The trailer creates codes of enigma as the audience don’t see how the antagonists get inside the house due to top security of the rich family. It leaves the audience asking questions as to how do they get it? Who gets killed? And who survives?

The text and the non-diegetic calming and sad music makes the start of the trailer sound like a documentary to set the scene which makes the trailer feel realistic. It also puts the audience in a serious mood which is effective as when they see the characters in the film being affected by this problem, they will automatically feel sad emotions towards the characters and so are more likely to be shocked and frightened by the trailer which is what a psychological horror is all about. My group and I need to consider doing something similar to this as it we want to make our trailer as realistic as possible to appeal to a lot of people. We could experiment with showing rates of marriage affairs and cheating rates as this will intrigue young couples to watch the film.

In the beginning we are shown the characters being happy in high key lighting. This shows us their normality which creates a sense of realism for the audience as they are placed in a happy, everyday environment. This is shown in a long establishing shot of a family holding hands in the sunset and then we are shows a depth of focus dutch tilt shot which focuses on the main characters enjoying a family meal together. However, the dutch tilt shot gives the audience the impression that someone is watching them as it looks like a point of view, for shadowing something bad happening to the characters which creates suspense. However, the high ley lighting clearly portrays the characters happiness in this part of the trailer as it is bright, showing that there is no danger and their facial expressions shown in separate close ups of the mum and dad show they are happy and laughing which suggests they are at the state of equilibrium in the trailer.

After we see the family being happy, we are immediately shown the recognition of the disruption in the films narrative at 0:22. This is shown through the change of setting as it is of streets which look like they are being shown from security cameras to show crime and fear which clearly show the genre of the trailer which achieves one of the purposes of a trailer. The camera shots of the street are mainly high angle and mid shots to ensure the audience can see the violent attacks clearly to add to their fear. The lighting also suggests a sense of danger for the audience as it has changed dramatically from being high key lighting to low key lighting. Also, even though the audience don’t see the family in the security camera footage, the change of setting and lighting can change the mood of the audience and makes them fear for the character’s lives as they will automatically think they will become involved in the crime later in the narrative. This shows evidence of Levi Strauss’s binary opposition theory such as good vs. bad and calm vs. nervous.

This text transition links to the CCTV camera footage shots so it has given me ideas for the editing of the text in our trailer. As we are including hallucinations of our female protagonist, to link the text to the narrative, my group and I could consider using an effect on the text which makes it look like the Maddie our female protagonist is seeing the text in her hallucinations. Also, as we are using a quote in our text which links to our narrative, the hallucinations could be part of this quote which Maddie sees to suggest to the audience that she thinks she is making a mistake about being so paranoid.

This creates high expectations for the audience as these are popular films with the same target audience. The audience will want to watch the film if they think it is as good as these films.

This shot shows the trailer genre of a psychological horror as blood is iconic to this genre and it is used to foreshadow death and violence. The audience will want to find out where the blood has come from so will watch the film.

Here we are shown a man sharpening a machete which show that the happy American neighbourhood at the beginning is just a cover up for what is really happening which shocks the audience.

Here we are introduced to one of the protagonists (the mum, Mary Sandin) and how she interacts with the other characters. The shot appears in a fade in transition to show a calming atmosphere but she is also shown in high key lighting in a mid-2 shot next to her neighbour at which shows that she is calm and happy and to also represent that she is friendly and like any other ordinary American woman. This enables the audience to relate to her which adds to the fear factor further on in the trailer as the audience will feel tense for her hoping she survives. Furthermore, her costume is black, beige and neutral colours to show her normality and her laughing facial expressions also show her happiness and relationship with the other characters such as her husband, neighbours and children which also helps the audience relate to her to make the trailer feel real to create suspense as the audience will think the events could happen to them.

When the antagonists are finally shown, the audience know the disequilibrium has begun and the family are trying to resolve it as there is a montage of shots at 1:58 to which shows action through long and medium shots and an element of violence is also strongly shown in the appearance of weapons through the close up shots of guns, knives and blades. Also what makes their presence known is the low key lighting which represents them as evil and dangerous. This is typical of the horror genre because the antagonists is always introduced as spooky and having a mysterious personality and the lighting here helps to achieve this. Non diegetic synchronous sound is used when the blade is pulled out to signify how sharp it is and the pain the character is about the go through to shock the audience and make the frightened for the characters life. However, we don’t actually see what happens to the characters of who the character is which gives the audience another reason to watch the film as they will want to find this out.

There is also non diegetic sound of sirens and alarms in the background of the action and when the text appears between the shots. This suggests to the audience that there is danger but they know no one can help the characters which makes them feel nervous for them. This also results in the audience building up adrenaline and fear as they hope the characters actually do ‘survive the night’ (the slogan/tag line for the trailer and film poster). This tag line used makes the audience feel involved in the trailer as it is addressing the audience personally so this will make them want to watch the trailer as they will want to see if they can face the fear. Furthermore, the trailer uses contrapuntal sound around the disequilibrium at 1:55 in the trailer. This confuses the audience but also gives them false hope for the characters as the music is quite calming when matched with the violent action. This also shows a contrast in the narrative which links to Levi Strauss’ theory of good vs. bad.

In the middle of the trailer, the antagonists are easily identified by the audience by their costumes and make themselves known to the protagonists. However, here the protagonists are automatically affected by the antagonist’s presence which is shown through their facial expressions as they look scared and threatened by the antagonist’s. This is what we need to include in our trailer as we not only do we want our characters to look scared and threatened, but also the audience. The antagonists costume is a mixture of white and black to show both their evilness and purity in terms of the Purge. White is worn by the female characters and suggests innocence so this tricks the audience and black is associated with danger so foreshadows death further in the trailer and film which builds suspense for the audience. The antagonists are also wearing masks to show how evil they are and to also cover their identities as they don’t want people to know who they are as they know they are committing a terrible crime. These costumes are iconic to a horror genre because it helps the audience identity the genre and also helps make the antagonists clear to both the audience and protagonist as they are very different to the protagonists as in this film trailer they are wearing casual clothes so the audience can relate to them and feel sorry for them- this meets the conventions of a psychological horror as it is about showing character emotion to create fear for the audience.