1. Trailer Analysis
By: Miriana Younan
The trailer above is promoting ‘Insidious Chapter 2’, a horror film that could be placed within a
supernatural or possession sub genre. When watching this horror film the audience can see that the
father has been possessed by an evil spirit and turning a family home into a terrifying and unsafe
place. I picked this trailer because the music they use within this trailer is effective and really adds
the terror to the trailer and also keeps the audience hearts racing.
The film trailer starts with the normal regulatory warning message that all film trailers start with, this
message will warn the audience against some of the content which is about to appear giving them
the chance not to watch if they wish. The message has a bright green background and written in a
white font, therefore making it very eye-catching to the audience, making sure they do not avoid or
miss the important message. There is no sound whilst this message is being displayed, giving the
audience a chance to read it. Straight after the message is displayed, the logo of the film production
company that made this film is displayed; this makes the audience aware of who made the film.
The next part of the trailer you see an over the shoulder shot of the family, the dad playing with his
son and the mum watching them. Usually you would see the film title first but they go straight into

2. Trailer Analysis
By: Miriana Younan
the trailer narrative because this is the second chapter of Insidious so the audience would have seen
the first film. While this scene is playing you get non- diagetic music over the top of the shot, the
music is soft and slow, it gives off the impression of happiness of the family. This is the equilibrium
of the film.
After this the trailer fades into a black screen and non-diagetic text appears on screen which is called
a strap. The text says “It began two years ago”, this is explaining the narrative of the film. The
background is black which hints fear and death and the font being white creates the contrast
between good and evil.
With the soft music still playing, the next scene cuts to an establishing shot of the front of the house
the location where the family are staying. The audience notice the location is in the suburbs and the
house is quite big and doesn’t look as modern as other house you would see. After this scene it cuts
into the house and we see the family arriving and the dad saying they will be staying at grandma’s
house, we still have the same music playing throughout this scene. This shows the family has been
happy up until now.

3. Trailer Analysis
By: Miriana Younan
The scene again fades to a black background and we get another strap on screen saying “Their child
inherited a gift”, this suggests to the audience that the children could be the ones who are in
trouble. Again black background suggests death and fear and the white font contrasting with the
background the fight between good and evil, this is used over and over again throughout the trailer
to remind the audience of the fear in the family and also the fear the audience should feel as they
dont know what to expect.
The music slowly fades out and you hear diagetic sound which is a babies lullaby coming from the
baby walker. You see a close up of the mother and a long shot of the baby walker, the audience see
the baby walker coming into the room on its own with no baby moving it, this suggests that the
supernatural evil spirit has come back and this is the start of the disruption. The lullaby creates an
innocent object like the baby walker into something horrific,to scary to the audience.
As the lullaby slows down you get a long shot of the mother in the living room looking around and as
she is walking back a women in a white gown appears. The contrapuntal music the lullaby is
contrasting what is happening on the scene. The women in the back wearing a white dress is
contrasting again the fight between evil and good as she is evil and she is wearing white which
connotes purity and innocence and she is not any of them. The lullaby stops as the women in white
gets up and walks out the room, You then you hear a women’s voice coming from the baby monitor
singing row row your boat really quietly the camera zooms into the baby monitor and when it gets
closer you get a bang at the door and the shot cuts to the mother running upstairs to her baby. This
shows the audience the disruption has started but don’t know what’s going on yet. Also the
women’s voice coming out of the baby monitor gets the audience thinking as they want to know
who it is because the mother is not with the baby so it must be someone else, so this gets the
audience mind wondering and wanting to find out.

4. Trailer Analysis
By: Miriana Younan
The scene cuts to a black background with a graident of white/grey along the top, with white and
red writing on the screen. The red text being linked to danger and blood and the white going back to
contrasting good and evil. This shot informs the audience that the same film company made the
other popular horror films ‘Saw’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’. The audience will recognise the films and
will be drawn to watch ‘Insidious 2’. On top of this screen you get a woman singing another
children’s lullaby she keeps repeating merrily over and over again she starts quite and gets louder.
Once again use of contrapuntal sound to add tension to the trailer even more. After this shot the
editing speeds up to add more tension and the audience sitting on the edge of their sit.
On this shot you can still hear the women saying ‘merrily’ over and over again and you get more
non-diagetic sounds add on top of that you hear someone breathing slowly the breathing fades in
and out this causes more tension and fear to the audience as the music gets more intensified. On
this shot you hear a warning alarm sound on top of the breathing and the women singing, the
warning alarm as been slowed down this suggests to the audience the family is in terrible and the
audience should be terrified as there is more horror coming up in the trailer. In this shot you get a
long shot of family trying to get answer for why the woman is haunting the family. In the mise-enscene you see a lot of candles symbolising light in the darkness, the family is looking for hope. You
also see lots of red and black colours in the mise-en-scene, the red suggests danger and blood within
this scene and black the darkness and how the family is lost.

5. Trailer Analysis
By: Miriana Younan
At this part of the trailer we are seeing a fast montage of quick cuts and the music playing alongside
these cuts is a woman saying some sort of words which you can’t really tell what she is saying and on
top of that you hear a non-diagetic sound that sounds like evacuation sound, this suggests to the
audience that you need to get out here quick and that danger is lurking near them. Now the edits
are at a very fast paced to create that tension and adrenaline with the audience. The audience are
seeing horrific imagery with the dead corpses and with the women’s face as she pops up on the
screen to create that jumpy moment, which gets the audience jumping out their sits. For the straps
the same background is used all the time even for the title and the release date, the straps are
telling the audience that there is a secret which gets the audience asking questions which will make
them want to find out the secret. Right at the end when you see the title of the film, the nondiagetic sound stops and you only hear the women again and then you get a sting when the release
date appears this scares the audience as the sound that accompanies the shot is extremely loud, the
audience think it’s all over then they see the title and they relax but then you get the sting which
catches them out and also as the release date is Friday the 13th, this scares the audience even more

6. Trailer Analysis
By: Miriana Younan
as they believe that day is bad luck so the date becomes more memorisable as it is the last thing
they see and it is Friday the 13th.
Overall, I think this trailer is successful with luring the audience in as it uses great straps to get the
audience thinking what this film is about what is the secret and what does this evil spirit want from
the family. You need to make the audience think about the film and this trailer does, it doesn’t give
too much away but it shows enough to lure the audiences to watch the film. This trailer inspires me
as the music and sounds it uses is great and really gets my heart racing and creates a lots of fear and
tension. From this trailer I will consider using the same effects that they have applied as it will create
a successful trailer.