INITIAL RESEARCH
In this page I will be taking specific scenes and concepts from other horror movies that I enjoyed and liked. Also I will start looking at the concepts of horror trailers and how and why they are effective.
WOMAN IN BLACK.
Woman In Black is a film by Momemtum Pictures and Hammer Productions. The trailer is one of the most viewed on YouTube therefore showing it is well known and popular. The film is set between 1916-1917 and is about a haunted town. The town has been put under the curse by the woman in black and whenever she is seen a child dies. The well known Daniel Radcliffe plays an estate agent trying to sell the haunted mansion of Ell Marsh House where the woman in black lives.
The trailer is effective as it has in total three jump scares. They all have their own build up, due to effective transitions of both dip to blacks and also quickly timed cuts. The main jump scare is when Arthur Kipps (Daniel) places his hand on a hand print on the window and the woman's face suddenly appears. This is due to the long take of the shot compared to others in the trailer.
The music is highly powerful and plays a key role in producing the atmosphere of the trailer. Not only is the music off putting due to the constant drones and footsteps played in the background but all of the screams are advanced, therefore, sound louder and slightly paranormal.
The conventions that I have taken from this trailer is that there is a general timeline. The jump scare comes at the end of the video along with starting the movie with a calm setting and then gets more disturbing as the trailer progresses. Also the music will always stop before there is a jump scare to create the suspense.
INSIDIOUS.
Insidious is produced by Film District and is again very popular when it comes to views on YouTube. With 15,650,195 views it comes as a very popular and interesting film and trailer. The film is about a concept that you can leave your human body into 'The Further' and explore a demon world. This happens to his son, however he gets trapped and a demon tries to take over his body to enter the world of the living.
There are several effects in this trailer that I like, the first being the constant ticking of the metronome playing all the way throughtout the trailer. This ticking sets the viewer on edge and creates a theme of suspense throughout.
There is not so much jump scares in this trailer, however, there is the main jump at the end. There is a pattern I have seen when watching these trailers in that the jump scare comes right at the end when the viewer thinks the trailer is ending. This jump scare only takes three frames of a woman flying towards the camera but the main element is the music playing while she does this. The trill of strings as the frames play make the scene more scary and as it is silent before it is very unexpected.
The cast for this movie is very effective as they all look like they could be in the roles of the script. In this film the demons are physical beings, however, in others they are intangable ideas that possess people and haunt their lives.
JESSABELLE
Jessabelle is produced by Lionsgate and BH productions and is a film about a recently disabled girl has to go live with her father after she is left paralysed due to a car accident which killed her boyfriend. Once she arrives at her dad's place she finds videos of her mother. These videos are for Jessabelle when she had died.
The music used in the trailer is effective due to there always being a constain drone or trill going on causing the viewer to be placed on edge.
There are only a few special effects used in this trailer, one being where there is the car crash with an approaching vehicle , another being the effect on the mothers face when she looks into the camera
One idea that I liked a great deal from this trailer is the idea of having complete darkness and the main character only having a match box to light the main characters vision. This creates the feeling that there is something outside of the light the match makes, and something in the shadows.
Finally, I think that Jessabelle looks alright, however, if there had been more special effects used to make it more paranormal it would be much more effective.
THE POSSESSION
This trailer was very interesting as this is the genre that I want to be close to, with a girl becoming possesed by a demon and it causes not only psychological changes but also physological. She becomes possessed by a demon that is trapped in a box, which she releases. This film was produced by Lionsgate and also Ghosthouse productions.
Weird things start to happen to her after she becomes more and more possessed. She stabs her father with a fork along with other strange acts. This trailer is effective as there is a huge range of shots used along with different types of transitions including dissolves, dip to blacks and cuts. These along with the fast paced editing this causes transitions to be very close to each other creating the tension to build.
I like the effects used on the face along with the fingers coming up out of her throat. These are all scary with one effect being repeated which is the colour of the eyes turning black. This is repeated in the trailer below and also to see my own take on the effect visit my skills development page.
The trailer is based in modern day times on a true story. I think that when a trailer says its based on a true story it makes the viewer more scared as it breaches the space between what could be real and what is fiction. Finally the effect of the hand coming out of the mouth and grabbing the face is one that is extremely scary and I would love to be able to replicate it if my story fits. This effect makes people seem as if there is something inside of them that may be paranormal. This is a very off putting paranormal feeling.
GRACE THE POSSESSION
Grace the Possession is a horror movie that is filmed differently to all others. It is filmed through the eyes of the possessed and how she changes and becomes a demon. This is different and I like how the camera angles are interesting and the movement is all POV shots so therefore it is much more jagged and chaotic.
The film produced by the same company that produced Incidious and features different types of effects. The effect of shatterise is used in the trailer as there is loads of shattered glass which is put in during post production. However, seeing the effect of the black eyes again has made me realise that it is an essential for when I am making my own.
Even though it is meant to be more scary due to the POV shots I believe that just the constant nature of the camera angles and motion the scare factor becomes lost as it is not something jumping out on you, it is you jumping out on someone. This for me ruins the trailer and has made me realise that POV shots are effective, however, they are only effective when used coming up to a jump scare, not the actual jump scare itself.
Finally the trailer has good editing due to the text and sound working well together. When there is a fixed text that is flickering there is also the eerie sound of strings in the background so the viewer reads them whilst being put off by the music. All in all the idea of a POV film is good, however, a horror film with POV loses something along the way.
THE POSSESSION OF MICHAEL KING
This film combines an interesting array of camera angles and shots making the audience seem more involved with the action, as the main character is using the camera and creating a film or blog himself. This means that the shots seem more personal and as if he is talking to the audience directly.
Anchor Bay and Gold Circle, the producers for this film used impressive visual effects as plenty of static sounds are made when he is using the camera and when he screams you can see the visual effect of the static. This is an interesting effect and will be one that I will be wanting to replicate.
The text effects are also interesting as they have flickers as well as a strange veiny appearance to them. This is another effect in which I would like to replicate, as I like the floating text along with the other effects. However, I would have changed the ending and have them bleed into the background to a fade.
The blackening of the eyes is shown in this one as well showing itself to be a prominate feature in all horror films. This shows a paranormal activity which as eyes are the entrance to the soul, it symbolises the corruption of the soul.
Finally I like the use of watching the ceremony in which he is possessed. This is another feature that I will be taking away from this film and trying to include into my trailer.