chaos that is to come. In a stab of light, the colour of the
scene is decreased in saturation leaving only the harsh white and black of the
scene, and done so quickly that the flash makes the audience’s hearts jump
slightly. The viewers are returned back to the barn as Nell looks to
her right
asking “what is that?” and as the character leans up, a shadow is created
underneath her and it seems as if she is looking at the darkness and she
believes it is coming for her. There is a quick cut to a close up of Nell in
profile lighting that has a red filter on it to symbolise blood and danger that
will follow the ceremony. By using profile lighting, it seems as if the
darkness has taken over Nell, and her human side is losing as the next quick
cut is of a close-up of her face in bright light with a scared expression. The
scene cuts back to the barn where she is on the floor and feels something
crawling up her arm and then to another red filtered clip of Nell presumably on
her back, with lighting from the foreground that puts emphasis on the red of
the filter, the effect that it has on her skin and eyes, looking as if she is
coated in blood.



The barn is then shown in a long shot
with available lighting from the security lights, but in a red tint, linking
back to previous scene signalling that there is danger in this barn. The white
cat is shown in bright high angle to make her white fur seem even more so, and
then the quick cuts with the same tint but with red filter continues the theme
of the quick cuts and shows the girl attacking the cat without actual gore,
another convention of supernatural horror. The contrast between white and red
shows the murder of innocence and reflects that of Nell. The hallway scene is a use of background
lighting to leave Nell in shadow, adding a frightening, ominous atmosphere.
There is a slight light from available lighting behind the Reverend to show him
walking towards darkness, towards the demon. The rapid flashing of lights is to
disorientate the audience slightly and to add an extra element of fear to scene
when paired with the drum beat and electrical sound.


The next scene, of Nell walking with a
chain around her ankle, is presumably available lighting that highlights the
worn floorboards and the simplicity of her dress and shoes. The following scene
uses available lighting also from inside the house to create profile lighting
as Nell walks predatorily outside and this adds to the demonic look of Nell.
The trailer then goes back to barn scene with low angle lighting shining down
upon Nell and then profile lighting on the Reverend to emphasise the
interpretations created before of fear on both people’s parts, and an inhuman
like nature on Nell’s. The repeated lighting and blurred filter adds to the creepiness
of the scene and Nell breaking her own neck, and by keeping the wheat in the
foreground in focus, it emphasises the inhuman action of the scene although it
is blurred.






This teaser trailer is very successful
in attracting the target audience as it practically ticks off the conventions
of exorcism movies from a list. They create enough tension and fear to intrigue
the audience to see more, but managed to tell the entire storyline whilst doing
so.
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