Analysis of the teaser trailer for the film THEM : Research and Planning

The scene begins with a mid shot of a woman sitting on a sofa relaxing whilst writing something down on a piece of paper. The room is dark and quiet, with the only light coming from s lamp. It then cuts to a close up of her making her notes, the telephone starts to ring against a silenced background, the woman walks towards the phone as a handheld camera follows her from behind. She answers “hello”, it then cuts to black with the caption, “Based on true events” appearing on the screen, with a weird non diegetic sound of someone tapping their feet very quickly. As the caption is disappearing the woman repeats “hello” on the phone, with no reply. The lack of sound and the prank call gives the trailer a creepy opening and also gives away the genre which is horror/thriller.

The following shot is a mid shot of someone walking across the camera, with it quickly cutting to a man turning around, jumping with fear. It then cuts to black again, but this time the caption, “Absolutely terrifying” appearing on the screen, with the weird non diegetic sound of someone tapping their feet being heard. There is still no non diegetic sound in the scene and the lighting is dimmed.

The next shot starts with a close up of the faces of a couple, their facial expressions implicating that they are scared, there is also diegetic sound of them breathing heavily , this maybe showing that they have been running. It then cuts to a mid shot of a white curtain with the camera zooming into it. There is another close up of the woman, then cutting to another mid shot of the man walking towards to curtain, cutting back to the curtain in between. The man slowly tries to open the curtain, when suddenly all the windows in the room burst open, there is diegetic sound of the windows smashing against the wall and non diegetic sound of someone making an eerie screaming sound. The man shouts “Hide” and the montage begins. A two shot of the couple running down the stairs in used, a tracking mid shot of the woman running through some plastic sheets and crawling quickly through a tunnel is used, an over the shoulder shot of a man trying to get into a locked room is shown, as he gets into the room there is a brief glimpse of the person they are running away from, who is wearing an all black tracksuit with a hood. The woman who is being victimised is wearing a white top, this shows the difference between the characters as black represents darkness, which represents evil. The white top the woman is wearing represents innocence, this being shown as she is victimised in her own home. Tense upbeat, non diegetic music is heard during the montage creating a tense atmosphere for the audience, as well as diegetic sound of the couple screaming and breathing heavily from all the running and hiding. Natural lighting from the moon light was used throughout the montage, apart from the last shot were there is lighting from lights turned on in the house. Fast paced editing is used through the montage creating and upbeat tension for the audience, this linking well with the upbeat non diegetic music.

The montage ends, as the next shot begins, there is a mid shot of the woman walking around looking very edgy, she walks past the hooded villain who is hiding behind a plastic sheet. The weird non diegetic sound of someone tapping their feet is once again heard, against a silent background. A close up of the woman turning around in fear is shown, showing that she is terrified. It then cuts to black once more, with the caption “You’ll never feel safe in your home again,” appearing on the screen. The final shot is a long shot of someone looking down a corridor through a whole in the door with no one down there, it then cuts to an extreme close up of the woman looking through the hole. A long metal pin strikes through the hole and whether or not it hit her is a mystery as the title “THEM” appears and the trailer ends.

In my opinion I think this is a very good trailer and particularly like how the lack of non diegetic sound creates a more tense atmosphere for the viewers.