Monday 14 December 2009

The Haunting In Connecticut

The Haunting in Connecticut is allegedly based on true events which took place in Connecticut and was released in 2009. It is based around a house which a family move into which has a disturbing past and chilling events occur.

The first shot is of the LIONSGATE logo and a birds eye view of a suburban looking area. Playing over the top is music which is uncomfartble to listen to and with a womens voice saying ' Why do bad things happen to good people' , the audience straight away can decide that this isn't going to be a happy, cheery film. Also most people can associate themselves as well as many people live in areas like the one which is being shown meaning it immediately reaches out to a large target audience. This continues as the scene cuts to shots of the houses in a moving car and the woman's voice talking about them being just a normal family. This is clever as many people can put themselves in her position again and that what is about to be shown could happen to anyone. The car the lady is driving in pulls up outside a house which you can just about see but is hidden really, by a man holding a SOLD sign. As we are thinking about using a SOLD sign in our film we could use the same kind of technique in our trailer. A title than flashes up saying : Based on true events. Now when people see horror films inside they believe that what there seeing is not real in any instance. However when people see horror films which are based around true events it becomes much more scary as what their watching could be real. So whenever you have a film based around true events its seen as much more released by the audience than other films which are more fantasy.

As soon as that tittle flashes up on the screen, the mood of the ambient sound changes. It becomes much more sinister. creating an eerie atmosphere. The title flashes out, replaced by a huge house. It looks like its a secluded house in the middle of nowhere, a clichéd location for a horror film. We are wanting to find a location similar to this house as it is a perfect scary house and would make our trailer look professional. It cuts to the women inside the house wondering why its so cheap to buy. This is shown through a two shot of her and a estate agent. The question used is clever as she is saying it to the man and the audience, making the people guess and why its so cheap. Some shots of the rest of her family are shown through low and high angle making them look strangely vulnerable. The estate agents voice is played over the top of these shots saying there is a history about the house, which sounds alarming to the audience. For a couple of shots the family are shown to be happy about moving into the house until the boy chooses the basement as his room. Again eerie non diegetic music is played as the boy tries to open a darkned set of doors which look spooky to the say the least.As his mum and him try to open the door the audience begin to assume what is behind there and why it is locked.

The scene then completely changes and a establishing shot of the house at night is used. The non diegetic music is stopped and instead there is an unnerving silence. Close ups are shown of the family members sleeping and looking innocent. The last family member being shown is the boy sleeping in the basement and he is not asleep, but is watching T.V. He switches it off and the screen shows the blind side of the camera. A person is shown and walks off and is a freaky moment. This is emphasised with the sound effect played over the top. Again the scene changes to daytime and the boy tries to open the door again but this time it burns his hand. At this point in the trailer the questions are mounting up inside the audiences head. Also the music has changed to a disturbing olden styled music. The characters on screen are shown looking through old photos of people which they found under the floorboards. Another horrifying shot is used as a person walks straight in front of the boy and then disappears into thin air. However this shot wouldn't be anywhere near as scary without the sound effect which accompanies the movement of person walking across the screen. The next shot is of the boy explaining that the person in the picture is the person who walked in front of him a few seconds ago. It changes to night again and a woman bites into an apple but weirdly as she removes it is seen as black and looks disgusting. The lady is horrified and opens the fridge to discover everything inside is dead and looks horrible. The sound effect again is beautifully used as it starts as soon as the fridge door is opened.

A few more freaky shots are shown one in particular a shadow of an unknown person reaching down to the boy sleeping in the basement. This shot is even more scary because the light used is a flickering candle. The audience are then told that the house was once used for a meeting place to contact the dead. This in itself is a freaky topic and will disturb many people watching. A priest then enters the scene and states that there is something in the house. A slow montage of shots are used showing people being terrorized and freaked out. The priest then states that the mysterious people causing these actions want the boy sleeping in the basement. The non diegetic music picks up pace and so does the speed of the transitions of shots. A shot which I like and think we could use is the shot of an axe breaking through a door and the lady screaming her head off. This would scare our audience and will be a a good clichéd horror convention to portray. The last 5 seconds include a large amount of shots all blending into one. Just from the montage of shots the trailer is chilling and makes people watching want to find out many answers to the questions stated in the trailer.

Many conventions used in this trailer are ones we can use in ours. The use of scary sound effects as something freaky on screen happens is the main aspect of this trailer which I would like to use in ours.

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