Insidious Trailer Analysis

At the start of this trailer we see the title - Insidious - for the first time. The sound effect used as the title appears sounds like bones cracking/clicking which immediately sets the audience on edge as its uncomfortable to listen to. The first piece of dialect we here is "Are you ready?". This is effective as its almost asking the audience directly if they 'are ready' for what they are about to watch which increases the tension as we almost begin to 'prepare' ourselves but also adds a sense of interaction between the audience and the characters on screen. The ticking noise from the metronome plus the sounds, of which i feel, sound like male, heavy breathing again create a sense of uneasiness as the two sounds put together sound very creepy. The slow pace of the trailer so far doesn't create a sense of panic yet which is an effective horror trailer convention as a slow pacing usually leads to fast montages which allows for the audience to be settled and the suddenly panicked. Here is where we read 'From the makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw'  - this is an effective way to widen an audience because those people that particularly liked the two mention films will be much more likely to then go and watch Insidious due to previously enjoying the producers work. The metronome continues to play as we see shots of the happy 'nuclear' family - this gives the audience a sense of background and context before immediately showing us a medium shot of the little boy in a hospital bed - illuminating the idea in the audiences head that anything can go from perfect to terrible in such a short space of time. The sound of the wood from the ladder breaking is enhanced which makes the audience focus on whats happening. From here on the shots become slower paced which almost creates a sense of anxiety as the audience is waiting for something to happen. The beat of the metronome soon sync's with the sound of a rocking horse (with nobody rocking on it) and then both of which instantly stops as the lady - the main protagonist - stops the horse from rocking. The tracking shot of the lady walking into the bedroom and stopping the horse goes on for quite long time - we even get to see the lady's facial expression in a low angled medium shot to connote inferiority - all to build suspense before a loud 'booming' sound begins as the title - on a blood red background, connoting murder, sin and evil - appears. The next combination of shots are all slowly paced to enhance the build of suspension and also, to coincide with the unhurried shots, there is a gloomy, increasing music that begins straight after the inter title. The shots all stay at a slow, eerie pace until we hear the dialect - "..there was something in there with him". There is a fast montage of shots used with louder music to panic the audience. From here on the shots increase in speed creating excitement and action for the audience but mostly panic and thrill. The music too increases in both speed and volume enhancing the effect of the quick montage.  Lastly the music stops and so does the fast montage. The audience then sees a very dark and dingy hall way to which there is no music to go with it - instead we hear dialogue from the old lady in a slow calm voice. This is incredibly effective, not only because its creepiness and sense of isolation and loneliness but also because it sets the audience up for a series of jump scares instantly afterwards which are illuminated with fast, scratchy and 'bass-y' music. This trailer uses the usual convention for horror trailers of 'slow-quick-slow-jump scare' in terms of shot speed to boost the suspension and terror from the audience.

Psycho 1960 Trailer Analysis

This trailer challenges the usual conventions of the usual horror trailer as it starts with a fairly quick pace - almost five shots of 'jump scares' - and then settles to a slower pace afterwards. The usual convention of a horror trailer in terms of pace would be slow to quick to create a sense of tension for the audience however Psycho immediately makes the audience jump with its very first montage of quick shots of the death. During these five shots there is very loud, high pitched sound created by the music which is repeated for each shot. The music sounds sudden and almost 'stab' like which links the shot of the knife with the music and creates a link with the music and the death of the women in general. Due to the date in which psycho was released - 1960 - it was important for the producer to work with restricted narration which is why if this trailer was out in this days generation we would of probably seen the knife's impact on the women or at least much more blood to enhance the body gore element however due to its era we only see signs of her death for example the mother holding the knife, the close up of the women's hand sliding down the shower tiles and the shower curtain being ripped down to hint at an 'attack'. After the fast montage of shots the trailer immediately slows down and allows the audience a chance to see into the plot of the movie. "Here we have a quiet little motel" - this is the first dialect that we hear which instantly insinuates that something bad is going to happen due to the use of the words 'quiet' and 'little' which creates a sense of dramatic irony. The shots after this are much slower and are generally medium shots of the characters within the film which i see as a sense of introduction for the audience. The slower paced shots eliminate the 'panic' that the first montage made of created and settles the audience ready for another jump scare at the end. The music used is very gloomy but also has high pitched elements to it which i think represents the women's screams as Norman - the main protagonist - focuses his killing on females. "..and none of us can ever get out" - after this line of dialect the music's tempo immediately ups in both 'bass' and tempo creating a sense of 'action' and 'thrill' to the trailer. Again the shot speed increases until we reach a moment where Norman is dragging a women's body out of the bathroom - which again is where the speed of shots slow down to emphasis the importance of the death and highlights the 'horror' aspect of the film. Here is where we first read Alfred Hitchcock's name which is important as it would attract many horror fans that particularly liked his work therefore broadening the target audience. From here on the music grows in both volume and speed generating anxiety and panic from the audience until it finally blacks out and the title slowly appears. The font of the title is fragmented which symbolises Normans disjointed mind due to his Schizophrenia. The background of the font is plain black. The colour itself connotes darkness, loss and mystery but combine this with the bloody red 'splatters' that appear soon after the title has and together we have connotations of murder, slaughter and death. Finally we receive a jump scare of Normans creepy, smiling face which works perfectly after the slow combination of shots that we have just watched. This jump scare is a typical convention of horror trailers as the whole point of a horror film is to scare the audience and so adding a jump scare on to the end of a trailer captures the audiences attention right through to the very end, usually resulting in them 'jumping' and wanting to see more!

History of Horror