Halloween trailer analysis : Research and Planning

The trailer begins with a title fading in with a voice over of a man saying what the title is saying which is “Inside every one of us.” It cuts to a close up a young girl who is shown in 3 different shots using a handheld camera, whilst these shots are being played there is diegetic sound of the girl laughing. It fades to black with another title appearing with the same mans voice over but this time saying “There exists a dark side.” The trailer then cuts to an establishing shot of a house which is completely dark with no lights turned on inside the house. Natural lighting from the moon is used which creates a very creepy shot of the house, the camera tilts down then cutting to a long shot of a woman looking out of the window, with back lit lighting from a lamp inside the room she is looking out of. There is tense non diegetic sound whilst these shots are being played creating a tense, creepy atmosphere from the beginning.

The next shot is a mid shot of someone sitting at a desk in their room. It looks like a child’s room as there are planes hanging from the ceiling and posters on the wall, the room is naturally light up by the sun. It cuts to an extreme close up of the person holding a rat in one hand and what looks like a knife in the other, the voice over of the man continues but this time he says “Most people rise above it.” There is diegetic sound of the rat squealing and the tense non diegetic music continuing. It then fades to a close up of someone holding duct tape and opening a draw, the camera cuts an extreme close up of the person pulling out a knife from the draw and there is another close up of the person walking away with it. Whilst the shot are being played the voice over continues with the man saying “But some” this time. It fades to a close up of the back of a girls head who is working at a table. It then cuts to an over the shoulder shot of someone raising a baseball bat behind the girl who is working. The voice over continues as this shot is being played saying “Are consumed by it.” The camera cuts to a close up of the working girl with the person holding the baseball bat behind her, the person holding the bat is wearing a clown mask hiding his identity. The bat then strikes down on the working girls head sending her straight to the ground. There are two more shots of the clown hitting the girl a couple more times, then cutting to a close up of the clown dropping the blooded bat. The tense non diegetic sound continues, the sound increased every time the clown was winding up to hit the girl, with the gruesome diegtic sound of the girl getting hit. Lighting from the house is used for this shot.

The next scene begins with the tense non diegetic sound, there is a close up of a woman sleeping and someone touching her leg, it fades to the next shot of the woman waking up and grabbing the hand of the person touching her, she says surprisingly “Michael.” The camera pans around and shows Michael holding a knife, with the woman screaming to end the scene. There is dimmed lighting from a lamp. The next scene begins with paramedics taking a body out of a house, the tense non diegetic sound is replaced with non diegetic sound of a heartbeat. A close up of a woman looking at a body is portrayed and shouting “no.” The non diegetic heartbeat beats again, with the mans voice over saying “Until there is nothing left.”

The next shot is of a child sitting in the back of a car with the non diegetic heartbeat beating again. The child is looking at the camera, the camera flashes quickly, during this flash the child is shown wearing a mask with it quickly cutting to an extreme close up of a the same mask that the child was wearing during the flash. It fades to another title with the mans voice over saying “But pure evil.” It fades to the next shot which is of someone holding the mask in their hand. The next few shots are of the person putting the mask on. A different type of tense non diegetic music is played through out these few shots, with a different mans voice over saying “Behind these eyes, one finds only darkness” There is a close up of the masked mans face with the voice over continuing “These are the eyes of a psychopath.”

The next shot begins with the masked man slamming open a door, then a high angle of a woman crawling on the stairs shouting for her life. The tense non diegetic music continues as the montage begins. There are quick shots of the masked man holding a knife, the man carrying a body down the street, there are also a few shots of women getting tormented by the killer. There are also shots of people running away from the killer and facial expressions of the victims showing their fear and small glimpses of the killer. As the montage is going on the voice over of the man starts again but this time he just advertising the film. After the montage is finished the title of the film appears, but there is a final shot which is a long shot of the house we saw at the beginning of the trailer, there is no sound at all and there is natural lighting from the moon. The camera quickly zooms to the front door where a woman is trying to escape but gets caught by the killer, this could be the same woman we saw looking out the window earlier in the trailer, the trailer ends with a scream of the woman getting caught and the release date appearing.

I think this is a very effective trailer as it features all aspects of what a horror film should need.