Analysing horror trailers (Filth to Ashes and Insidious)

Above is the trailer for 'Filth to Ashes' a horror film about teenagers who come across a physiological killer who thrives on killing people with imperfections. Now, I will analyse the code and conventions of this trailer and how the meaning is conveyed to the audience. Starting with the mise-en-scene; the location is in a deserted, isolated place this conveys the message that the acts that are going to take place in the film are unknown to other people and remains a mystery to anyone who does not visit the location. The costumes of the actors are very casual, like normal teenager clothing, such as jeans, t-shirts etc... this shows that this can happen to anyone while traveling in a big group. Focusing on the hand props used in the trailer, we see shots of a gun and a bloody knife. From seeing these weapons it conveys a message to the audience that this film is probably going to be gory, with explicit images of death. In particular, one shot displays a girl reloading a gun, this could mean that she is trying to protect herself from being attacked by someone or something.


The use of blue coloured lighting adds a mysterious, eerie atmosphere to the trailer. This is used throughout the trailer, especially towards the end where the group are in an abandoned warehouse. The low key lighting creates noticeable contrasts and shadows, adding to the tense atmosphere and the fear that there is some impending doom. The use of blue light filters establishes a cold tone and creates an atmosphere of dread.


The sound featuring in the trailer is diagetic and non-diagetic. The music has a distinctive heart beat sound thumping and a knife slashing which builds up panic, determining the mood of the film. This is seen when the teenagers are entering the warehouse in darkness. The dialogue from the film trailer is more female centered suggesting the emotional state of the character, and making it obvious to the audience that the girls are the pivotal victims. The sound starts at a slow pace supporting the editing flow, and then increases in pace as the film trailer goes along, allowing the linking of scenes together more effective.


Used to convey expression, we see plenty of close-ups of girls faces, that show their panic and fear. A memorable closeup is when a girl has blood splattered across her face, using an image like this one allows the audience to engage emotionally with her character. Furthermore, the movement of the camera is handheld. The 'shaky' nature of this if often used to suggest greater authenticity, or to convey realism.



My second trailer to closely analyse is Insidious. Which is a physological horror about a boy that is believed to be possessed by the devil, which is living in his house and terrfies the rest of the family. Starting firstly with the mise-en-scene; the house that the family lives in is quite traditional and family orientated, this suggests that the story is going to be centered around an ordinary family who don't usually have experiences like this. It also makes the story seem a little more real with having this type of family. The costumes that they wear are the expected clothing for each family member. However, the colour of the clothes are dark, so we don't expect a happy storyline. 


In this trailer there is a great use of grey and blue back lighting. This a signal to the audience of coldness atmosphere within the house. There is also a great use of shadows, creating a sense of mystery and fear. However, at the beginning of the trailer when the family aren't living in the house there is use of natural lighting showing happier times. 


We get both diagetic and non-diagetic sound coming from this trailer. Right from the beginning we receive diagetic sound from the scene, where a man is talking in time to a clock-timer. The timer is a sound of a heartbeat that is played throughout the trailer, and is faint in some parts when there is dialogue. The sound of the heart beat creates tension for the audience, because they don't know whats coming next. To make it much more effective the trailer cleverly uses silence to portray fear, they do this between different shots. Dialogue from the film help carry out the storyline to the audience, by the end of the trailer we have brief understanding what the film is about. 


The continuity editing is very fast pace in the trailer, at the beginning it shows multiple shots quite fast and soon picks up pace when displaying the storyline further. Between each shots it fades into a black screen where typography will come on the screen. Close-ups and extreme close-ups are used to show the actors fear in their facial expressions. Especially the mother, who is scared for her son - she seems to be the person that we see that films point of view from. To add to this, panning and zoom ins are effectively used to slowly show the audience what is happening in each shot. Movement of the camera is in handheld mode. This adds realism to the audience and make us believe that we are seeing everything authentically through the eyes of the character.


Lastly, the typography used in the trailer focus mainly on the word 'Insidious'. It also bigs up the directors who have directed other successful horror films. The words are in a scratched effect and blink on the screen. They also play around with the word 'Insidious' by cutting it down to 'Is' ending up with sentence 'Is Insidious here' and 'Insidious is here' before showing a link of shots.