Research Into Horror Trailers - The Final Girl (2014)

The establishing shot in the woods shows the isolated location. The trees suggest the location being outside. It's dark and misty showing viewers something will happen at night. The props used such as axes and baseball bats show the different weapons being used to kill or harm people. The weapons allows the audience to see that a dangerous game is being played and someone's going to hurt.

One point in the trailer, the girl is laying on the ground in high key lighting whereas the boys are in low key lighting and can't be shown. The contrast of white vs black could demonstrate the characters who are innocent in comparison to those who are evil. Superimposition is used with words popping up as a background to the plot. Words like 'terrified' 'hopeless' and 'hunted' evoke emotions from the audience as they would feel sympathetic towards the victim. The words don't promote a positive storyline so it's easy to tell the genre. The girl is also wearing red lipstick and a red dress. The colour red symbolises danger which could show the danger awaiting her, the colour red emits sensuality so may be the reason why so many boys are drawn to her, the colour red stands out the most.

New Horror Film Releases Of 2014 And What's Already In The Industry

 

























The Quiet Ones - August 2014
Annabelle - October 2014
    Devils Due - January 2014
    As Above So Below - August 2014
    Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones - January 2014
    The Babadook - October 2014
    Dracula Untold - October 2014
    Oculus - June 2014
    Jessabelle - November 2014
    Ouija - October 2014

The horror films listed were the most publicised and promoted movies in 2014. Trailers for these movies were shown on TV, Youtube adverts and even on twitter. Throughout the year it appears that horror movies are mainly shown at either the beginning of the year, in the summer and coming towards the end of the year. This may be purposefully done in the horror industry, especially for all the horror films released in October which is the lead up to Halloween to make the horror films appear more scary. The main sub genre of horror shown from these movies appears to be the supernatural one. 2014 for horror movies seems to be related to supernatural rather than slashers or any of the other sub genres. The movie industry has decided to make majority supernatural movies this year which may be because feedback from audience has shown that they find supernatural horrors the most frightening.
I've researched some movies from 2013 and similarly majority of the horrors from 2013 such as: Contracted, The Last Exorcism Part 2, Devils Pass, Nothing Left To Fear, The Haunting In Connecticut 2, Insidious Chapter 2, The Conjuring and Mama are all supernatural horrors. Horror movies in 2012 seemed to be dominated by slashers or vampire movies so the past two years it looks as if the movie industry wanted to make a change and switch to predominately supernatural horrors films.

Research Into Horror Trailers - The Caller (2011)

In 'The Caller' trailer, a lot of dark lighting is used which makes it more effective as it's easier for things to pop up and scare an audience. The titles that appear throughout the trailer are in the colour red which connotes danger and is the colour of blood. The first image shown in the trailer was a telephone which links in with the title of the film. This gives an indication to the audience that from the title and the phone being the first thing we see, that the phone will play an important role in the movie. In the trailer an iconography that was used were weapons, knives were seen. In horror films the villain typically tends to be a male but in this trailer it seems as though the villain is a woman which subverts from the typical villain in a horror.

I've made a collage of pictures from the trailer that stood out to me and made me think this made a good trailer. The first image was a 1 second clip of a girl with blood running down her eyes, when the main girl was sleeping on the train. The image is effective as it was barely seen in the trailer and came in a flash sequence. She's crying blood which already presents a messed up situation arising in the trailer. She looks scared and this makes the audience question who this girl is and what her role in the movie is. Iconography used such as blood is shown which is a key element of the horror genre. In the second image on the top row, the main character is digging up something and its set in the night time. Night time settings is a typical convention shown in horror films as it's more scary. The image below shows scars on her body which leaves the question to the audience about what has happened to her. The image below that shows a finger in a jar, this illustrates something bad has happened to someone in the movie as body parts are being removed. The last image at the bottom shows the main character being attacked by a big weapon, this was effective in showing the main girl is being attacked by an unknown assailant. 

The movie poster I have incorporated in the collage. The title has a red shadow on it which looks quite ghostly and could give off a supernatural feel of the movie. The colour red is representative of the colour of blood and may be a warning that danger is present in the movie. The slogan 'some calls are best left unanswered' illustrates a phone call will lead to something with bad consequences. The line makes the audience want to know what was said on this phone call. A hand is coming out of the wall, the identity of this person is unknown and it's near the phone which could show a link between the phone and the person who is calling. The brick walls have blood around it which shows that maybe inside the wall there are dead bodies or its the scene where people have died. It's a very ambiguous movie poster as there are a lot of questions that could be asked about it.