The document provides analysis of scenes and techniques used in the horror film trailer "The Strangers". It summarizes that the trailer uses several conventions of horror films to build tension and scare the audience. These include mysterious noises that threaten the protagonists, sinister figures lurking outside their home, and quick cuts in the last half of the trailer that hint at violence without showing it. The analysis also discusses how the trailer employs stereotypes like helpless female characters and dominant male antagonists to unsettle viewers.

1. The Strangers

2. There is a medium close-up shot of the
two main character as they are dancing
with each other, a bang is heard and
then the medium close-up shows the
two as they turn around to see to see
where the bang came from. They both
look scared as they can’t see what just
made the massive bang. The man looks
more annoyed with whatever it was as
it ruined a special moment between
him and his future wife. This shot then
cuts to a shot of the window, this is
where the suspected noise came from.
The curtains to the window is closed,
this makes the shot scarier as the
neither the character or audience know
what made the bang noise.
The is a medium shot of the swing
outside of the house. The swing is
seen to be moving by itself. This is
connoted as being scary because it’s
moving furiously to furiously for it to
be the wind blowing it, this means
that someone was outside either
pushing he swing or on the swing. This
is a convention of a paranormal horror
film, as this normally happens if a
child's spirit is haunting a house. As no
one is seen on the swing, the couple
could think that it is a spirit.
There is a long shot of the
girlfriend in the kitchen. The
women is literally just standing,
and swinging her arms. During
this shot, one of the antagonists
comes out behind the women
from a different room in the
house. This connotes that people
can get into house very easily
without being noticed.
The lighting in this shot is high-
key towards the front of the shot
but low-key towards the back of
the room. The high-key lighting
just suggests that the one
standing in it is the protagonist
and the one standing in the low-
key lighting is the antagonist.
Camerawork
This is a point of view shot
from the male protagonist in
the film. The man has just
gotten out of his car and start
to look around. The location
he is in is surrounded by trees,
this is conventional of a horror
film as they give the
antagonists more place to stay
hidden so that the
protagonists cannot see them.
The shot has very low-key
lighting which is again very
conventional of horror films,
for the same reasons, now the
antagonists can use the
shadows to stay hidden.

3. Editing
A convention to a horror film trailer is that the last 40 seconds of it is quick duration shots with very quick cuts.
This montage of shots is generally action of the antagonists getting violent with the protagonists, or showing the
weapons that they are using. The trailer then slows down and ends with the conventional part of the film where
the antagonist either scares are finds the protagonists
The establishing shot to this film is of an old, American bungalow, this bungalow has a group of trees in front of it.
This is conventional to a horror film at it seems to be set in an old, poor village. The house seems to be very
poorly lit which is also a connotation of horror film as a lot of a horror films are seen to be set in dark
surroundings. The trees in the front yard give the antagonists places to hide so that the protagonist cannot see
them.
The cuts of the trailer start in increase in pace straight after the antagonist is introduced, the cuts being the
heartbeat of the protagonists because they are fast and constant.
Binary Opposites
A conventional binary opposite found in many horror films is good vs evil. This is again seen in ‘The Strangers’ as the couple are fighting for their lives as they
are being stalked and attacked by the characters in masks. Another opposite which is seen is Freedom vs captivity, this is seen because the couple are fighting
for there freedom over the antagonists who are seen to have them in their grasp.

4. Mise-en-scene
Props Lighting
Costume/make-up
Staging and performance.
This is a screenshot of the door
as the knock is heard by the
protagonists of the film. The
door is only being lit up by one
light by the door. The light is just
used as a prop in the film so that
the couple can see in their
house. Around the door there
seems to be a lot of shadows
which connote that dark, sinister
things are behind the door or
could be inside the house.
Like in many of horror films the
antagonists of the film seems to be
wearing masks through-out the
majority of the film. The masks are
used to hide the identity of the
antagonists so that the antagonist
don’t know who is attacking them.
Not knowing who the antagonist is
makes the film a lot more scary than
if the antagonists where known at
the start of the film. The mask that
the male antagonist is wearing seems
to be a tweed sack, this makes him
look like a scarecrow, and a
scarecrows job is to scare things.
One of the many props used is a
wedding ring box. The connotes that
the man is going to propose to his
girlfriend, this signifies his love for
her and the fact that he wants to
spend his life with her.
Another prop that is used in the film
a lot is a record player. This suggests
that this film was set before CD
players and MP3 players.
The props which are used is this film
to create violence are knives and an
axe. Knives are conventional to
horror films as they are easy to get
hold of and do a lot of damage.
Knives can be found in pretty much
any house in the whole world.
The male antagonist wearing the
tweed mask seems to allow be in
the middle of the antagonist. This
connotes that he is the main
antagonist out of the three and is
the one that leads the two
women to do what he wants to
do. Facial expressions cannot
been seen by the antagonists,
however the male has a grin
drawn onto his mask, making him
look harmless but very creepy.
The two female antagonists are
wearing masks which have blank
expressions on, the connotes that
they don’t feel anything when
they are going round stalking and
killing people. The blank
expression could suggest that the
two females have been
hypnotised by the male
antagonist, who is making them
do all of these terrible things.

5. Theory’s Representation
Propps:
The heroes in the film are seen as the couple who appear to be being stalked
by some people. This is seen as they are trying to save themselves after being
attacked by the group.
The villains of the film are the people stalking the couple in the house, this is
because they look like they are just following the couple and are also seen
attacking them as well.
The dispatcher in this film are the villains, this is because they are making the
heroes fight for there lives.
The princess is the women of the couple, this is because she looks to be
weaker than the man and not able to defend herself from the villains.
The helper in this film is both of the protagonists this is because they are
helping each other to save themselves. The need to work together in order to
survive.
In this film trailer, I can’t identify who the donor, princesses father or the false
hero is. This is because not enough information is given to me to identify the
roles.
Todorov:
The equilibrium of the film is when the house is seen for the first time, this
establishes the setting for the film. The next part is when the couple are met
for the first time, they can be seen as the main characters because they have a
lot of screen time. The setting will make the audience feel safe, as people
believe that they should be safe inside their own house.
The disruption in the film is when there is a knock at the door, this spooks the
main characters, however they don’t think anything of it.
The recognition for the disruption is when they go into there house and the
lights are in and the record player is on.
There is no attempt to repair in the trailer to the film as they don’t wants to
give two much information away to the audience.
The women in the film appears to be behind the man in a lot of the film,
especially when they are walking through the house after just hearing a
noise, this connotes that the women is a lot weaker than the man and
needs him to protect her. As the man is in front he actually could be seen
as domineering as he may believe his is more powerful than her and
therefore should, stereotypically has a duty to protect her
Another stereotype in the film is that it is set at night time, this is
conventional to horror films as it makes the film scarier as normally people
are sleeping during the night time, which means that no one can hear if
something happens.
Another stereotype seen in this film trailer is that men are seen as
dominant over women. This is actually seen when the antagonists are
standing in front of the sofa which has what I assume is the protagonists
sitting on. In this shot the male antagonist is actually standing in-between
the two women antagonists connoting him as the dominant one in the
group.

6. Sound
The first sound heard in this trailer is the non-diegetic sound of a piano playing just high notes. As the notes are in a high key it suggests happiness within the couple. The notes are played an
equal duration away from each other however as it gets further into the trailer, the notes because more frequent, until there is a bang at the window at which the high notes stop playing
altogether.
The next sound that stands out is an emphasised sound of a squeaking swing, this has been emphasised as it would make anyone go to the window to see what the noise is. In this case it makes
the woman of the couple look out the window to see the swing moving yet no-one on it, which is used to spook the audience. The sound of the swing carries on for a long period of time, even
past when the swing can actually be seen. This is used to show strange goings on around the house.
There is an atmospheric bang sound when the antagonists are met for the first time. This is used to signify a specific time in the film, in this instance it’s the first time that the protagonists are
seeing the antagonists stalking them.
Nearing the end of the trailer there is an emphasised bang when (what I assume is thee antagonists) swings an axe through the door of the house and it hits the cabinet which has been placed in
front of the door.
One of the last stand out sounds is the record player song, which appears to keep on repeat the same phrase over and over again, each time the wait in between getting smaller.
Audience Theory
This film looks average compared to other and I think that it would achieve a niche audience, only reaching out to certain people who likes horror films. As a
horror film, it has a lot of the general conventions i.e. Blood, violence, Stalking, Creepiness and screams, but I still think that only a niche audience would view
this film as unlike ‘The Purge’ and ‘You’re Next’ the action seen in the trailer is limited and could be seen as quite tame.
I feel that all horror films are targeted towards the same audience.
Using the ITV sales demographics I believe that the main target audience for this film would be anyone in the categories; A3, ME an CH. I think that adults
would watch this film firstly because horror films are suppose to be for them, but I believe there is an age limit for adults watching horror films (16-34). I also
chose men because men are suppose to be seen as fearless and will sometime watch these types of films when they are on their own. Lastly I chose children,
this was hard to say as I don’t know what age group the category ‘Children’ runs to. If it runs to teenagers, then this film is also targeted towards them as
teenagers always try to watch the scariest movie that they can when they are young, normally because makes them look good in front of their friends.
Using psychographic and the socio-economic groups to find a target audience I think that the main categories to watch this film would be; C2, D and E. I have
selected the unemployed because they will have more time to watch films and casual workers because when they get home from work, they feel they need to
relax in front of the television. The other two categories that I chose were Unskilled manual workers and skilled manual workers. This is because there income
won’t be that high to find them uninteresting and they will also still have a lot of time left in the day to sit down, relax and watch a good film.