Trailer Analysis by Zoe Radford

After seeing many posters and trailers for the new horror film ‘The Conjuring’ and watching it in the cinema, I decided to focus on the films advertising campaign and analyse the trailer to help me when creating my own work. Due to the fact that I want to create a horror trailer, I thought that it would be quite suitable to look at the official trailer for this film to look for conventions of the horror genre.

‘The Conjuring’ is a film loosely based on the real life events of Ed and Lorraine Warren (paranormal investigators who claim to have been involved in over 10,000 cases during their careers) and the Perron family, who experienced demonic activity within their new home in Harrisville, Rhode Island, USA in 1971. The story follows the family and the Warren’s in their quest to overcome this paranormal presence. The development of the film actually began when Ed Warren himself approached the producer – Tony DeRosa-Grund – with a recording of an interview with Carolyn Perron (the mother of the family) over 20 years ago.

With a relatively small budget of $20 million (when compared to the $120 million budget that ‘The Wolverine’ had), filming took place in Wilmington, in North Carolina. Actors in the film include Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as Lorraine and Ed Warren, and Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron. The film was directed by James Wan (who had previously directed the horror film ‘Insidious’ in 2011), produced by several studios including The Safran Company and New Line Cinema and distributed by New Line’s parent company Warner Bros. Pictures. ‘The Conjuring’ was released in the US and Canada on the 19th of July this year, and later on the 2nd of August in the UK and India.

This trailer has just 53 cuts over 2:34 minutes, which is considerably less than ‘The Wolverine’ trailer, which had around 116. Even though this trailer seems to have a decreased pace, this may be due to the fact that this trailer is for a horror film, and not an action film. The tension is built up by the suspense of longer cuts, rather than the build up of many quicker cuts, and unlike the ‘Wolverine’ trailer, no CGI has been used here. This may be due to the fact that it has a lower budget, or simply because it was not needed for the completion of the trailer.

Again, the trailer is divided up into three acts. The first act ends at 0:33 when the wardrobe door opens. This is when the whole feel of the trailer changes – the music stops, and an eerie silence takes its place. We see the first glimpse of the thing that is haunting the family. Act two begins here, but ends at 1:25, just after we see the picture frames crashing down. Text on a black background comes in here, and unnatural music is played. The last act begins from here, and shows the haunting developing and becoming more serious. Near the end of the third act, we see the woman become engulfed in darkness and we hear her scream. This would leave the audience curious as to what happened to her, which would entice them to go and see the film.

The sound in this trailer is effective in creating the right mood and atmosphere for an advertisement within the horror genre. At the start of this trailer, we first hear the door opening and the shouting of the whole family as they come through the door, as the children shout things over each other such as “I get my own room!” and “I call dibs on the room!”. This creates a family feel to this part, as the sound is just simply the typical noises of a family moving into a new home. Straight after this, a song kicks in with the visual ident – the song ‘Time of the Season’ by The Zombies. This song is from the album ‘Odessey and Oracle’ which was released in 1968. Due to the fact that this film is set in 1971, this sets the scene well for the turning of the decade, and we really do get the feel of the era just by hearing this song. Also the fact that it is by a band called ‘The Zombies’ would be appropriate for a horror film, but would obviously only be relevant for those in the audience who actually know this.

Then, we hear a child counting, which links to the visual on screen – they are playing a game, and when the woman finishes counting to ten, we hear her shout, “First clap!” which is returned by the sound of a clap. This lets us know how the game is played (which is necessary in the later part of the trailer) and shows us the innocence of this family.

The woman plays the game and enters a room, but as she turns her back, a wardrobe at the back of the room opens. It opens with a loud creak, and the music suddenly stops – a sinister silence follows. This silence creates a very uneasy feel to the trailer, and would indicate to the audience that something is not quite right. The woman hears this creak, and says “Clap!” again, which is returned by an unusually slow clap, again, creating an uneasy edge. As she walks forward to try and find the source of the clap (the aim of the game) she says playfully “I’m gonna get you now... I can hear you breathing”. We can hear this breathing, however, it is not coming from the child as she thinks it is. As an audience, we know this, and tension is built as we anticipate the woman finding a supernatural creature instead of her daughter.

We hear the girl laugh from another room, and her come in and say “You took your blindfold off! I win! I was in Christine and Nancy’s room”. This causes the woman to look curiously into the wardrobe. We hear the hangers part, but no one is found behind them. The audience heard the clap come from inside the wardrobe, and heard the breathing, and the fact that nothing is found in here creates tension.

After this, strange quiet background music is played, and as the woman is folding clothes, we hear the laugh of a child, and footsteps coming from the corridor. It is a night time scene, and the woman responds to this by saying “Girls, it’s way past your bedtime...” as she goes to investigate the noise. A long pause of silence follows this as she looks in the rooms to find everyone asleep. Suddenly, there is a huge crash, which could give the audience a fright (after the long silence, the loud noise may come as a shock), and as the crashing continues, we hear a child’s laugh again. This has a disturbing feel to it, as it seems as though whatever is laughing is enjoying the destruction it is causing.

The woman goes downstairs to investigate further, and straight after she shouts “Who is that?” we hear the unmistakable noise of a door slowly opening, and a clapping noise (which is non diagetic as we cannot see who is making the clapping noise). The girls are in bed, so this could be considered quite creepy – who is in the basement playing the game and tormenting the woman? Suspense is created here as she goes through the cellar door, and turns on the light switch, and peers down into the darkness. She attempts to threaten whatever is down there by saying “Whoever’s down there I’m gonna lock you in now!” however, as she turns to exit, the door slams shut in her face, and the light bulb blows with a fizzing noise. This could again, give a fright to the audience, who may not have been expecting this loud noise.

Now in complete darkness, we hear the woman scramble about, banging on the door and crying for help. This may create sympathy for this character among the audience, as we realise how helpless she is here. We hear a match being struck, and we see the flame. There is silence again, apart from the heavy breathing of the woman, which is a clear indication of her fear. We hear a clap once more, and the match goes out. The woman screams, which is a typical sound effect for a horror film, and defines the whole genre. As the screen stays on black, a music box tune plays out, which brings an ominous feeling, mixed with a childlike innocence. There is something very threatening about this, which would cause the viewer to feel very uneasy.

The Mise en scene throughout this trailer also gives it a creepy edge. Starting at the beginning again, we see the large family spill in through the front door, all dressed in what look like clothes from the 70s; the colour of these clothes, which seems to be hues of yellows, browns and oranges are all warm (and typical popular colours of the decade), which have connotations of warmth, and happiness. This would suggest that this family are happy.

Even the house itself, although it looks slightly worn and there are several dust covers around, the warm brown colours of the wood keep the house looking like a nice place to live. When we see the woman wander into the bedroom with the blindfold on, the room has several posters on the wall, with pinks and blues, and the rug is in similar shades, indicating that this is a child’s room. It looks like a nice spacious room, but behind the woman, we see an object which contrasts with all other objects there – a huge, dark wardrobe. The wood it is made of is almost black, and its large size creates a menacing feeling. This is made clear as soon as the doors slowly open. Inside, there are just clothes, again, in nice, bright colours, yet as soon as the woman says “Clap”, we see long, pale arms reach out from behind them. They look sickly pale, and this is a clear indication that they are not normal, something is wrong with the scene. Even the blindfold that is tied over the woman’s eyes is a bright red colour. Red has connotations of danger, and even blood, which could signify that something is very dangerous about that pair of hands that she is walking towards.

We see an establishing shot of the house at 1:03. It is the first time the audience are given a view of the whole outside of the house, we can see its scale. The darkness seems to have taken over the whole building, with just a single white porch light glowing outside. Even the trees seem to frame the house with their branches, and the slow zoom into the house ensure to the audience that this is the centre of all events within the trailer.

The camera flicks inside of the house, the woman standing at the side of her bed folding clothes. She is dressed in a white night dress. The white colouring has connotations of innocence – the character herself is innocent, but we can tell by the strange silence, and soon by the child’s laughter that this innocence is going to be taken advantage of. After she checks on her daughters, the loud crashing is heard, and the camera reveals to us that the picture frames have been torn down, by what seems to be an invisible force. Clearly, this shows us that something is working against the family, and the peeling of the wallpaper we can see shows us how old this building really is.

The woman goes downstairs to try and find the intruder, and when the door is opened, she peers inside into the darkness. Darkness is a common feature in almost all horror films, and here is gives us a very uneasy feeling as viewers – is something down there in the darkness? She turns on the light and peers down, and the white light of the cellar gives the room a monochrome look. This has connotations of the past, a different decade or even a different century, which may give the audience a clue that whatever is causing the strange happenings could be supernatural, from the past to haunt the family.

The woman is locked in there, and we see the screen go dark again. We don’t know what is happening to the woman in the dark, which again, makes the audience feel slightly frightened for the character – the darkness is hiding something which is not friendly. She strikes a match, and unusually, it does not cast a warm glow as matches usually do. This light is whiter and harsher, highlighting the woman’s expression of fear to the audience. From the darkness behind her, we see a familiar pair of pale hands reach out and clap next to the woman’s face. This is done quite quickly, which again might make the audience jump with fright, due to it being so unexpected.

The editing and cinematography within it also help to create an apprehensive ambience for viewers. The use of mid shots and soft lighting within the first act of the trailer allows it to follow the characters through their normal business, whether it was first entering their new home or playing games. A tracking shot is also used to follow the woman as she goes on the hunt to fins her daughters in the game, but by the beginning of the second act, we see everything change slightly.

After the doors of the wardrobe open, the screen fades to black, before a hand held, tracking mid close up shot of the woman is filmed from in front of her. We cannot see what she is walking towards, and this, coupled with the shaky camera movements may give an unnerving feeling to the audience. After this, a close up of her face is seen, as she realises that her daughter is not where she thinks she is – we see her face drop, and her expression change very quickly from joy, to confusion.

Another long cut of 10 seconds follows these short cuts, where the woman turns to see the door opening. Again, this scene would not have been as effective if there had been a cut in between – the camera does an unnatural 180 degree spin, which is not a common shot on a trailer, and the fear in the woman’s face is made clearly visible in this turn.

As she goes into the cellar, we see a very harsh cantered, low angled shot, showing the woman turn on the light at the top of the stairs. Cantered angles are used to let the audience know that something is not normal about the events to follow, and this is certainly true in this trailer – the woman is locked in, and the light bulb blows, plunging her into darkness. There is a long pause as she screams for help in the dark, and 8 seconds follow where nothing is on the screen at all. When she strikes the match, we see a mid shot of her kneeling on the floor – a low angle, as if we as viewers are looking up the stairs at her. An over the shoulder shot follows, as we see her view of the dark stair case, the light from the match casts a glow around her, which could have connotations that she is the only thing that is good and innocent in this cellar.

A mid close up of the woman is shown as she holds the candle, and after 3 seconds, a pair of hands clap very loudly over her left (right to our view) shoulder. With her breath, the match is blown out, and 4 seconds of darkness is shown again, with the echo of her scream resonating. Her scream in the darkness would leave a lasting impression on the viewer, and straight after this, we hear the music box music, as the title is shown on screen.

Overall , I think that this trailer is very effective. I think that the use of cinematography, sound and mise en scene was very good in ensuring that the viewer knew exactly what era it was set in, and excellent in creating a frightening atmosphere. Although the trailer was 2:34 minutes long and showed a lot of footage, it did not give too much away – a sense of mystery is definitely left at the end, as we are left enough to know that the family are being haunted, but we are left wondering what exactly is haunting them, and why they chose this house and this family. Through the use of silence and small ambient sounds like the door creaking and children’s laughter, it helped to make a chilling trailer without using gore or anything too graphic.

There are several other trailers for this film which fill in a lot more detail, such as the introduction of the Warren’s, however, I think this trailer was the most effective in leaving a lasting impression in he viewer’s mind. I actually went to see the film, so the trailer did was successful in enticing me to go and see it in the cinema.