Blair Witch Trailer Analysis

1. Blair Witch Trailer
Analysis
- Psychological
Thriller
(2016)

2. What is a psychological thriller?
A film which features the genre of psychological thriller
heavily relies on the character’s varying mental stabilities
and how they contrast with each other within their
current situation rather than the just the plot itself. The
character’s sense of reality deteriorates throughout the
film, indulging the audience deep within their pure terror.
Examples of psychological thrillers:
Psycho
Paranormal Activity
Saw

3. The establishing shot opens the trailer of Blair Witch, of a low saturation shot consisting of
a forest featuring very dark greens and browns, paired with a river featuring very dark
blues and greys. Moreover a voiceover using dialogue, ‘found in the Black Hills woods’, is
utilised in conjunction with the shot to set a both dark and creepy mood for the trailer
from the outset, creating an instant stigma for the audience whenever the forest is
mentioned.

4. The following shots consist of several POV shots running through corridors, cut at a very
fast pace with large amounts of distortion paired with aggressive and loud sound effects
to create unease for the audience. Each shot is highly exposed with a torch with the
surrounding frame consisting of darkness; the over exposed centre gives audiences
limited glimpses of the character’s location and situation, creating anxiety and concern.

5. The text used in the trailer features a serif font in white on a black background amongst
very faint figures of tree branches, symbolising a torch searching through woods such as
in the previous slide. The tree branches are mirrored vertically to signify a distortion from
reality and normality.