Trailer analysis 3

Trailer Analysis 3 By: Miriana Younan

The trailer above is promoting ‘The Devil Inside’, a horror film that could be placed within a possession sub genre. When watching this horror film the audience are presented with the mother being possessed by demons and how it is forcing her to kill people and left her daughter. I picked this trailer because the trailer uses some real footage of the case that the film is based on.

The trailer opens with an abstract opening having straps displayed on the screen showing information recorded by police of a 911 call made by a woman saying she has killed 2 people and also saying that the phone call was real, showing a brief but disturbing scene, telling the audience that this film is a record of real events scaring them to believe that possessions are real. The use of sound in the beginning scene connotes a disturbing and unnatural feel. The diegetic sound in the scene where the characters are speaking creates a realistic feel which helps the film seem more realistic. When the woman speaks her voice sounds like she is possessed which ties in with the films theme of possession. The background of the text that appears on screen is black connoting death and no escape from the demon, the white text connote the innocence of the characters and that they might be in trouble. As soon as the scene ends there is some footage of a women on the floor in an unnatural position in black and white from this it can out the audience in a uneasy position as the camera shot was quick flash making only visible for less than a second and also adding that the clip could have been an extract from real footage leaving the audiences minds to wander.


Then the next shot is introduced with a fade in with non diegetic sound of a mysterious music suggest there is a mystery to this film. The main character is narrating about her mother, while 3 other characters listening to the women explaining her story creating an intense atmosphere. Then cuts quickly to a close up of the female main character introducing her and showing how she relates to the story. Then quick cuts to a medium shot of a male priest, representing good over evil showing the priest religious authority in the film by the way he is posing in the shot. After this scene, a news broadcast of the women’s mum who killed 2 people being taken away in a police car/ this is showing that the events did happen allowing the audience to think what was wrong with her? And why did she do it? To question the film making the audience more scared of what is to come. The next shot is of the mother in the police car, everything in this shot is black except for the mother, and the mother is covered in a white glow. This could mean that she is pure and innocent as white connotes purity and the black around her is all the evil and that she is surrounded by evil. As the mother is looking start to the camera she is breaking the wall between the audiences as she is making direct address which scares the audience even more as she looks in them in a manner that she is coming for them next.

The next following shots are of the priest and one of the other characters in a close up shot showing the expressions on their faces showing how worried they actually are after the women says the word ‘exorcism’, reflecting on how the audience should be feeling to show how serious the subject is and wants the audience to feel the same way the characters feel in the film as they don’t know what will happen either.


The next following shots are of the women within the cell where her mother is contained and this is where her mother screams in the daughters face randomly. The first shot is of the women and the doctor in a white hall way and the reason why the colour white is repetitive is because the colour connotes madness that’s why most films use white rooms in a mental hospital, also as they walk in the hall way you can see lots of crucifix hanging on the walls this presents the fight against good and evil and how much faith they have to heal these people in the mental hospital. The next shot is shown through the security camera as soon as the women enters the cell showing that her mother can be potentially dangerous so they need to watch what happens. The next shot is a close up of the women’s mum arm showing the cuts, showing the audience that there is something wrong with the mum and that there is a reason why she is in a mental unit. Then a quick cut to a close up of the women’s lip is shown where a cross has been carved into her lip showing that the problem she has is to do with religion and this ties in with the theme of the film. Then the next two shots show the mum calling her daughter towards her then with a close up of the mum and partly of the women the mum screams unnaturally in her face showing that the mum has been possessed by demons. Through all of these shots put together you see that the trailer wants you to believe that it’s not an illness she has but something possessing her by the use of religious imagery of the priest which then could lead on to her trying to protect herself from demons and also through the random drawings on her wall as well and the cuts on her arm and lips.

The next scene is the women being taken to see a real exorcism looks like. The first shot is a wide shot allowing to capture most of the footage in the room showing the people revealing what is under the covers showing that something is so disturbing that had to hide it. The next shot is of a girl with a body in an unnatural and impossible position to be in and the she is like this because she is possessed by some evil spirit. When uncovering the sheets from the girl, as they left it up slowly it gives the audience a chance to prepare themselves to see something horrific. The lighting in this


room is low because it hides things within the dark to have things pop out creating a scarier experience for the audience.

The following shot is of the girl levitating and being bent by some supernatural force, there is a low angle shot to show the audience the pain that is being caused but as this happens the screen starts to fuzz, so the audience can see something else is in the room causing the problem e.g. demon.

This is where the shots pace speeds up for the montage, in the first show the blue sky’s get crowed with black clouds and this is shown through a long shot, this makes the audience think everything will start to go wrong and some sort of evil could take over. In the next shot you see the other characters e.g. the priest trying to help the mother and figure out what is possessed her, we then see a scene of an exorcism. You have the priest saying “I am sorry Isabella” suggest to the audience that there is nothing they can do to help her.


The following shot are showing the characters being attacked by the mother and by having the editing as quick cuts it creates a more effective and dramatic scare effect to scare the audience and also the loud sounds make the audience jump. Also during the shot they have presented the mother singing the children’s song the ‘itsy bitys spider’ and one shot zooms in to a close up of the daughters face showing that it has meaning to her as the expressions on her face was shocked and also the mother singing this children’s song is a contrapuntal sound because ‘itsy bitsy spider’ is a happy child’s song and by the mother singing it while being possessed and attacking the characters it makes it more scare to the audience.

The mother carries on singing ‘itsy bitsy spider’ as the trailer goes on, this could suggest that the spider is the evil spirit that is possessing the mother and the daughter and priest are trying to ‘wash the spider out’ meaning they are trying to get rid of the evil spirit inside of her wash him out. You get a strap on a white background with cuts that we saw earlier on the mother on the background and the text saying “No soul is safe”, this will scare the audience as this evil spirit could possess anyone and the audience will believe they are not safe either.

In the final shot, there is a close up of the daughter holding her mother’s head and saying ‘Let my mother go’ and the mother says ‘You’ll burn’. This shows the affection the daughter has for her mother and wants the evil spirit to leave her but when the mother says ‘You’ll burn’ this tells the audience that freeing her mother was a bad idea and the evil spirit will come back for the daughter and possible die. At this stage of the trailer the pace slows down and at this part when the mother closes her eyes we are presented with a sting when everyone stays still and then the mother is thrown against the wall and the scene fuzzes and you get a close up of the mother screaming. This is


used to make the audience jump they think the evil spirit has left and when they relax they are presented with the sting which frightens them.

When the audience are presented with the film title you can hear a women repeating look at the cuts which relates back to the mother, and then we get a non- diagetic sound of a bang noise and on screen we get a one second shot of a women which could suggest this shot is real footage leaving the audience minds to wander again.

Overall the trailer uses hand held camera movement to give a more rugged and documentary feel to the film. It makes it look like documentary of real life moments trying to scare the audience that demons and evil spirits are real. I think this is a successful trailer as it makes the film look real and this effectively scares the audience. From analysising this trailer, I have realised that hand held camera movement is also affective and adds more horror to the trailer and terrifies the audience more.

Trailer analysis 3

Education

Transcript of Trailer analysis 3