Insidious Trailer Analysis

08:58

The trailer starts with the green rating screen that tells the audience the official age rating of the film. We will include this in our trailer as well as it makes it seem professional and realistic, rather than student made. Our trailer will be rated ’15’ in the UK, (meaning anyone under the age of 15 will not be allowed to view it at a cinema), and ‘PG-13’ in the US, (meaning the same as the UK except from age 13, not 15). There is then the logo of the production company, followed by the film name its self. This is a good way to start a trailer, as you instantly know what the film is called. However, another techniques could be to not show the name of the film until the very end of the trailer, as then it is more memorable.

The first shot is a close up of a man sat in a chair, with a woman asking him if he’s ready. This is a clever way to start the trailer as it is almost like the woman is asking the audience if they are ready, as it is a horror film and they need to be prepared. She then puts a metronome on at a slow steady beat creating a feeling of tension and fear already.

Full screen titles appear after this, saying other famous horror films that have been made by the same company director. This is a good way to gain hype a following to a new movie, as fans of their old movies will be intrigued instantly. We are using Blumhouse Productions as our production company so we can mention films such as Paranormal Activity and Saw.

The next few shots show a happy family environment in a new home, with a young child. Thus connoted happiness and calmness, however in the horror genre, a new home is often a bad thing as the family is in unfamiliar surroundings and the new house is a mystery to both them, and the audience. Our film also features a family moving into a new home, so we can take some inspiration from these shots for our own film. The mood of the trailer changes very soon, we see a medium shot of the young boy in the attic. The mise-en-scene shows us this is a dangerous place. It is dark and dusty and filled with spider webs. The boy is climbing up a ladder when one of the rungs breaks and he falls to the floor. Again, this shows hints of danger and could be seen as foreshadowing for what is to come.

Instantly the mood of the shots changes, instead of laughing and happiness and bright warm colours, we see sad faces, pale/washed out colours and shots of the boy in a hospital bed rather than in his home. There is a clever use of shot reverse shot showing the mother walking down the corridor. It is a hand held shot so it feels more personal and as if the viewer is in the film. It then uses a POV shot as she walks into the room and sees the rocking horse moving by itself. This makes it a lot more realistic and scary, as if we ourselves had just walked into a room and seen a rocking horse moving by itself. The use of POV shots is very important in horror, as it brings the viewer into the film. Some horror films such as The Gallows or The Blaire Witch Project, is 100% shot on hand held cameras so the viewer feels like they are in the movie themselves. This is a good technique but not suitable for our production, so we will be using a combination of handheld and professional / tripod shots.

Throughout the trailer, every 10 seconds or so, there is a full screen title saying either ‘Insidious Is’ or ‘Is Insidious’. The movie’s tagline was ‘Insidious is Insidious’. Even though it is not a very good tagline, it is still something that the viewer can remember about the film, and they could even use it as an advertising technique, and put up signs with the tagline on. This way, people will want to know what film is being advertised and they’ll Google it which gives the film more publicity.

There are many different camera angles and shots used in this film, but they are usually medium to close ups, as it is set in a house so we don’t need to see much of the set, but the characters impressions. There are quite a few high angled shots, which show intimidation and power which is very applicable in horror movies. As the trailer goes on, the overall mood gets darker and darker. It starts happy and bright but by the end it is dark and shadowy in almost every shot. This is another technique we can use in our trailer, as it is very easy to do and has a big effect on the viewer. The darker a shot is, the scarier and tenser it is. If there is an almost pitch black shot with the character taking up a very small part of the screen, it can be very effective as it connotes danger and fear.

Furthermore, as the trailer goes on, the speed of the editing increases dramatically, until it is almost a different shot every second. There are a lot of shots of bad things happening very quickly, along with a few shots of the monsters. It then cuts to a full screen title of the film on a red and black background, followed by the release date of the movie. The screen fades to black which makes the viewer think it is over, but at the very end, the ghost appears out of the black and charges towards the camera to scare the audience. Again, this is a very effective but easy technique to include which we may use in our own trailer.

The end of the trailer is filled with credits for a few seconds before ending. We will have credits at the end of ours to make it more professional and realistic.