Evaluation of Creep trailer : Research and Planning

The trailer begins with a point of view shot of a hall with escalators going down at the end, there is diegetic sound of a woman breathing heavily and tense non diegetic sound in the background. A handheld camera tracks in the footsteps of the heavy breathing woman who is moving towards the escalators. It fades to black as the production company appears on the screen for a few seconds, the heavy breathing of the woman goes on as this appears. It then fades back out from black to the handheld camera at the top of the stairs, it moves forward a little more before panning down to the bottom of the stairs the heavy breathing continues but the tense non diegetic sound changes from tense to a bit more eerie like a piece of metal being cut by an electric cutter. It then fades to a close up of a woman leaning on a wall with her eyes closed the diegetic sound is stopped but the eerie non diegetic sound continues. The woman slowly opens her eyes and looks behind her, the camera pans to the direction where the woman looks and the audience are aware of the location which is an underground tube station. A title “missed” appears on the screen with a dull pipeline like background, slowly moving to the left. Another title “the last train” appears in the same format. Once more another title “home?” appears in the same format the eerie non diegetic sound continues. The next shot is a mid shot of the woman walking with the camera tracking her. It quickly cuts to another mid shot of her trying to get out of the station but the gates are locked leaving her trapped in, she shouts “hello, hello” in fear but there is no reply. Another title “don’t worry” appears on the screen in the same style as the other titles. The next shot is of the inside of a blacked out train, the lighting in the trailer changes from full lit lighting from lights in the underground to little shadows of lights coming from reflections. The eerie non diegetic sound stays the same , there is diegetic sound of the woman who says “excuse me, shall I just sleep on the platform.” The camera cuts to a close up of the woman moving down the blacked out train, as she moves down the eerie non diegetic sound gets louder as the title “you’re not alone” appears on the screen using the same format as the other titles.

The next shot starts with a extreme close up of a mans hand covered in blood creeping onto the doors of the train, the eerie non diegetic sound continues and frontlit lighting is used for this shot. It quickly cuts to a low angle shot of the woman standing up in shock, backlit lighting is used for this shot. It then cuts back to a high angle of the blooded hand, but another hand crawls into the shot as a man tries to pull himself onto the train, the man has severe cuts all over his face. The man stares at the woman and gets pulled back off the train fading to black once he is fully pulled off. The eerie non diegetic sound ends and a scream from the woman ends the scene.

The next scene begins with a scream and a high angle of the woman running away from the train, It then fades to an extreme close up of a rat walking on a train track. There is a special editing technique it flashes the same shot twice. There is dimmed lighting and the tense non diegetic sound is slowly building up. It fades to a low angle shot of an open door of a chamber, there is dimmed backlit lighting and the tense non diegtic sound is getting louder. It then fades to a mid shot of a person holding a torch, there is backlit lighting so a shadowy figure appears making the person mysterious. The double flash technique is also used. The next shot is a long shot of the underground train track tunnel the double flash technique is also used for this shot. The tense non diegetic sound also keeps getting louder. It fades to the next shot which is of a man walking up and down a train furiously holding a weapon in his hand, the tense non diegetic sound increases as there is also diegetic sound of a man screaming. Lighting from the train is used. There is a high angle close up of the man standing and looking around the train as he hears something on top of the train getting closer. The camera zooms further into the mans face as the noise gets louder, the mans facial expression shows he is very scared. The man shouts in fear “Is someone here.”

There are two quick shots of torches shining on a wall, the tense non diegetic sound continues into the next shot which is of the woman running and the build up of the non diegetic sound ends and the montage begins. There is mainly dimmed backlit lighting in every shot in the montage, there are mainly shots of people running away, crawling away, screaming, hiding, a few shots of shadows of the torturer and weapons getting scraped against walls. Every shot is very quick and fast paced editing is used for the montage. There is also up beat tense non diegetic sound through out the montage. As the montage ends the tense non diegetic sound quietens and there is a close up of the woman crouching down holding a torch, she points the torch to her face and turns it off and the title “Creep” appears on the screen.

The final shot is of a toy playing and instrument with diegetic sound of the woman crying and crawling away whilst been followed by a man holding a knife. There is only non diegetic sound being played trough out the final scene.


How the trailer for the film creep has used the theories that I have learnt.

Tzvetan Todorov
Everything does start at equilibrium as she is just trying to get home, the disruption to this event is by the woman missing the last train and getting trapped at the station. The woman realises she is trapped but cannot get out. The attempt to try and get out she causes and attraction of the killer.


Vladimir Propps

There is definitely a villain in the trailer which is the killer, the woman may be classed as a hero or false hero depending on whether she survives or not and as we saw in the trailer there is definitely a helper.


The trailer for creep does follow Claude Levi Strauss’ theory as the is a good and bad, the woman being good she is just trying to get home and the torturer trying to stop her from getting home.


Rolande Barthes theory is also followed as teaser trailers always leave some parts mysterious for the audience to try and solve, before the actual film comes out.


The creep trailer follows most parts of each theory, therefore following a conventional storyline.