Horror Movie Trailers – Mise en Scene

Carrie, Gone Girl, Unfriended

Settings In Carrie, the setting is a normal suburban neighbourhood home. In Gone Girl the setting is a back alley way and similarly to Carrie, the setting of Unfriended is in normal teenager’s bedrooms. Again the theme of these films is to be set in normal locations to spook the audience out more and make the film seem more scary as they don’t expect the incidents that happen in the film to actually happen. By having the films set in ordinary locations make the horror seem more real as they are set in locations that are familiar to the audience.

Props In these screenshots the trend for the props is for them to be ordinary objects. In the first screenshot for Carrie, the prop is a phone. The props in Gone Girl are a book and a ring, and finally, the prop in Unfriended is a blender. These props are all common household objects which suggests that this sub genre of horror involves innocent, normal people and their day to day lives. This tends to make a film scarier for people as there might be scenes similar to events in their lives which could make the horror and fear seem more real.

Costume These screenshots contain a lot of formal and nice costumes. In Carrie, the costumes are clearly showing some sort of prom or ball, the same as the costumes in the Unfriended trailer. In the Gone Girl trailer the costumes are still formal but they are more office/work costumes. Overall, this shows that these films are also set around special times in the characters lives and that the characters care about what they look like as they are dressed in nice clothes. This makes the horror movie more scary as the horror is unexpected as we don’t expect to see a happy event like a ball or a wedding ruined by something in the film.

Hair & MakeupAll three of these screenshots show different approaches to hair and makeup in each of the trailers. In Carrie its is clear to see that the hair and makeup is very intense, with the disheveled hair and blood across Carrie’s face. This gives the impression that Carrie is an intense horror film with lots of gore and action which has left her looking like this. The same with Unfriended as it shows the character again with messed up hair which suggests that there is lots of action or something distressing is happening which has cause her hair to become messy. The makeup is just normal makeup, the same as Gone Girl with the causal hair and makeup which continues the theme of a normal setting as there is no over the top makeup which makes the audience think that these things could happen to anyone.

Facial Expressions Again the three screenshots here are different again. The Carrie screenshot is a sinister, almost mischievous glare which suggests that Carrie is the main character and is up to no good. The facial expression in Gone Girl again is quite sinister as the character could be smiling because of a plan or smiling because she has committed a sinister act, for example, murdering someone. This all suggests in these genre of films that there are female main characters. The facial expression of the girl in Unfriended is different as this character looks like she is crying or in pain. This is shown by the look of sadness on her face, almost as if she is crying. Shots like this can distress the audience which makes the film more tense and scary.

Lighting In these screen shots of the movie clips, the generic trend is to have lots of dark lighting. The darker lighting creates a spooky atmosphere which in turn raises tension as the dark is very much unknown so you are tense as you are almost anticipating for something to happen. In the Carrie trailer the lighting is very fiery and dark which suggests something evil is going on. In Gone Girl the lighting is very dark and mysterious with only the lighting of the torch which suggests that there is a lot of mystery and speculation as a lot of the setting is in the dark and you can’t make out much. Finally the lighting in the unfriended trailer is just bright on the character’s face and the rest of the room is dark which suggests something unknown is lurking in the darkness. The light on the characters face also shows the distress that he is in.

Body Language In Carrie the body language makes it look like the character is in distress or shocked as she has her hands covering her mouth. This suggests that something horrific is happening as she is visibly in distress. You can see this as her fingers are locked together in a scrambles way that suggests she is shook and reacted quickly. In the Gone Girl trailer the male character is visibly angered as shown by the fact that is arms are out stretched and his chest is pointed outwards. There is no visible clues as to what has made him angry apart from the over the shoulder shot that shows a blurred figure which leaves the audience wanting to know what is going on. Finally, in the Unfriended trailer, the body language is quite frenzied as the girl seems to be blurred with her hand on the door which also suggests there has been a particularly strong force to have her pushed up against the door, which has not been made obvious in the image.