2. The Shining is a 1980
British-American
psychological horror film.
This film was produced
and directed by Stanley
Kubrick, co-written with
novelist Diane Johnson,
and starring Jack
Nicholson, Shelley Duvall,
Danny Lloyd, and
Scatman Crothers. The
film is based on Stephen
King's 1977 novel The
Shining, although the film
and novel differ in
significant ways.
This trailer is an 18
certificate, meaning there
The information above are shown in the
trailer as pieces of information used as
unique selling points to draw in the target
audience, for example people who are fans
of Stanley will want to watch this film as they
know they will enjoy his work. The audience
will also obviously need to know the date that
the film is out so they are aware when they
can go watch it.
3. The first shots are two aerial establishing shots to
show that the film is set in an isolated area which is
stereotypical for horror films, the fact that they are
also set in a forest area and in the mountains is also
conventional for horror films. The shots are followed
with music that creates a more tensions and a
mysterious atmosphere to the film which represents
that the trailer is going to be a horror because if the
music was cheerful and happy it would represent a
different genre like a comedy for example.
4. There are then loads of establishing shots of the house
which the main protagonists will be staying at, there is
also a dialoged going on in the background that sets the
story line, this is a man selling the house and is telling the
main protagonists about the past of the house and the
events which haunt it. This is also very conventional for
horror films because the place where the film is set
normally has a scary ‘past’.
“He seemed like a completely normal individual but at
some point during the winter he must of ran a complete
mental breakdown and killed his whole family”
5. Throughout the trailer we then start to see the man holding
weapons such as knifes and mainly the axe, which could be the
villains weapon, this male is portrayed as the psycho killer as
expected from a horror.
There are then loads of different shots from different time
frames throughout the film to represent the main man
protagonist going crazy within this house.
The shots then speed up representing that something bad is
going to happen, along with this the background music picks up
speed and there is also a lady screaming in the background to
add to the tension, however you don’t really see or get to
understand what the events are that are taking place and the
audience has no idea what it is which is making the man go
crazy making the trailer a teaser trailer and making the target
audience want to go see it even more as they will want to know
what it is.
6. There are many different camera angles used to
represent what the character is feeling and to show
emotion, for example there is an extreme close up
shot of the little boy to represent how scared the boy
is and to also represent that something bad is likely
to happen to him.
There is also a close up of the main protagonist of
him smiling with a sinister look in his face to
represent how he is going crazy.
7. In this film the women is represented
stereotypically as the same as all women
do in horror films. She is seen as one of
the main victims of the villain in the horror
film and is also shown fighting him which
could connote that she may be a final
girl/hero because she was strong enough
to fight back.
She is also represented as the caring
mother which any female would be, she is
shown in many shots holding her son close
to her and shown with the iconic knifes and
so on fighting back to try and keep him
safe.
There is also a lot of low eye lighting as
horror films are more effective in
frightening people when it is dark/at night
time.
The fact you don’t see if the mother is
successful or not while fighting with her
husband will make the audience want to
8. There are also many different shots of Jonny which have been
edited into a montage showing the events of time passing and of
time turning evil as it does, there is one used a lot of him sitting
down staring into nothing looking very evil, it starts as a medium
shot and then zooms into his face into a close up shot implying
how he is turning evil. He is also wearing black which represents
darkness and evil to show how he it turning over to the dark side.
There are then more shots of him going insane for example the
shot of him chopping the door down, when he seen as throwing
items in the mise en scene but the trailer doesn't’t actually show
him killing anyone which makes the audience ask the questions
about if he did actually kill his family? Did they get away? Or did
they even kill him instead? All these question will then pursue the
audience to want to come and watch the film.
9. Narrative
Todorovs theory suggests that every film starts with an equilibrium
that is calm and settled but is then disturbed by some events,
setting in a chain of series of events. The next stage in Toderov’s
narrative theory is the recognition of the event and then the main
characters will fight for the following stage which is the resolution
of the event. The final stage is then the new equilibrium which is
when the main protagonists have to carry on with their lives even
though it has changed dramatically from the events which took
place throughout the film. This is also seen throughout the trailer
as you see how at the start everyone is all calm and happy moving
into this new house, and then you see some clips of the events
happening and different shots which are throughout the film.
However, the last stages are not shown within the trailer because
then the audience will know what will happen and therefore won’t
go watch the film.
10. Audience
The film is an 18 certificate which means that no one under that
age can watch, this is then making the target audience much
smaller as it is mainly the younger audience and males who
enjoy horror films.
18 also means that there are no restrictions on what can be
said or shown, meaning that this could offend some people and
some people may not want to watch the film because of this.
The trailer suggests that there will be loads of violence an
people possibly getting killed, so this will then target people
who enjoy bloody films and enjoy being scared while watching
horror films.
