Thrillers can be found in film, television, and literature. They aim to elicit feelings of anticipation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety, and adrenaline in the audience. Alfred Hitchcock was an influential early director of thriller films, with his 1926 film The Lodger being one of the first. The document then compares the trailers for the horror thrillers Rosemary's Baby and The Last Exorcism Part 2, analyzing the filmmaking techniques used to build suspense and entice viewers. It concludes that The Last Exorcism Part 2 trailer uses sound more effectively to draw the viewer in.
1. Thriller Research
Thrillers’ are a genre of literature that can fall into 3 categories of media such as, film, tv
dramas’ and books. Thrillers have a wide range of viewers due to the genre being able to
create various different feelings’ to its audience. Some of these feeling are anticipation,
uncertainty, surprise, anxiety, terror and adrenaline rushing.
Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first people to create a thriller movie. However, the genre
of thriller was already established in book format. Alfred was a British film producer and
director who were born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was born 13th August 1899, and
attended Salesian College, London, St Ignatius' College. Alfred years as an active film
director was 1921–1976, Alfred first thriller was called The Lodger that was released in
1926. This film was made throughout the era of silent films. This film was the 3rd silent film
that Alfred had made. During a 10 year period in the film industry he made 15 major films’
and six of these were suspense thrillers.
Comparison between Thrillers trailer’s
Rosemary’s Baby - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PewtQsgN5uo
Synopsis
2. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into an apartment in a building with a bad reputation. They discover
that their neighbours are a very friendly elderly couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet, and Guy begins
to spend a lot of time with them. Strange things start to happen: a woman Rosemary meets in the laundry
dies a mysterious death, Rosemary has strange dreams and hears strange noises and Guy becomes remote
and distant. Then Rosemary falls pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbours have special plans for
her child.
Rosemary’s baby information
Directed by RomanPolanski
Produced by William Castle
This film was distributed by Paramount pictures and was released on June 12th 1968.
The film had a budget of $3,200,000 and made $33,395,426 at the box office
Trailer overview
In the trailer the audience get a taster of what the film is about. The trailer uses basic media
editing techniques such as, cuts in order to get to and from different scenes of the film. The
director also uses editing to mirror what the main character Rosemary is feeling. This particular
scene is of her floating on a sea in her bed that indicates that she feels nauseous. The director has
also used a various different types of lighting such as high key lighting, low key lighting,
background lighting and filler lighting. This was done in order to emphasise the characters and
make them and their actions the main focus of the audience of that particular moment. Diegetic
sounds are heard throughout the trailer of characters liaising with each other. However, nondiegetic sound is introduced to the opening at 1 minute 16 seconds. This is to give the film more of
an effect.
The last exorcism part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwjB7aPLtCw
Synopsis
3. Seventeen year-old Nell Margaret Sweetzer is found completely insane when trying to explain her possession
by the demon called Abalam. After medical and psychological treatment, she is sent to the Deveraux
transition house in New Orleans managed by Frank Merle, who helps her to start a new life. She finds a job
as a hotel housekeeper, befriends her new roommates, and develops a crush on her coworker, Chris. Soon,
Nell comes to realize that she is haunted by people from her cult... and by the same evil force that once
possessed her. When Nell meets Miss Cecile, she tells Nell that she has been following her since the hospital.
Further, she discloses that she belongs to the sect Order of The Right Hand, and that they can protect her
from the evil in an attempt to divert the prophecy of an apocalypse. Will Nell accept help, and be protected
from the extremely powerful, evil force Abalam.
The last exorcism part 2 information
Directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly
Produced by Eli Roth and Thomas A. Bliss
Distributed by CBS films
Release dates – February 28th 2013 (Russia) and March 1st 2013 (united states)
The film had a budget of $5 million and made $15,179,302 at the box office
Trailer overview
In the trailer the audience gets to feel what the movie is about. The director uses various different
cuts in order to build up more suspense about the movie. There is a variety of different lighting
used in order to highlight the character. There is also both non-diegetic sounds and diegetic sounds
used throughout the trailer in order to add more excitement to the trailer. The non- diegetic
sounds that are used changes dependent on how the character is feeling and what they are going
through in the trailer.
Comparison between the two trailers
Personally I likethe last exorcism part 2 the best because I think that it uses a variety of different
techniques such as sound in order to entice the viewer into watching the film. I also found that in
comparison to Rosemary’s baby trailer took longer to do the credits than the exorcism. A reason
for this is because technology was not advanced when Rosemary’s baby came out. In the exorcism
the music was playing throughout the movie In order to help create more tension. In Rosemary’s
baby the music starts half way into the trailer that creates less suspense.
Exorcist synopsis - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034139/?ref_=nv_sr_3
Rosemary’s baby synopsis - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063522/plotsummary