This document provides a detailed analysis of the codes and conventions presented in the trailers for 6 horror films from different subgenres. It summarizes the key elements in the trailers for slasher films Scream and Saw, supernatural films The Possession and Insidious, and other subgenre films The Shining and It. Common conventions like settings, characters, sounds, and narrative introductions are discussed for each trailer pair. Unique elements are also analyzed, such as the lack of a visible villain in Scream and thought-provoking quotes in Saw.

1. Slasher
I this horror film trailer overview i will be discussing the codes and conventions of 6 well
known horror trailers. These trailers fall into different horror subgenres, two of the trailer si
will be discussing fall into the subgenre of slasher, these trailers are Scream and Saw,
another two i will be looking at are The Possession and Insidious which fall into the subgenre
of Supernatural, and the other two are from two different subgenres which are It and The
Shining.
I'll start by breaking this overview down into sub genres, i will first discuss the slasher
trailers, i'll begin with focusing on the Mes En Scene within each of the two trailers. Firstly
looking at scream, interestingly the villain is not featured in the trailer, at no point is the villain
of the film visible to the audience, this is relatively unconventional of a horror trailer as the
villian is usually the main character. The villain is heard over numerous phone calls with
young omen, creating a scene of mystery around who the voice may be. This leads the
audience to use their imagination which can often be more powerful/frightening than actually
seeing the villain themself.
Two other features of Mes En Scene within the cream trailer is the drinking of alcohol and
the setting. The victims are all young adults and they're shown in one pat of the trailer to be
drinking alcohol, victim rebelling against what is expected of them is often a behaviour trait of
the villains targets in slashers. Finally and possibly the most conventional feature is the fact
the trailer is set in a house. Very often slasher films are set within a house that is broken into
by an intruder with a motive to kill. As well as this a house is often included in other
subgenres of horror such as supernatural, for example a haunted house. A house, more
specifically and lare house, a common setting for murders to take place within a horror film.
As i discussed the villains aren't featured visually in either of the trailers, however we still are
able to gage an understanding of who they are and they're motive. In all slashers the most
prominent character is the villain, who will appear in a similar way across all slashers, more
commonly than not as a masked man with a vendetta based on some life trauma. Typically,
like in Halloween (with the villain being Michael Myers) and Friday the 13th
(Jason Voorhies)
but villains have childhood traumas encouraging their destructive and psychotic behaviour.
However scream challenged this convention, there is no reason for the villians murderous
and psychotic behaviour, he’s just sadistic. John kramer, the villain in Saw, has vendetta
against people he views as abusing their bodies and their fortune in life because he has
terminal cancer and will die.
Although the villain isn't visually shown in either of the slasher trailers i've just discussed,
which is suppose would be considered unconventional, in some ways of looking at it, it is
conventional. The villain is always a masked man, your able to her him, understand his
motive for killing however we cannot see him due to his mask. Specifically focusing on the
scream trailer, although there is no mask included the principle of not being able to see him,
being able to hear him, and understand his motive, is included in this trailer. So although he
isn't shown visually, you can still interpret this trailer as presenting its villain conventionally.
There are common conventions regarding the aesthetic and behaviour of slasher villains
however the same applies for victim. Slasher victims tend to be young, reckless teens or
adults who are living dangerously and need to be taught a lesson (in the eyes of the villian).

2. Scream features more stereotypical character types, for example a young attractive women,
that cold be labelled as the slutty character due to her behaviour and costumes. It also
features ‘the jock’ the ‘geek of the group’ or the fina girl, and the american high school
hierarchy is important and evident throughout the film. And i suppose in some ways is hinted
at within the trailer. Saw challenges the conventional victims and contrasts scream with older
victims including family men who are mainly featured, perhaps because john kramer is
jealous of what they have.
The sound within the scream trailer plays a huge part in making it scary, this makes sense
considering the villain is only heard and not seen. The villain when speaking to the victims
on the phone has a deep monotone voice, conventional of how the villain would sound in
many other, not only slasher horrors but horrors in general. Also in the scream trailer, the
important and sinister line of ‘i wanna know who im looking at’ delivered by the villian over
the phone is followed immediately but smashing glass. The audience will be shocked after
heard the sinister line and then the sound which could be considered a jumpscare will
disturb/unease them further. There is a voice over f a women, discribi g the film and giving
the audience plot and character information during the trailer. There is a regular use of of the
word ‘someone’ when referring to the villain, which gives away no information about the
villain helping heighten the mystery of who he is.
The film saw could be looked at as one where victims undergo a form of torture due to the
pain and ristruiton caused to them by the villian. The audience are firmly reminded of the
pain that the victims undergo thought the trailer by the heavy breathing of someone gasping
for air/someone who is breathing like there in agony, that is over the top of many of the clips
within the trailer, even clips not involving victims in pain, mood setting music and heavy
breathing that connotes pain compliment each other helping to enfoe the theme of pain and
torture on the audience throughout the duration of the trailer. There are some thought
provoking quotes said by the victims and narrator in the saw trailer, included to gain
audience engagement and force them to ask questions about the film.
Two examples of these thought provoking quotes are, one said by one of the victims to
another victim “he doesn't want us to cut through our chains, he wants us to cut through our
feet”. This gruesome imagery will lead the audience to question the outcome of what
happened, did they really cut through their feet. Anther quote included is “He's not a
murdered he's never killed anyone, he finds ways for his victims to kill themselves”. This
quote will lead the audience to question What kind of a horror villain has never killed
anyone? What does he do then if he's never killed anyone?
At the beginning of the scream trailer, a lot of the horror and scare factor is achieved by the
sinister dialogue between the villain and victim over the phone. The eye level close up shot
of the victims as they speak to the villian on the phone helps bring the audience close to the
victim, really enabling them to recognise the fear filt by the victim.
The narrative of the film is conventionally lightly introduced within both slasher trailers i
looked at. It is evident when watching the saw trailer that the film revolves around a game
and the motive for the villains behaviour is also introduced via the quote “those people are
so ungrateful to be alive, not anymore”. Strap lines are also included to help introduced the
narrative of the film. In the scream trailer the strapline ‘Don't answer the phone, don't open

3. the door, don't try to hide’ is used to give the audience an understanding that the film
revolves around unprovoked attacks on individuals at home. In the saw trailer, they enforce
the villains sinister behaviour by presenting single words on the screen such as voyager,
psychopathic and prophet.
There is no sting included in either of the trailers, i can only think this is because that the
sting is usually a shot of the villain, however as i discussed before, nether of the trailers
included the villain visually, meaning there would be no content for the sting. Institutional
information is included within the scream trailer, the name of well known and well respected
horror director, Wes Craven appears on screen, giveing the film credibility and encouraging
fans of Cravens other work to go and see this film.
Supernatural - The Possession & Insidious
Moving on it is now time for me to discuss the codes conventions and features of the two
supernatural trailers i will be looking at The Possession and Insidious. Firstly briefly looking
at the mes en scene within each trailers they both comply to supernatural conventions as
they include a house, and more inmoreptantl, a new house to the main characters. They
both also include regularly household objects that are often features and considered scary in
horror films, such as a rocking horse and an old wooden box.
Secondly looking at the characters, and yet again, there are more similarities in ways of
character types. There is clear conventions regarding characters when it comes to
supernatural films and these two evidently comply. For example they both include a family,
admittedly the parents of the family in the possession have split up however the principle of
having parents and their children as the main characters remains the same. They character
in both films to be possessed is also the youngest child, this again is a convention of
supernatural horrors and these two films are no exception.
In the possession trailer thee are quotes that are included simply to shock the audience, for
example when the possessed young girl cries into her mother's arms and yells out “mummy,
who am i”. As well as this there is also a quote included delivered by a religious figure giving
the father advice and information about the box, he says “once the box is opened, people
die”. Again this will shock the audience, leading them to ask questions such as who will die,
and why will they die, what power does this box have to cause death. Similarly there are
quotes included in Insidious that are mean to shock the audience and draw them to question
the film and the outcome. For example “it not the house that's haunted, it's your son”. There
are also other good uses of sound within the trailers for impact and to make the audience
jump. There is an unsettling and sot of sinister persistent ticking at the beginning of the
Insidious trailer, making it seem as though the trailer way leading up to a climax. There is
also a good use of what i can only refer to as messy sound in each trialer. Loads of noises,
for example, smashing, banging, ticking, crying, screaming, all at the same time, both trials
immediately introduce this sound as soon as one of the thought provoking quotes i
previously mentioned. This is a convention of sound across all horror films as i discussed
this features when looking at the slasher films.
In the trailer for the possession there are two specific camera angle that i find interesting,
firstly, one being the close up shot of the little girls face as she delivers the line “mummy who
am i” she has her head resting on her mother's shoulder, the shot in from behind the mother

4. so you can only see the girls face, ensuring the audience are focused on her and her facial
expressions and she delivers this important line. Also there is a shot of the girl at what looks
to be a petrol station, the st used is a wide angle shot one not too dissimilar to one that
would be used in a establishing shot, however in this shot the camera is still. The extremely
wide angle enables the audience to see she is on her own, and as there is so much space in
the shot it makes her look even more alone, perhaps reflecting how alone she is in terms of
her situation regarding her possession. In the Insidious trailer, when there are shots of within
the house, it is clear the camera has been handheld and walked around the house, following
characters, this julty camera movement almost looks like a point of view shot and makes the
audience feel as if they were actually there.
The trailer for The possession i feel gives away a lot more of the narrative/what happens
than a lot of other trailers, this is because its not as if it is a mystery film that keeps the
audience guessing what is going to happen next, it is made to shock and scare the
audience. By including a lot of crucial parts from the film in the trailer enables it to shock the
audience influencing them to potentially go and see it. Ew are able to follow the narrative
very briefly, a happy family, the girl ho has a good relationship with her dad at first as she is
shown joking with him on the bed. She then becomes possessed and does many shocking
things starting with stabbing her dad in the hand. This is very shocking, foring the audience
the ask questions. In Insidious not as much is given away however the narrative is still
understandable, happy family move into a new house, odd occurrences start to happen, they
think the house is haunted and then later realise it is there son who is possessed /
“haunted”.
Unlike the slasher films i looked at, both thee supernatural films include a sting. The sting in
The possession isn't a conventional jumpy sting, the possessed girl is seen looking in her
mouth in the mirror, a small demon like hand appears to be crawling up her throat, she
screams and then the trailer ends. Again much like alot of the trailer it teases the audie with
omhting shocking. The sting included at the end of the Insidious trailer is a little more
convention, the trailer appears to end as the screen goes black for a number of seconds,
before a clearly possessed girl quickly move towards the camera at a fast pace with her
hands out infront of her as she screams, this is a very jumpy sting as it isn't expected at all,
and is very quick and very shot, i must admit it made me jump the first time i watched the
trailer.
Other Subgenre Trailers - The Shining & It
Both these films and their trailers are relatively unconventional in their own right. They both
fall into different subgenres, The Shining falls into the psychological subgenre of horror
however, the film ‘It’ doesn't have a clear subgenre that it falls into, it has aspects of both
psychological and supernatural horrors within it. Therefore it is difficult to analyse