Solo Trailer Review 2

Name of film: House at the end of the street

Year Released: 2012

Genre of Trailer: Horror

My Mark after Viewing: 7/10

What Happened in the trailer?

The trailer begins by showing the main female protagonist walking home; however, as another character pulls up in his car there is a disruption to this equilibrium. When the girl discovers the stranger offering her a lift home is in fact her neighbour, she begins to recall past events regarding the death of her neighbour’s parents. Discomforted and confused by this mystery, the female character is keen to learn more about this boy and begins to develop a stronger relationship with him. However, her inquisitiveness only leads her to more discomfort as she begins to discover the more sinister story about the murder and ascertains it was her neighbour’s sister that killed their parents. After this initial introduction to the narrative structure and the context of the film, the trailer continues to show the female character grow fonder of this boy. Against her mother’s wishes, she ends up alone with him in his house; unaware that the daughter that drowned after murdering her parents still lurks in the basement. After this, the trailer cuts from various exciting moments of film footage to some intertitles until the events are concluded by the jump at the end.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

The most successful aspect of this trailer was its ability to convey the context of the film and set out a clear narrative structure. For example, this trailer begins by introducing the audience to one of the scenes in the film where the main protagonist meets the person that will disrupt the state of equilibrium; as the audience witness the girl enquire about a murder, we can understand that there is something mysterious and spooky about the way her neighbour’s parents died. From this, we can also understand that the girl wants to desperately get to the bottom of this mystery and comfort the poor troubled soul left behind (the son). This allows the audience an insight into how the events in the film will unfold, thus determining whether or not they are interested in the subject and want to follow the main protagonist on her journey. In addition to this, the prominent use of low key lighting and a creepy location, (i.e. the woods), contributes towards conveying an eerie and creepy feeling. This reinforces the genre of the film in the minds of the audience as they are reminded that the film is not a love story but will in fact shock and horrify them. Another really interesting aspect of the film trailer was its camera angles and use of editing. For example, the low angled shots that have an obscured view of the protagonist make the audience feel as though they’re watching the girl from someone else’s point of view. Again, this adds to the unnerving sensation that there is something else in the room. Similarly, the use of fading to black adds to the suspense; for example, we can hear heavy breathing and footsteps/doors opening, but we cannot see what is going on. This puts the audience on the edge of their seats as they’re totally immersed in the film and wanting to learn more about what could happen next. Overall, the most thrilling aspect of this trailer was its ability to create suspense and hold the audience’s attention for a long period of time. In our own trailer, we could use similar editing techniques, (such as fading to black), in order alarm the audience and uphold their interest in the way we will portray our narrative.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

Although successful at creating suspense, the trailer seemed to lack an exciting and fast pace like most other existing horror trailers. For example, the incorporation of a scene at the beginning sets a really slow pace that makes the audience feel as though they could be watching a romance rather than a horror. In addition to this, the use of restricted narration over body horror limited the target audience to fans of the psychological horror. For example, by showing small amounts of blood or gore, the film trailer may appeal to a much wider audience of horror genre fans which could entice more people into watching the film. Due to the more psychological nature of the film, the trailer seemed to lack emphasis on getting an emotional response from the audience. Although a lot of suspense was created, adding parallel sound to the jumps could have created a tenser and discomforting emotion for the audience. Overall, it seems that the most disappointing aspect of this trailer was its inability to gain an emotional response from the audience due to its slow pace and lack of parallel music. To avoid this, in our own trailer we could work on creating a well-balanced pace to shock the audience and comfort them; likewise, parallel music could be used leading up to any jumps in order to really get the audience on the edge of their seats.