Trailer Deconstruction

By Laura Ireland

The opening of the trailer begins with a slow pace to help set up the films basic narrative. We can hear a gentle non-digetic soundtrack being played in the background, over an over the shoulder shot of the films main female character talking. Through her opening lines of, “why can’t I remember what happened that night?” the audience is immediately introduced to feelings of confusion and the sense that something bad and ominous is going to happen.

This then cuts to a medium close-up shot of a lantern falling to the floor and smashing. As the lantern is seen smashing, the audience hears the enhanced sound of the glass within it breaking, before the light is extinguished. This is reflective of the protagonists feeling of a broken home as her world has come crashing down leaving her in this state of confusion and obscurity. Some questions as to why she is in this emotional state, are answered in the next shot where the trailer cuts to a medium action shot of a house on fire. This accompanied with a further enhanced digetic sound of an explosion, complements the scene which can be seen happening on screen.

The girl is shown talking to what is presumed to be a psychiatrist in a mental institution, as enhanced through the use of a tracking shot of her legs running down a long corridor before being followed by the use of an eagle eye shot with her exiting the building. The psychiatrist is then seen stating, “You lost your mother in a fire, maybe it isn’t such a bad thing to forget. Go home. You’ll figure it out.” The use of slow paced editing here allows the audience to fully appreciate the death of this girl’s mother and gain some idea of the films background and an outline of the trailers basic narrative. The audience feels empathy for the films protagonist and is able to understand her confused emotional state. The vulnerability of her persona and fragile mind state is conventional seen with he psychological thriller genre.

The non-digetic melody heard at the start of the trailer is once again introduced as a bird’s eye shot is shown of the trailers protagonist running from the psychiatric institute. This is continued as a car is shown driving to a lake house and the protagonist is reunited with her sister ‘Alex.’

In relation to Freytag’s theory the complication of the trailer comes in the form of, “dad’s new girlfriend.”

Through the introduction of this character to mood of the entire trailer changes and darkens. The light and calming non-digetic soundtrack previously played changes and becomes a low and eerie humming noise. This automatically indicates some negative and evil association this woman carries.

In the next shot we cut to scene of a funeral service, with Rachel’s character bending over to lay a rose over the coffin. As she is seen doing so a sharp noise is introduced with the presence of a ghostly little girl shown behind her. The use of a slow motion and an edited shadowy, almost echoed effect, duplicates Rachel's figure adding a supernatural feel to her persona. The following shots then quickly flash with an edited negative effect placed over the shots of the little girl. An ominous and foreboding feel is created through the aligning of these two characters as the little girl is shown appearing from behind Rachel’s character linking her to this supernatural and evil.

After the heavy non-digetic sound of a drum beat in conjunction with a text screen the audience is shown that the film was produced by the creators of ‘The Ring’ and ‘Disturbia.’ The topography of this text is written in a simplistic black Ariel font making it clearly visible against its clouded background. The centrally positioned text against the dimly filter clouds creates a sense of pathetic fallacy and foreboding for the rest of the trailer. This foreboding is also crated through the films mentioned in the text as they are recognise to be darker genres of film. This therefore allows the audience to relate to these works in comparison to this one. The shift in the trailer comes just before this point through the presence of the ghostly figures of the children, therefore, suggesting ominous and dark things are going to happen from this point.

The introduction of another character stating to the protagonists father, “your daughter has got it into her mind somehow that your fiancé killed the family she worked for,” confirms the audience preconceived ideas of Rachel’s character murdering the children seen in the graveyard. This idea is then physically reflected through the images of the children alongside a murder report on a computer screen.

The trailer then cuts to a low angled shot of the films protagonist and her sister looking up a murder report on a computer. This is then followed by a sequence of short quick cuts accompanied by a violent stabbing noise. The shots include images of the little girl in the previous shots, a knife and newspaper articles. The inclusion of the shot with the little girl allows the audience to relate to the previous shot of her in the grave yard, making a connection between her persona and cause of death.

This is then followed by a silent black out, creating a high point of tension for the audience as they link these murders with Rachel’s character.

From this point on we see Rachel’s persona positioned in a state of superiority over the Anna’s character, as shown through the use of a low angled shot of her standing upon a hill top.

The following shots of her character pulling a pearl necklace around the protagonists neck while sating, “You know what Anna? I don’t think this is going to work out,” is particularly indicative of physiological thriller genre.

As we enter the climax of the trailer, a non-digetic sound track of heavily beating drums is played over quick cuts of the film. This is juxtaposed with flashing white shots of light, successfully building tension and creating suspense through the audience. This is as these flashing quick cuts create obscurity and build confusion for the audience as well as reflecting the feeling of the films protagonist.

As we cut to a shot of the little girl, we see her drop a glass of milk which just as before in the previous shots of the lantern and glass ball, we see it smashing to the ground. In contrast to this however, the milk turns into vivid red blood. This red colour imagery can be seen throughout the trailer and is highly effective in portraying the films genre. This is as the colour red has strong connotations of the gothic and death therefore, successfully establishing the physiological thriller genre of the film.

After this point, the trailer suddenly becomes silent apart from the sound of the protagonists heavy breathing.

This is then finished with a medium close-up shot of the films protagonist covered in blood with an obscured figures hand reaching out to grab her. A shorter sequence of shots follows this, including images of an eye peering through a key hole and ‘Anna’ screaming. This screaming is carried on over the shots to give a frightful and hard hitting ending to the trailer before it is silenced by the films title appearing on screen. The title of the film is written in the same topography as the other text interjections throughout the trailer, placed against the same dim clouded background.

The trailer concludes on a medium close-up shot of a bleeding key hole. The use of a zoom takes the audience close to the answer of whose blood it is before fading to black. This shot in juxtaposition with the previous shot of an eye looking through a key hole may hold some answers for the audience however, this is not fully confirmed in the trailer. As a result of this withholding of information, the audience are left with a narrative enigma and intrigued to find out more.