I have decided to analyse this trailer because it is a good example of how the narrative twists and turns keeping the audience on edge at all times due to the complex narrative.
At the beginning of this trailer it seems like a happy normal family accepting a new member into their family, the ‘Stepfather’. However as the plot thickens, it turns out that he is a murder on the ‘most wanted’ list. There are hints about this characters evilness as we see clips of him turning angry and aggressive towards his family. His Stepson discovers this and tries to solve the mystery, landing him and his family in grave danger.
To portray this happy normality in which this family is living, the trailer starts with a nice soundtrack playing which is ‘Drive’, by The Cars. It creates a relaxing and mellow feeling. There is diagetic sound of the dialogue talking over the top. We immediately meet two characters who pull up to their house and unpack their belongings from the car. They are talking about the boy’s, (Michael’s) Mum not picking him up from the airport, showing that he has been absent for a long time and that he wanted to see her. The location is very familiar to the audience and this creates nostalgia. There is a welcome home party which shows the happiness of his return, and we also meet more of the characters. Michael hugs this family and then his Mum introduces him to her new boyfriend. They shake hands showing Michael’s acceptance of him. However, this man keeps going on and on about how important family is and how great it is to be complete, now that Michael is back.
We can then see his annoyance of this, as his attitude towards him begins to change. There is a series of clips of the ‘Stepdad’ with the kids in the family, as he tries to bond with them, being part of the family, and the ‘dad’ figure. There is a clip of him having a drink with Michael as they toast ‘we’re going to put this family back together, you and me, father and son’. The soundtrack abruptly stops to match Michael’s reaction as he is taken aback, and corrects him saying ‘Stepfather’. The man pulls a funny face expression, as if he doesn’t like this much, but accepts it.
There is the sound of a dead phone along with a fade to black to lead into the next clip as Michael then asks his brother and sister whether they like him, as they reply “he’s nice, yeh, he takes us to the movies and stuff”. There is then a clip of the stepdad playing video games having a good time with the kids. A fade to black, then the next clip is of Michael talking to his real dad, with an intense conversation of his dad saying “mum said you don’t want to see me.” Michael’s frustrated reply is “you know dad I’m not the one who left.” This shows that he isn’t happy with his dad for leaving his mum.
There is another fade to black, and then clips of Michael swimming in the pool, with his girlfriend, talking about his future stepdad. It then cuts to them all around the dinner table, with a girl starting a sinister conversation, about a woman who drove of a bridge with her children in the car, to which the stepfather replies “maybe they disappointed her.” This shows that he has no sympathy, and suggests he would do the same if anyone disappointed him. A close up of Michael’s face shows he didn’t find this remark very amusing. A door bell sound, and the camera cuts to a high angle shot of an elderly neighbour at the door, talking to his mother about the most wanted picture, having a resemblance to her boyfriend. There is a low angel of Michael overhearing this from the landing upstairs. The music turns into a very thin, high pitched dinging sound, which creates a eerie atmosphere as the events start turning from a happy family into a horror film. As she tells him the story about the neighbour’s seeing this picture, she is laughing about it, showing that she doesn’t believe it, and he laughs as well saying “well, I guess I’m a hit with the neighbours” as he leans in to kiss her. Michael’s face looks very serious, as he researches the most wanted on the internet to look at these drawings. The music turns into a crescendo, increasing the dramatic tension, making the audience very tense. There is a close up of the internet search website, showing the audience the picture and the article that coincides with the picture, which says ‘Missing Stepfather Sought in Family Slaying.’ This is very alarming as this potential murderer is joining this family, becoming their stepfather. There is then a very fast paced edited section of flashbacks, so quick, that the audience only catches glimpses of this man’s past, at a murder scene, with another drawing of him. There is a fade to black of Michael presenting his information to his girlfriend, who doesn’t believe him, and is just interested in relaxing by the pool, in the sunshine.
The music speeds up its pace to build even more tension, as the girl says to Michael “didn’t you close your door?” A bang sound and he turns around only to find the man right behind him, showing his creepy persona, just as the girl screams from fright. There are then more clips of Michael antagonising the man, with many different quick shots. There is then a long shot of police cars across the road, with diagetic sound of their sirens, as the family asks what is going on, the stepdad replies “the old woman across the street, she fell down her stairs and broke her neck.” This seems very suspicious, as he knows exactly what happened to this old lady, and it is the same woman who had guessed that he was a most wanted murderer. It cuts to a very worried Michael, standing on the stairs as he puts two and two together.
The next clip is of the mother yelling at her son, John, to turn his video games volume down. With dramatic music, the stepdad grabs John by the neck grabbing his controller, very aggressively, repeating “your mother said turn it down.” This music emphasised the action happening with strong beats on the scary action, as it diminuendos (gets quieter) away before the next dramatic shot. After another fade to black, there is a flashback of home footage of a man walking out of a church, with a child in his arms, waving at the camera. The lighting of this is bright highlighting the importance of this footage, as the outside of this clip is black. The music changes into church like choir music with the sound of a projector running in the background. There is a small caption saying ‘This fall’ in capital letter. This tells the audience when the film is being released. It cuts to the mother saying “have a great day”, as the man walks away not acknowledging this at all, his face very serious and focused, looking intent on revenge.
The real dad then threatens the stepdad saying “don’t you ever lay your hands on my kids again.” The stepdad simply replies, “I was just trying to teach him a little discipline.” It shows the real dad really fired up with Michael holding him back as she yells “what do you really know about this guy, huh?” It cuts to a medium shot of a locked cabinet down in the basement, as Michael is curious about what is in them. He says “he’s hiding something” and his girlfriend replies “that doesn’t means he’s a killer. Another flashback clip, of more home footage of a man with a child at the beach, in the sea, with the caption ‘do you know’. This is a rhetorical question addressing the audience, to engage them into this film, and puts them into the same situation as these characters. The same music repeats, creating a sound motif for these flashback clips, which makes the audience very uncomfortable, as it doesn’t fit the mood of the scenes happening, (leitmotif). There is a flash of lightning, as it turns very dark, and Michael says “I’m going to find out what is in those storage cabinets.” There is a clip of him down in the basement with a flashlight going to investigate the mystery of what is in the cabinets. There is another flash to the home footage, with the caption continuing on from the last, ‘who your family is?’ There is then short, quick edited clips of the stepfather going insane, trying to kill everyone. He is in the rain, sneaking up on the girlfriend of Michael, saying “what are you doing Kelly?” as she screams in shock and terror. There is then a shot of the mum saying to him, “what did you say” as he leans over the sink, very sweaty, with his hands over his head saying “no.” He looks very stressed, in silence, then he says “who am I here?”
There is then a shot of two people smashing through a window with a scream, into the dark rainy night, with so many quick, flashing shots of all the action going on. This makes the audience want to see the action in full, as it is so fast paced they may not understand what is happening and this can make them even more scared and build up more scary tension. Each shot is broken up by fade to blacks, and the music sounds like broken up wind, as it only sounds at the beginning of each shot, then a screeching sound. As this screeching sound is so horrible to hear, it makes the audience very unsettled.
A fade into the black screen and in silence the title of the film appears. After a few short seconds the trailer ends with a cliff hanger, of Michael and his girlfriend lying on the basement floor, with the stepfather above them, lowering a chainsaw down towards them as he swings it to try and kill them both, as the girl screams loudly. As he drops the lead, the trailer abruptly ends, with a clash and the word ‘October’ in capital letters, with the website address underneath, to give the audience the opportunity to find out more about the film details.
Here is the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSVmrqAMQZA
At the beginning of this trailer it seems like a happy normal family accepting a new member into their family, the ‘Stepfather’. However as the plot thickens, it turns out that he is a murder on the ‘most wanted’ list. There are hints about this characters evilness as we see clips of him turning angry and aggressive towards his family. His Stepson discovers this and tries to solve the mystery, landing him and his family in grave danger.
To portray this happy normality in which this family is living, the trailer starts with a nice soundtrack playing which is ‘Drive’, by The Cars. It creates a relaxing and mellow feeling. There is diagetic sound of the dialogue talking over the top. We immediately meet two characters who pull up to their house and unpack their belongings from the car. They are talking about the boy’s, (Michael’s) Mum not picking him up from the airport, showing that he has been absent for a long time and that he wanted to see her. The location is very familiar to the audience and this creates nostalgia. There is a welcome home party which shows the happiness of his return, and we also meet more of the characters. Michael hugs this family and then his Mum introduces him to her new boyfriend. They shake hands showing Michael’s acceptance of him. However, this man keeps going on and on about how important family is and how great it is to be complete, now that Michael is back.
We can then see his annoyance of this, as his attitude towards him begins to change. There is a series of clips of the ‘Stepdad’ with the kids in the family, as he tries to bond with them, being part of the family, and the ‘dad’ figure. There is a clip of him having a drink with Michael as they toast ‘we’re going to put this family back together, you and me, father and son’. The soundtrack abruptly stops to match Michael’s reaction as he is taken aback, and corrects him saying ‘Stepfather’. The man pulls a funny face expression, as if he doesn’t like this much, but accepts it.
There is the sound of a dead phone along with a fade to black to lead into the next clip as Michael then asks his brother and sister whether they like him, as they reply “he’s nice, yeh, he takes us to the movies and stuff”. There is then a clip of the stepdad playing video games having a good time with the kids. A fade to black, then the next clip is of Michael talking to his real dad, with an intense conversation of his dad saying “mum said you don’t want to see me.” Michael’s frustrated reply is “you know dad I’m not the one who left.” This shows that he isn’t happy with his dad for leaving his mum.
There is another fade to black, and then clips of Michael swimming in the pool, with his girlfriend, talking about his future stepdad. It then cuts to them all around the dinner table, with a girl starting a sinister conversation, about a woman who drove of a bridge with her children in the car, to which the stepfather replies “maybe they disappointed her.” This shows that he has no sympathy, and suggests he would do the same if anyone disappointed him. A close up of Michael’s face shows he didn’t find this remark very amusing. A door bell sound, and the camera cuts to a high angle shot of an elderly neighbour at the door, talking to his mother about the most wanted picture, having a resemblance to her boyfriend. There is a low angel of Michael overhearing this from the landing upstairs. The music turns into a very thin, high pitched dinging sound, which creates a eerie atmosphere as the events start turning from a happy family into a horror film. As she tells him the story about the neighbour’s seeing this picture, she is laughing about it, showing that she doesn’t believe it, and he laughs as well saying “well, I guess I’m a hit with the neighbours” as he leans in to kiss her. Michael’s face looks very serious, as he researches the most wanted on the internet to look at these drawings. The music turns into a crescendo, increasing the dramatic tension, making the audience very tense. There is a close up of the internet search website, showing the audience the picture and the article that coincides with the picture, which says ‘Missing Stepfather Sought in Family Slaying.’ This is very alarming as this potential murderer is joining this family, becoming their stepfather. There is then a very fast paced edited section of flashbacks, so quick, that the audience only catches glimpses of this man’s past, at a murder scene, with another drawing of him. There is a fade to black of Michael presenting his information to his girlfriend, who doesn’t believe him, and is just interested in relaxing by the pool, in the sunshine.
The music speeds up its pace to build even more tension, as the girl says to Michael “didn’t you close your door?” A bang sound and he turns around only to find the man right behind him, showing his creepy persona, just as the girl screams from fright. There are then more clips of Michael antagonising the man, with many different quick shots. There is then a long shot of police cars across the road, with diagetic sound of their sirens, as the family asks what is going on, the stepdad replies “the old woman across the street, she fell down her stairs and broke her neck.” This seems very suspicious, as he knows exactly what happened to this old lady, and it is the same woman who had guessed that he was a most wanted murderer. It cuts to a very worried Michael, standing on the stairs as he puts two and two together.
The next clip is of the mother yelling at her son, John, to turn his video games volume down. With dramatic music, the stepdad grabs John by the neck grabbing his controller, very aggressively, repeating “your mother said turn it down.” This music emphasised the action happening with strong beats on the scary action, as it diminuendos (gets quieter) away before the next dramatic shot. After another fade to black, there is a flashback of home footage of a man walking out of a church, with a child in his arms, waving at the camera. The lighting of this is bright highlighting the importance of this footage, as the outside of this clip is black. The music changes into church like choir music with the sound of a projector running in the background. There is a small caption saying ‘This fall’ in capital letter. This tells the audience when the film is being released. It cuts to the mother saying “have a great day”, as the man walks away not acknowledging this at all, his face very serious and focused, looking intent on revenge.
The real dad then threatens the stepdad saying “don’t you ever lay your hands on my kids again.” The stepdad simply replies, “I was just trying to teach him a little discipline.” It shows the real dad really fired up with Michael holding him back as she yells “what do you really know about this guy, huh?” It cuts to a medium shot of a locked cabinet down in the basement, as Michael is curious about what is in them. He says “he’s hiding something” and his girlfriend replies “that doesn’t means he’s a killer. Another flashback clip, of more home footage of a man with a child at the beach, in the sea, with the caption ‘do you know’. This is a rhetorical question addressing the audience, to engage them into this film, and puts them into the same situation as these characters. The same music repeats, creating a sound motif for these flashback clips, which makes the audience very uncomfortable, as it doesn’t fit the mood of the scenes happening, (leitmotif). There is a flash of lightning, as it turns very dark, and Michael says “I’m going to find out what is in those storage cabinets.” There is a clip of him down in the basement with a flashlight going to investigate the mystery of what is in the cabinets. There is another flash to the home footage, with the caption continuing on from the last, ‘who your family is?’ There is then short, quick edited clips of the stepfather going insane, trying to kill everyone. He is in the rain, sneaking up on the girlfriend of Michael, saying “what are you doing Kelly?” as she screams in shock and terror. There is then a shot of the mum saying to him, “what did you say” as he leans over the sink, very sweaty, with his hands over his head saying “no.” He looks very stressed, in silence, then he says “who am I here?”
There is then a shot of two people smashing through a window with a scream, into the dark rainy night, with so many quick, flashing shots of all the action going on. This makes the audience want to see the action in full, as it is so fast paced they may not understand what is happening and this can make them even more scared and build up more scary tension. Each shot is broken up by fade to blacks, and the music sounds like broken up wind, as it only sounds at the beginning of each shot, then a screeching sound. As this screeching sound is so horrible to hear, it makes the audience very unsettled.
A fade into the black screen and in silence the title of the film appears. After a few short seconds the trailer ends with a cliff hanger, of Michael and his girlfriend lying on the basement floor, with the stepfather above them, lowering a chainsaw down towards them as he swings it to try and kill them both, as the girl screams loudly. As he drops the lead, the trailer abruptly ends, with a clash and the word ‘October’ in capital letters, with the website address underneath, to give the audience the opportunity to find out more about the film details.
Here is the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSVmrqAMQZA
By Nikki Stock
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