The document analyzes conventions found in horror movie trailers, including tension, scary music, isolated settings, supernatural monsters or criminals, fast cuts at the end, death, and dark lighting. It provides examples from the trailers for The Purge, The Strangers, and Paranormal Activity 3. The Purge follows conventions with tension, suspense, darkness, and showing that those in power can be victims. The Strangers starts as a normal romance but changes with loud bangs to create tension. Paranormal Activity 3 includes darkness and supernatural elements but lacks fast pacing at the end and does not keep the audience guessing, instead following a circular narrative structure.

1. REAL MEDIA
TEXT
INVESTIGATION
LIZZY MCDONALD

2. REAL MEDIA TEXT
In the following slides I will analyse existing horror trailers and
how they relate to typical conventions found in existing horror
trailers.
Conventions typically found in horror trailers:
• Tension and suspense
• Scary music
• Isolated setting
• Supernatural monster or criminal
• Fast cuts towards the end of the trailer
• Death
• Short takes
• Dark lighting

3. THE PURGE
The Purge follows the typical conventions of a horror trailer
as it contains a lot of tension building action and death.
There is a lot is suspense and jumpy moments with darkness
within the trailer which relates a lot to the horror genre. All of
these aspects add together to make a successful horror
trailer. Another typical convention is that people with the
most power as seen as the victims, which shows the target
audience that the poorer people wont be the only victims.

4. THE STRANGERS
The strangers trailer starts off as everything is meant to be
normal and could be considered at the start as a romance
genre trailer. But then everything changes when there is big
bangs and causes tension for the audience. During this
trailer there is a lot tension building music and pauses to
make the target audience be on edge so it s a successful
trailer.

5. PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY 3
Although the trailer for paranormal activity 3 follows the typical
conventions of the horror genre such as darkness and
supernatural monsters. In some aspects it goes against the
typical conventions of a horror genre. Firstly there is not fast
paced action towards the end of the trailer there are no quick
snippets of the horror that happens throughout the film. The
Proairetic Code is not very prominent within the trailer as it does
not necessarily make the audience keep guessing or waiting for
the next piece of action. Furthermore this trailer does not follow
Aristole’s linear narrative theory but possibly a circular narrative
as the sequels of the films work backwards.