Horror Film Trailer Analysis

Horror Film Poster Analysis

Film Distribution And Marketing- Teaser And Official

These two images show the teaser poster (left) and the official poster (right) for the recent 2014 mystery horror thriller film Annabelle. In both cases, the poster hardly gives anything away from the film. The only subject appears to be the same sinister appearing doll. As the films name is 'Annabelle' which is also a commonly known girls name, it leads the audience to believe that this is the name of the doll in the posters. In the teaser poster, the doll appears to be crying blood which gives the impression she is evil. This means that although the posters do not give any information on the actual story line of the film, they clearly show that it must focus mainly around this evil, and perhaps possessed, doll. Although both posters give us the same information about the film, the official one includes credits, letting us know it is the main poster.

                                                                     Teaser Trailer

Official Trailer

The two trailers for Annabelle focus around the same concept that she is possessed.However, the teaser trailer shows more on the back story of the doll, and how it became the 'Evil' state that it is, where as the official trailer shows more of the actual story line, and the main characters living with the possessed doll.

For example, the teaser trailer shows how the neighbors of the main characters got murdered, and then how the main characters themselves almost get murdered in the same way. Although the official trailer does touch on this, it does not show t in as much detail as the teaser trailer. It then goes on to show how the dolls presence in the house greatly disrupts the family, in seemingly horrific and scary ways.

Both the trailers and the posters include the line 'Before The Conjuring,.. There was Annabelle'. This is to show that film Annabelle is a spin off of the massively successful 2013 film 'The Conjuring' and it is also being used as a marketing scheme to get people who are fans of 'The Conjuring' interested in this film as well. 

The use of the trailers and posters, together with the already large interest from fans of 'The Conjuring', the main distributors, The Warner Brothers, were able to attract a lot of attention to 'Annabelle'. The film was opened to the USA in the first weekend, with 3,185 screens showing it. It was later shown worldwide, making it a world known success.  

Film distribution and marketing- Information

Magazine Cover

The Crazies- Film Analysis

The Crazies 

Directed by Breck Eisner, The Crazies is an American science fiction horror film. The film was created as a remake of the original 1973 version which was directed by George A. Romero. Although the 2010 version uses modern CGI and technology, the narrative structure of both films is similar and they roughly share the same storyline. The film is based in, Ogden Marsh, Iowa, which is described in the film as ‘The friendliest place on earth’. A toxic Trixie disease spreads through the town, turning the townsfolk into barbaric zombie like beings. The disease causes physical, as well as mental decay, creating a predator out of its consumer, triggering instincts of death, and the urge to kill their neighbours and family. The town’s sheriff, David (Timothy Olyphant) and his community doctor wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell) battle through the spread of the infectious toxin, along with the sheriffs deranged deputy Russell Clank (Joe Anderson) and the film follows their tragic escape, and their realization of the accidental government plane crash which was responsible for the contagious virus. Although it is not actually visible within the movie, we soon find out the plane crashed into the main water source of the town, contaminating the water supply with the chemical that was released from the crash. This means that when the residents consume the water, they are also consuming the Trixie virus. The government demands the army to create an incubation perimeter for the citizens of Ogden Marsh, and they are separated into clean, and infected areas. The Crazies undergoes many iconic gore and death scenes, until the very end, when we see David and Judy travel to the next town, only to then find out the virus has spread further than one town.

The Crazies generated an estimated $50 million by May 2010, and was given good reviews at the box-office. The film’s target audience would be, those who enjoy horror, however, as it focuses on a zombie/science subgenre, it could focus on a younger teenage audience. On the other hand, the younger potential teenage audience could be challenged, as the film was given an 18 rating due to the graphic and sexual scenes it includes.

Bulgarian structuralist Tzvetan Todorov came up with the Classic Hollywood Narrative theory. This is a narrative that is shared amongst most American films. He determined that most films start with an equilibrium, which is a normal calmness, until an event disrupts it and causes a chain of events to called the disequilibrium. At the end everything is resolved, and a new equilibrium is created. This was labelled The Classic Hollywood Narrative/Structure (CHN).

Although The Crazies does have many features of the Classic Hollywood Structure, it is difficult to say exactly if it does actually follow Todorovs theory. This is because although the film essentially begins with the baseball game, and ends with David and Judy walking towards the new town, the first scene that is actually shown is houses burning and an abandoned and destroyed Ogden Marsh. Although initially the audience is not aware of what caused the fire, or created this apocalyptic feel that this scene gives, the text displayed shows ‘2 days earlier’ before the film starts from the beginning, and half way through the film the same scene is shown again, only this time, it is shown chronologically with the rest of the film. Furthermore, we later find out that the actual beginning of the story told in the film, began when the governments plane crashed into the towns water supply. Although this is not seen in the movie itself, its apparent that this is the sole reason behind the main aspect of the story line. 

The film is approximately 100 minutes, and although the story or narrative is about 3 weeks long, we can only see 3 days of this story. So originally, The Crazies does not appear to follow the Classic Narrative Structure. However, if you changed the order that some scenes of the film are viewed, it does. If the film did not start with the burning town scene, but went straight into the baseball game, the equilibrium at the start would have clearly been the baseball game. The disruption would have then been the unusual behavior of Rory Hamill whilst he was holding a shotgun. As more and more people become infected, David and Judy escaping the town becomes the new equilibrium. However, for the effect of irony, the infection turns out to have traveled to this next town. This manipulating of the CHN is what earned The Crazies it’s positive rating, although, not abiding by the CHN, can be risky, with a disjointed narrative. Overall, The Crazies does not exactly follow Todorovs narrative theory, but there are aspects linking to the Classic Hollywood Structure.

This could link in with the cause and effect theory by Bordwell and Thompson, which outlines the set duration, in terms of screen time, plot time and the story time of a film. The storyline duration of The Crazies is much longer than what we are able to see. However, the 33 days shown for the plot duration is only located towards the end of the timeline, with the previous important events, being the plane crash. not shown on film. This has a massive impact on the narrative that the audience sees, as from the audience’s point of view, the plot begins when the first town resident Rory getting the virus from the contaminated water.

Claude Levi-Strauss determined that all narrative structures include binary oppositions, which are two opposites where one is always valued as higher than the other. In The Crazies, there is many clear binary oppositions including Sanity v Insanity. The sanity here, is the survivors and the people that are un-infected yet are of the virus outbreak.  Insanity, is the opposite of this, the people who are infected by the virus and have allowed their minds to become controlled by a predators urge to kill. A clear example of this insanity can be seen when the local farmer is locked in a jail cell, and he appears to have fits and spasm’s, showing the effects of the Trixie virus. Another binary opposition that can be seen in The Crazies is simply Alive v Dead, with the routed for heroes staying alive, and the other side, characters and citizens that have contracted the disease, being dead emotionally and personality wise.

Another theory that The Crazies can follow is Vladimir Propp’s character theory. Propp came up with 8 character types, after studying old Russian folk tales.

In relation to Propp’s character roles, the obvious Hero in The Crazies, is the town Sheriff, David. Even the role of the town’s Sheriff, shows responsibility and admiration from the people of the town, who he is there to protect. The survival of the sheriff whilst also protecting his wife along the way means that his wife Judy can be seen as the princess. Throughout the film Judy needs Davids help, amplified by the fact that she is pregnant.  

The deputy Sheriff Russel Clark obtains the donor character as he saves the Sheriff’s life “3 times” and then sacrifices himself, to keep his dignity.

One of Propps characters that is hard to determine in The Crazies is the role of the villain. Unlike the film Halloween (1978), in which Michael Myers is the obvious only villain, The Crazies does not have a clear individual villain, and there are many aspects to the film that could be considered instead. One argument is that the government could be to blame, as they failed to contain the carriers of the virus, and mistreated the townsfolk. They are also to blame for the cover up of the plane crash, and This could be the reason that the Trixie virus was able to spread at the speed it did. The military can also be perceived as a villain in this film, with the vision of them shooting an innocent boy and his mother, and then incinerating them showing in inhumane quality. A third potential reason is the people who caught the virus, who then turn into the zombie like killers. Even though this is not necessarily the fault of the people themselves, as the virus makes them act like this, there is still a substantial atmosphere of evil, and the responsibility for the barbaric murders of family and friends. 

Chosen Idea

The final chosen idea of our Horror Film Trailer is to create a trailer for a film that follows the lives of two people who become school shooters.

We decided to do this, not only because of the practicality of us already being in a college which will be used as the filming location whilst filming, but also because the main target audience for our horror film will most likely be teenagers and young adults. This audience will either be at school or college themselves, meaning they would be able to relate to the horror trailer, and put themselves in the shoes of the victims.

Our idea is to use props such as fake guns, together with different types of quick shots to create the look that the two shooters are shooting innocent students at the college, without giving too much of the overall plot away.

The Marketing Of The Woman In Black

Initial Idea For Horror Trailer

Our Initial Idea

The initial idea for our horror movie trailer was to have a church as the main filming location. This was because churches and religion often play a large part in horror films that focus around the paranormal, or supernatural sub-genres.

The original plot idea was to use a group of teenagers who find an urban myth book hidden in their mums room, and discover a story about their local church. They then dare each other to spend the night at this church, and they find out that it has been abandoned  since the death of a young girl who fell from the church tower in 1980.

They take their camera to the church which has a eerie sinister atmosphere too it, and they meet a strange man who turns out to be the groundskeeper of the graveyard. He warns them to be careful but they do not listen.
During the night they spot figures in the graveyard and hear spooky voices. Things also start to appear out of no where.

The Representation Of Women In Horror Films

Halloween- Film Analysis

Halloween

Halloween is a Slasher horror movie, filmed in the spring of 1978 and directed by John Carpenter. The movie took only 21 days to film, and due to cutbacks such as the iconic soundtrack being repeated many times, the use of unheard of actors and the fact that the film didn’t include special effects or CGI it only cost 325,000 US dollars to create. Despite this, the film was incredibly successful, and went on to make a profit of 47 million dollars.

It is often thought that Halloween was the start of the popular horror sub-genre that became known as 'Slasher', and that many famous and now iconic films such as Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Prom Night are all loosely based on Halloween’s narrative structure. However, its clear that the most recent Slasher genre films often base their filming and narrative techniques on the Friday the 13th franchise. This is because they have such murderous and graphic murder scenes. Eventually, the whole idea of the Slasher genre died down slightly, until the Scream series began. This created a change from Slasher, to the more modern Torture Porn sub-genre. Nevertheless, Halloween continues to maintain its status as the starting point of slasher, and the slasher sub-genre as well, meaning that its basic structure will continue to inspire slasher films in the 21st century. 

             Friday The 13th                      Halloween            Nightmare                  Prom Night

                                                                                               on Elm

                                                                                                Street

The film is set in a seemingly isolated suburban town called Haddonfield in Illinois, which is a state in the USA. The fact that the town is so remote intensifies the sheer feeling of seclusion in it, and reinforces the loneliness and the atmosphere that, once there, you are almost in a trapped state, and can not escape.

The first few minutes of the film are set on October 31^st (Halloween) in 1963, where we see a 6-year old Michael Myers (played by Will Sandin) savagely murder his teenage sister, Judith Myers (Played by Sandy Johnson) with a large knife, after she partakes in sexual activity with her boyfriend. This type of promiscuously ultimately results in her brutal and untimely death. This fundamentally reflects the social attitudes and beliefs towards middle class girls at the time. It gives the indication that those who work hard are rewarded, compared to those who are involved with things that are 'frowned upon', such as sex, alcohol and drug use, which shows a strong link to death. After the murder, Michael is seen wearing his Halloween costume, which is a clown. This almost forces the audience to think about the conventional innocence of a child of that age, and plants the idea in the audiences mind, that what he did could have been an accident. 

The film then creates a modern discourse for the audience, as it skips fifteen years in to the future. It is now set on October the 30th 1978. We can see Michael execute a well thought out plan, in order to escape from the mental hospital he has spent the past 15 years in. The notability of the date (one day before Halloween) is important, as its immediately known as one day before the anniversary of his sister’s murder  This, disrupts the equanimity, as the escape releases Michael into the real world, which causes intense havoc and manipulation. it is then that we first meet Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), a college student whom is being stalked by the newly released Michael. After many strange sightings of this nightmarish masked man, Laurie can be seen spotting Michael in her backyard and even peering into her bedroom window. It then becomes apparent that it is Halloween night, It seems as though Micheal wants to finish what he started, however the motivations and intentions behind his reasons for this are kept a secret from the audience, to maintain a sense of mystery, create tension, and to keep things 'behind a mask' which is symbolized by the menacing mask that Micheal wears.

Laurie is babysitting when her friend drops off the child she is also supposed to be babysitting, whilst on the way to pick up her boyfriend. Micheal is in the neighborhood, and it is clear that he sees Annie as his first victim. Micheal brutishly murders Annie in her car, and this is followed by the murder of Laurie's other two friends Lynda and Bob who, like with Micheal's sister, were involved in sexual activity.  It is apparent that these murders were not part of Micheal's initial plan, but rather they were to make a clear path for him to reach is primary target, which is Laurie. Micheal is seem entering her house, and attempting several times before Micheal's doctor from the mental hospital he escaped from Dr. Loomis gets involved, and shoots Micheal in the head and chest with a pistol. Micheal is then seen falling off of the balcony, seemingly dead. Dr. Loomis then takes a second look at Michael’s body. Michael is gone, and the non-diegetic sound of his breathing is heard in the background. There is a shared suspicion between both the characters and the audience that Michael could be anywhere.

The structure of Halloween can be seen as the Classic Hollywood Narrative theory by Tzvetan Todorov. This theory is made up of five stages, making up the progress of any narrative. First, is the state of calmness, known as equilibrium, this calm creates the sense of safety, and stability. Then comes the disequilibrium, which is the disruption in a narrative which is essentially the start of a chain of events, that bring the narrative back to the steady calmness of the equilibrium.

Although with Halloween the equilibrium at the end can be seen as a different type of equilibrium than the beginning, as part of the audience, we feel as if there is a more positive out take than the previous disequilibrium. However, this theory is difficult to discuss in relation to Halloween, as its difficult to pinpoint when the disequilibrium occurred in the first place. 

The disruption could be argued when Michael escaping the mental hospital, sequentially creates the rest of the film, without Michael escaping, the majority of the film wouldn’t of happened. However, if we are going by the order of which things are seen within the movie, it would be argued that Mike Myers murdering his sister back in 1963, was the disequilibrium as this could be seen as the event that makes Michael Myers the murderous and psychotic character he is in the rest of the film. if it wasn’t for the initial event of Michael murdering his sister, he may not have gone to the asylum in the first place, meaning he may not have targeted Laurie several years later. If it was seen as the mental hospital escape being the disequilibrium, then Halloween abides by the Classic Hollywood Narrative. There seems to be a significant peace within the town, everyone appears to be living their comfortable lives. Laurie is studying and there’s an excited hype in the town, around the college’s future ball. The disruption to the equilibrium is Michael Myers stealing a car in order to then escape the hospital in Smith’s Grove right before he was meant to be taken to a court hearing. Upon his escape, Dr Loofis warns several people about the escapee and the possible dangers he can bring to Haddonfield, especially on the personally historic occasion of Halloween for Myers. After multiple stalking occurrences, Laurie realizes that this figure is a malignant to her and her friends. The events that follow are the murders of her friends, all parts of the path to going back to the calmness of before, meaning they have to kill or escape Mike Myers. Eventually, Mike Myers is supposedly killed. This uncertainty of his death can be seen a sequel bait, with the mystery of where Michael can be, it leaves the audience on a cliff-hanger, maintaining this horror aspect of unknowing and suspense in the audiences mind.

Another theory that is successfully seen in Halloween is The Male Gaze, a theory by Laura Mulvey. This is the idea that women are shown in a sexual or provocative way in horror movies, and this is tailored specifically for the male audience’s pleasure. In the case of Halloween, Laurie’s friends are often seen wearing short skirts, crop tops and participating in sexual acts. This type of content would satisfy a male-dominated audience, and they substantially support Mulvey’s theory that woman displayed in a slightly sexualised manner will appeal to men.

Another theory is The Final Girl theory. This theory suggests that only the most masculine, respectful and cleverest girl will survive. In Halloween, Laurie is a strong example of a 'final girl' as she is the only one of Micheal Myers victims that survives. The reason behind Laurie’s survival is that she is a virginal, androgynous character. She is not seen partaking in any sexual activities, and is portrayed in a masculine style. Often wearing more masculine clothing than her feminine friends. This is shown when Laurie cancels her date to the ball, as she is not interested. This reflects the ideology that Laurie isn’t promiscuous, and instead values her education more. Laurie survives the movie purely because she doesn’t have sex, young teens in the 1970’’s were experimenting with sex, and this was frowned upon by the older generation, who strongly believed that education should be thought of highly before sex. As a result, Halloween reflects a “reactionary sexual agenda”, meaning that those who have sex are killed, keeping the connection between sex and death strong. Laurie’s friends Annie, bob and Lynda are a killed for their promiscuous actions, even though they were just a distraction, and Laurie was the main target.

Horror Magazine Cover Analysis 3

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