Overview of horror movie trailers

The typical conventions for a supernatural horror movie trailer include an evil force or spirit, dark lighting, an intensed use of diegetic sound, jumpy moments, isolated location, final girl, a sting, demonic children and screams. After watching and reviewing all of these trailers, it was easy to notice conventions that continuously prop up. Dark lighting and amplified diegetic sound are two conventions that appeared in every trailer I reviewed. This is because dark lighting helps us to establish that the film trailer we are watching is within the horror genre. Dark lighting frightens the audience because it gives a very dull atmosphere to the film, and darkness always gives us the unknown fear, because we do not know what is there. Amplified diegetic sounds cause the audience to jump out of fright. In the devil inside there is a moment of silence, and then a loud scream, which will make the audience jump because it is unexpected. They make the trailer more eerie and keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Sounds such as footsteps or doors slamming are amplified to create a loud stab of sound .Screams also featured in every trailer, which frightens us further, and causes jumpy moment. Screams throughout a trailer create more of an adrenaline rush for the person watching the trailer, which encourages them to watch the actual movie. The screams used come from various points of the movie, such as in grave encounters, the screams come from the victims, whereas in the devil inside the screams mainly come from the possessed woman. The setting varies in each trailer, however they are all fairly isolated locations, which is a typical convention of a horror movie. For example, devil is set in a single elevator that has broken down, and the devil inside is set in Rome, mainly based in a mental hospital. Typical camera shots and movements that are used are close ups, for example in the devil inside, to show how demonic the woman is, and close up is used when she is screaming. Long shots are also used to show characters within the movie running away from the antagonist, like in the unborn. In terms of props, because these trailers are supernatural, there tends to be a lot of religious elements, such as the crucifix's in the devil inside trailer, these props give a religious theme to the narrative, and also give a sense of demonic possession. Costume used within the trailer, for example for the protagonists are usually de feminised by their costume in order for them to look more masculine and stand out, like in the drag me to hell trailer, she is not particularly dressed like a typical girl would. Each trailer has a similar narrative structure, following Todorov's structure including an equilibrium and a disruption. For example, in the Devil trailer, they are all going about their normal lives at work, but then the lift breaks down that they are all in, and then their normal day is disrupted when unusual things begin to happen in this lift. The narrative is similar in the possession trailer, when their lives are normal, and after she buys a box at a garage sale, strange things begin to happen to this young girl that effects the rest of her family. This structure reveals an acceptable amount of the narrative within the trailer, however keeps the audience intrigued by adding sections that keep your adrenaline pumping and keep you on the edge of your seat.