The trailer effectively builds tension and atmosphere for a horror film using sound, cinematography, and mise-en-scene. It follows a family that moves into a new home in the 1970s. Strange events begin to occur, with unexplained noises and things moving on their own, terrifying the mother. The trailer leaves the viewer wondering what supernatural force is haunting the family through the use of silence, ambient sounds, and mysterious visuals without revealing too much of the plot.

2. The film certificate is a 15 which I think is appropriate for
the film as it does contain some very frightening things.
Even adults were scared / spooked by this film.The
target audience I think are 15-21 year olds as these
people are the people who go to the cinema often and
speaking for myself as a 17 year old student I use my
student discount to watch films as do a lot of my friends.
The trailer appeals to the target audience because it
contains an element of mystery as to what this thing is.
And the whole true story element is very intriguing to
anyone who watches the trailer.

3. The trailer has just 53 cuts over 2:34 minutes,
which is considerably less than other horror
movies. Even though this trailer seems to have a
decreased pace, this may be due to the fact that
this trailer is for a horror film, and not an action
film.The tension is built up by the suspense of
longer cuts, rather than the build up of many
quicker cuts, also no CGI has been used here.This
may be due to the fact that it has a lower budget,
or simply because it was not needed for the
completion of the trailer.

4. The trailer is divided up into three acts, the
first act ends at 0:33 when the wardrobe
door opens.This is when the whole feel of
the trailer changes – the music stops, and
an eerie silence takes its place.We see the
first glimpse of the thing of the that is
haunting the family.Act two begins here,
but ends at 1:25, just after we see the
picture frames come crashing down.
Intertitles come in here, and unnatural
music is played.The last act begins from
here, and shows the haunting developing
and becoming more serious. Near the end
of the third act, we see the woman
become engulfed in darkness and we hear
her scream.This would leave the audience
curious as to what happened to her, which
would entice them to go see the film.

5. The sound in this trailer is effective in creating the right mood and atmosphere for an
advertisement within the horror genre. At the start of this trailer, we first hear the door
opening and the shouting of the whole family as they come through the door, as the
children shout things over each other such as “I get my own room!” and “I call dibs on the
room!”.This creates a family feel to this part, as the sound is just simply the typical noises
of a family moving into a new home. Straight after this, a song kicks in with the visual
indent – the song ‘Time of the Season’ byThe Zombies.This song is from the album
‘Odessey and Oracle’ which was released in 1968. Due to the fact that this film is set in
1971, this sets the scene well for the turning of the decade and you really get the feel of
the era just by hearing this song. Also the fact that it is by a band called ‘The Zombies’
would be appropriate for a horror film, but would obviously only be relevant for those in
the audience who actually know this.

6. The woman plays the game and enters a room,
but as she turns her back, a wardrobe at the back
of the room opens. It opens with a loud creak,
and the music suddenly stops – a sinister silence
follows.This silence creates a very uneasy feel to
the trailer, and would indicate to the audience
that something is not quite right.The woman
hears the creak, and says “Clap!” again, which is
returned by an unusually slow clap, again,
creating an uneasy edge. As she walks forward to
try and find the source of the clap, which is the
aim of the game, she says playfully “I’m gonna
get you now… I can hear you breathing”. We can
hear this breathing, however, it is not coming
from the child as she thinks it is. As an audience,
we know this, and tension is built as we
anticipate the woman finding a supernatural
creature instead of her daughter.

7. We hear the girl laugh from another room, and her come in and say “you took your
blindfold off! I win! I was in Christine and Nancy’s room”.This causes the woman to
look curiously into the wardrobe. We hear the hangers part, but no one is found
behind them.The audience heard the clap come from inside the wardrobe, and
heard the breathing, and the fact that nothing is found in here creates tension.
After this, strange quiet background music is played, and as the woman is folding
clothes, we hear the laugh of a child, and footsteps coming from the corridor. It is a
night time scene, and the woman responds to this by saying “Girls, it’s way past your
bedtime…” as she goes to investigate the noise. A long pause of silence follows this
as she looks in the rooms to find everyone asleep. Suddenly, there is a huge crash,
which could give the audience a fright, and as the crashing continues, we hear a
child’s laugh again.This has a disturbing feel to it, as it seems as though whatever is
laughing is enjoying the destruction it is causing.

8. The woman goes downstairs to investigate
further, and straight after she shouts “Who is
that?” we hear the unmistakable noise of a
door slowly opening, and a non diegetic
clapping noise.The girls are in bed, so this
could be considered quite creepy – who is in
the basement playing the game and
tormenting the woman? Suspense is created
here as she goes through the cellar door, and
turns on the light switch, and peers down into
the darkness. She attempts to threaten
whatever is down there by saying “Whoever’s
down there I’m gonna lock you in now!”
however, as she turns to exit, the door slams
shut in her face, and the light bulb blows with a
fizzing noise.This could again, give a fright to
the audience, who may not have been
expecting this loud noise.

9. Now in complete darkness, we hear the woman scramble about, banging on
the door and crying for help.This may create sympathy for this character
among the audience, as we realise how helpless she is here. We hear a
match being struck, and we see the flame.There is silence again, apart from
the heavy breathing of the woman., which is a clear indication of her fear.
We hear a clap once more and the math goes out.The woman screams,
which is a typical sound effect for a horror film, and defines the whole genre.
As the screen stays on black, a music box tune plays out, which brings an
ominous feeling, mixed with a childlike innocence.There is something very
threatening about this, which would cause the viewer to feel very uneasy.

10. The Mise en scene throughout this trailer also gives it a
creepy edge. Starting at the beginning again, we see the
larger family spill through the front door, all dressed in what
look like clothes from the 70s; the colour of these clothes,
which seems to be hues of yellows, browns and oranges are
all warm (and typical popular colours of the decade), which
have connotations of warmth, and happiness.This would
suggest that this family are happy.

11. Even the house itself, although it looks slightly worn and there are several dust
covers around, the warm brown colours of the wood keep the house looking like a
nice place to live. When we see the woman wander into the bedroom with the
blindfold on, the room has several posters on the wall, with pinks and blues, and the
rug is in similar shades, indicating that this is a child’s room. It looks like a nice
spacious room, but behind the woman, we see an object which contrasts with all
other objects there – a huge, dark wardrobe.The wood it is made of is almost black,
and its large size creates a menacing feeling.This is made clear as soon as the doors
slowly open. Inside , there are just clothes, again, in nice, bright colours, yet as soon
as the woman says “Clap”, we see long, pale arms reach out from behind them.They
look sickly pale, and this is a clear indication that they are not normal, something is
wrong with the scene. Even the blindfold that is tied over the woman’s eyes is a
bright red colour. Red has connotations of danger, and even blood, which could
signify that something is very dangerous about that pair of hands that she is walking
towards.

12. We see an establishing shot of the house at 1:03. it is the first time the audience are
given a view of the whole building, with just a single white porch light glowing
outside. Even the trees seem to frame the house with their branches, and the slow
zoom into the house ensure to the audience that this is the centre of all events
within the trailer.
The camera flicks inside of the house, the woman standing at the side of her bed
folding clothes. She is dressed in a white night dress.The white colouring has
connotations of innocence – the character herself is innocent, but we can tell by the
strange silence, and soon by the child’s laughter that this innocence is going to be
taken advantage of.After she checks on her daughters, the loud crashing is heard,
and the camera reveals to us that the picture frames have been torn down, by what
seems to be an invisible force. Clearly, this shows us that something is working
against the family, and the peeling of the wallpaper we can see shows us how old
this building really is.

13. The woman goes downstairs to try and
find the intruder, and when the door is
opened, she peers inside into the
darkness. Darkness is a common
feature in almost all horror films, and
here it gives us a very uneasy feeling as
viewers – is something down there in
the darkness?
She turns on the light and peers down,
and the white light of the cellar gives
the room a monochrome look.This has
connotations of the past, a different
decade or even a different century,
which may give the audience a clue
that whatever is causing the strange
happenings could be supernatural,
from the past to haunt the family.

14. The woman is locking in there, and we see the screen go
dark again. We don’t know what is happening to the
woman in the dark, which again, makes the audience
feel slightly frightened for the character – the darkness
is hiding something which is not friendly. She strikes a
match, and unusually, it does not cast a warm glow as
matches usually do.The light is whiter and harsher,
highlighting the woman’s expression of fear to the
audience. From the darkness behind her, we see a
familiar pair of pale hands reach out and clap next to the
woman’s face.This is done quite quickly, which again
might make the audience jump with fright, due to it
being so unexpected.

15. After the doors of the wardrobe open,
the screen fades to black, before a
hand held, tracking mid close up shot
of the woman is filmed from in front
of her.We cannot see what she is
walking towards, and this, coupled
with the shaky camera movements
may give an unnerving feeling to the
audience. After this, a close up of her
face is seen, as she realises that her
daughter is not where she thinks she
is - we see her face drop, and her
expressions change very quickly from
joy, to confusion and fear.
The editing and cinematography within it also helps to create an apprehensive
ambience for viewers.The use of mid shots and soft lighting within the first act of
the trailer allows it to follow the characters through their normal business, whether it
was first entering their new home or playing games. A tracking shot is also used to
follow the woman as se goes on the hunt to find her daughters in the game, but by
the beginning of the second act, we see everything change slightly.

16. Another long cut of 10 seconds follows these
short cuts, where the woman turns to see the
door opening. Again, this scene would not have
been as effective if there had been a cut in
between – the camera does an unnatural 180
degree spin, which is not a common shot on a
trailer, and the fear in the woman’s face is made
clearly visible in this turn.

17. As she goes into the cellar, we see a very harsh cantered, low angled shot,
showing the woman turn on the light at the top of the stairs. Cantered
angles are used to let the audience know that something is not normal about
the events to follow, and this is certainly true and relevant in this trailer – the
woman is locked in, and the light bulb blows, plunging her into darkness.
There is a long pause as she screams for help in the dark, and 8 seconds
follow where nothing is on the screen at all.When she strikes the match, we
see a mid shot of her kneeling on the floor - a low angle, as if we as viewers
are looking up the stairs at her. An over the shoulder shot follows, as we see
her view of the dark stair case, the light from the match casts a glow around
her, which could have connotations that she is the only ting that is good and
innocent in this cellar.

18. A mid close up of the woman is
shown as she holds the candle,
and after 3 seconds, a pair of
hands clap very loudly over her
left (right to view) shoulder.
With her breath, the match is
blown out, and 4 seconds of
darkness is shown again, with
the echo of her scream
resonating. Her scream in the
darkness would leave a lasting
impression on the viewer, and
straight after this, we hear the
music box music, as the title is
shown on screen.

19. Overall, I think that this trailer is very effective. I thin that the use of
cinematography, sound and mise en scene was very good in ensuring that
the viewer knew exactly what era it was set in, and excellent in creating a
frightening atmosphere.Although the trailer was 2:34 minutes long and
showed a lot of footage, it did not give too much away – a sense of mystery
is definitely left at the end, as we are left enough to know that the family are
being haunted, but we are left wondering what exactly is haunting them,
and why they chose this house and this family.Through the use of silence
and small ambient sounds like the door creaking and children’s laughter, it
helped to make a chilling trailer without using gore or anything too graphic.
There are several other trailers for this film which fill in a lot more detail,
such as the introduction of theWarren’s, however, I think this trailer was the
most effective in leaving a lasting impression in the viewer’s mind. I actually
sat and watched this film, so the trailer did exactly as it was supposed to in
enticing me to go and watch the film and leave me in suspense to find out
more.