The trailer introduces a young American couple who have moved into a new house, setting up the main characters and location. It builds tension through fast cuts and spooky music, focusing on a creepy doll that seems to be the source of danger. Interspersed with these scary scenes are brief happy shots that are abruptly cut off. This contrast heightens the fear. The trailer leaves many questions unanswered to encourage viewers to see the film, targeting a 15-25 age audience with its family-focused yet frightening plot.

1. Trailer Analysis
Annabelle

2. Annabelle
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paFgQNP
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The trailer opens by
introducing the setting of the
film with the use of a long
shot. As it’s night time it
instantly gives it a spooky
feel.

3. It then has a close up of
two characters, this is
telling the audience they
are going to features a lot in
the film (main characters).
Quite early on in the trailer there’s a
lot of fast cuts with bright lights,
building up tension for the audience
also causing the to be slightly
scared of what’s happening.

4. There’s a zoom into the doll that’s
on the film poster, catching the
audiences attention to the doll that
they’ve probably seen on the
poster already.
Like the other two trailers, the
audience are told the producer
of the film, in a black out. This
allows the trailer to flow better.

5. A wide shot is used to make the viewer
think they are suppose to look at the
lady but there attention gets draw to the
women walking in the corner. The
audience is now questioning where the
women has come from and who she is.
The audience was shown a few
close ups of the character using
the sewing machine, making them
wonder if something is about to
happen. Building up more tension.
There is then a close up
showing that the characters
finger started to bleed from the
sewing machine.

6. There’s then some happy,
pleasant shots broken up by
black outs, which is the complete
opposite to the fast paced cuts
we saw at the beginning.
The shot is quite bright and
colourful unlike any of the
other shots before in the
trailer.

7. • Towards the end of the trailer there are more fast cuts,
this is like the other two trailer. While the audience sees
the fast cutting the music is also building up tension as it
gets faster and faster, this is something horror trailers do
a lot to make the scenes more scary.
• The trailer includes dialogue and also dramatic non-
diagetic sounds when something happens. Towards the
end the music sounds like a jewellery box, however it
sounds spooky.

8. How is the narrative
portrayed in the trailer?
• The opening clip of the trailer is a small house, this is introducing the setting to the
audience. You then see a young couple in bed, this could suggest they are married
as they live together.
• You then see the outside of the house again but the shot is taken from across the
street so you can see the surroundings. It looks like a stereotypical American street in
films. You hear the women talk, she has an American accent, which tells the audience
the story is most likely set in America.
• You see the couple with boxes, suggesting they’ve moved house maybe because
they’re starting a family.
• The trailer doesn’t give much away about the time the film is set, but from the
furnishings of the house it could be early 2000s.
• Towards the end of the trailer there are lots of fast paced cuts, showing the audience
a lot of parts from the film. This is making the want to see more of what happens,
which may make them want to see it at the cinema.

9. Target audience
• Annabelle is a certificate 15 which means it’s targeted at
15 years and over. From the trailer I don’t think the target
audience would be anything over 23. Most certificate 15
horror films have quite a similar storyline which may not
interest the older generation. Even though the characters
are normally a similar age to the target audience i think
horror films base it around a family when it rated 15
because it’s not as gory or as frightening as 18s, so the
family based storyline portrays this.

10. Who does the trailer
represent?
• The trailer introduces the audience to a young American
couple. In the trailer they are shown moving into a new
house, this could suggest they are a working/middle
class couple in their late 20s.
• The trailer also shows a Vicar, they are seen as quite
professional, middle class people. But they can also be a
sign of death. Which could mean there’s been a death
earlier on, or one happens in the film.