I personally feel that this trailer fits
the horror conventions perfectly. The general pace of it both builds suspense,
panics the audience and provokes a genuine sense of fear.
The very first time we see the main
character - Jessabelle - we see her through an high angle shot automatically
portraying her as a vulnerable character and immediately creating a sense of
sympathy for her. We see her first in a wheelchair which again enhances the
audience's feeling of 'pity' towards her and adds an emotional connect with the
consumer and the character.
The first lot of non-diagetic music we
hear seems fairly sincere however has a small element of creepiness about it.
It’s slow paced and is tinted down slightly in volume when Jessabelle speaks to
ensure that the audience can hear her dialogue with a sense of clarity.
We then get a sense of status when the
father says to her "..it's really good to see you". He is shot from
an low angle perspective giving him a sense of superiority. He also mentions
her boyfriend - "..sorry about your boyfriend" - which gives the
audience an idea that throughout the film the men have more dominance than the
women and, Jessabelle especially, is fairly dependant on them. Here is also
when we get our first element of excitement or a small 'jump scare' as we go
from a slow montage of shots, finished with classical, slow parallel
non-diagetic music to a a very short, snappy montage of shots when her
boyfriend presumably dies in a car accident as we see a lorry smash into his
side of the car after seeing a close up - a typical horror convention - of
Jessabelle’s reaction on her face.
After this we see our first inter title.
The outside of the inter title is much darker than the centre which is nearly
fully white - this suggests that danger is closing in on the characters within
the film. This particular inter title is used especially to sell the film
further as it highlights other films that the producer of Jessabelle has produced.
This means that those who are fans of this particular producer as more likely
to watch this film due to enjoying his previous work. The back ground of the
inter titles seems to be of a forest - this could symbolise the link between
her character and the forest inwhich she lives near and seems to have her own
grave stone in. Other inter titles in the trailer are more to help ensure that the audience is aware of the narrative and not completely lost in a state of confusion.
Again we see elements of status - the
camera angle on the mother is shot from a low angle conveying the 'power within
her' thus increasing the audiences sense of compassion for the main female
protagonist. In fact when we very first meet Jessabelle she is ringing her father - implying that she is weak and searching for a man to save her.
The general structure of the Jassabelle trailer fits
well with the common conventions used in horror trailers. The structure of
speed/duration of shots being slow/quick/slow/jump scare.
The jump scare at the end of the film is
highly effective. It works so well due to collision cutting. The trailer builds
suspense through slow, steady shots and then finally finishes with an
unexpected montage of quickly paced 'action' shots.
There are also elements of body horror in
parts of the trailer to highlights to the audience exactly what kind of horror this film is supposed to be fitted within. Body horror links to the 'gory
horror' genre and so incorporating shots of 'blood' will help sell the film to
'gory horror' fans.
Many things such as the pacing of music and shots are used to create tension and suspense. An example of this is the diagetic sound of the tap dripping. The water hitting the sink is enhanced to create further effect. The rest of the scene is silent except for the dripping - creating an enigma. Other elements, such as the creepy whispering, are all used to add to the distubing atmosphere within the trailer.
Some of the things I liked about the trailer are based around cinematograhpy - for example I feel as though the scene where the main female protagonist is looking upwards as there is a canted angle, tracking shot moving at a quick pace down the stairs just before she gets pushed backwards by what is seemingly 'nothing' there to push her. I feel that the effect made - that 'someone' is haunting her, invisible to our eyes and almost creeping up to her - really adds panic for the audience as we can't see whats going on and due to the main female protagonist being in a wheelchair we feel sympathy for her as we feel like she is vulnerable. Also the high angle shot makes us feel like whatever is about to attack her is far more superior than she. Another emotion this effect creates is tension - as an audience memenber we do not know what is going to happen to her once the 'creature' has reached her.
Some of the things I liked about the trailer are based around cinematograhpy - for example I feel as though the scene where the main female protagonist is looking upwards as there is a canted angle, tracking shot moving at a quick pace down the stairs just before she gets pushed backwards by what is seemingly 'nothing' there to push her. I feel that the effect made - that 'someone' is haunting her, invisible to our eyes and almost creeping up to her - really adds panic for the audience as we can't see whats going on and due to the main female protagonist being in a wheelchair we feel sympathy for her as we feel like she is vulnerable. Also the high angle shot makes us feel like whatever is about to attack her is far more superior than she. Another emotion this effect creates is tension - as an audience memenber we do not know what is going to happen to her once the 'creature' has reached her.
A point that I did not like was the close up shot of the mothers face at 1:45. I felt that seeing the mothers face all wilted and old looking to such an extent added a small sense of humour to the trailer and I felt that as an audience member, my imagination of the mothers crooked face was actually better and 'scarier' than actually seeing it in an image.
