The trailer summarizes the plot of the fourth installment in the Scream franchise. It begins with the villain Ghostface contacting Sidney Prescott by phone and hinting at the new threats she will face. The trailer then shows how the rules have changed from previous films and introduces several characters through brief profiles. Details of the killings are explained throughout, and the pace increases during action scenes. Like other horror trailers, it utilizes close-ups, mid-shots, and establishing shots along with a varying soundtrack and one-liners at the end to build suspense and interest in the film.

2. Trailer Conventions The trailer is linear in terms of its relation to the narrative. It starts with the main character, Sidney Prescott, is told by Ghostface on the phone. His dialogue tells the audience the main character and a basic and guessable story line. “Welcome home, Sidney . . . You’re a survivor; aren’t you, Sidney? . . . What good is it to be a survivor when everybody close to you is dead?” It then begins to show the progression of the story from the previous three films, such as one character saying “there are still rules but the rules have changed.” This shows the audience that there is a new twist to the popular franchise. Apart from the character of Sidney, characters are shown through the use of fade in and fade out of their profile but not introduced; this is because there is a large cast.

3. Trailer Conventions In the middle of the trailer, the main details of the film are explained in detail; with two characters telling others the development in the story over shots of the killings. This is continued throughout the trailer and is a traditional editing technique used in the trailers for horror movies, like Insidious. The music in the trailer is very modern and unlike stereotypical horrors, which usually have slow, deep or fast and high pitch music. However, similarly to other horrors, the music is loud and then stops in between cuts.

4. Trailer Conventions The pace of the trailer varies; the beginning is slow when the plot is being explained but speeds up in the middle when the various characters are attacked or taken by surprise. Like in most trailers, the use of one liners is used at the end, when one female character answers the phone to “I hear you like horror movies” before handing the phone to her friend and saying “it’s for you.” The camera angles vary from close-ups for emotion and introduction of the characters, a common trait in horror trailers, mid-shots for the action sequences and then establishing shots to show the main locations.

5. Details Conveyed to the Audience The audience is made aware of the films title at the end of the trailer as well as release dates. For promotional reasons, the studio of the film is featured at the front; this could trigger the audience to relate it to the three previous Scream films. There is also a stylisation of the film, including the ‘A’ in scream being turned into a ‘4’ which allows the continuation of the series.

6. USP and intendedaudience Unique selling points of this film is the story, which was hugely popular when the trilogy was first released in 1996; which is the highest grossing slasher film in the U.S. This is relayed to the audience via inter-titles. Another selling point is the creator Wes Craven. The inter-titles stylise him as a master of creating horror films and can attract the audience. The trailer is skewed towards the teenage audience mainly because of the cast which are shown to be in their high school years. Some shots are in teenager’s homes, maybe at sleepovers, which is a popular place to watch horror movies.