Sinister Film Trailer Analsyis

Film trailers follow numerous conventions. In this trailer there is the dramatic voice-over, which doesn’t feature so often in modern film trailers, but was widely used in films of the 1980s and 90s. The way that the film trailer is edited is another convention. The pace of the “cuts” are quick and snappy to generate a fast pace. The sound effects of gun fire and explosions feature heavily and clips of explosions and gun-fire is at the forefront of film trailers for action movies.

Camera shots

The sinister trailer uses the typical conventions you would see in a horror movie. From the start of the trailer, it begins with the image of a dark, “smooky” house. The trailer starts off with a dolly shot, moving towards the dark house, this helps build tension right from the start of the clip and starts the scary setting.  Throughout the trailer, the use of short shorts have been used, this makes the trailer seem unexpected and makes the audience feel on edge. Close up’s in these types of genres are used to see reactions on the actor/actresses face. This is the shot that shows the most emotion from the characters. It is also used to capture detail in an important scene. From this trailer there was continuous close ups and medium shots of faces mainly the main character, this shows the emotion and portrays his fear when watching the video and other parts of the trailer.

Mise en-scene

The film sinister is set in a suburban, and any other ordinary house which helps with the suspense as the audience is thinking this could happen at any house.  In the kitchen scene there is one light that produces a shadow, which keeps the background in darkness. This gives the audience a feeling that something dangerous could happen.

The props which are used in the trailer such as, the vintage projector tapes create a sense an old fashioned scenario which seems creepy and generates fear within the audience,

Sound

As the trailer progresses there are more images of different families on the different tapes, all the tapes are of the family’s murders. We are shown a car being lit on fire and a child going underwater, these images just give the audience a taste to expect absolute disgust and repulsion. Screams and high pitch noises are used during this, it is used to keep the audiences pulse racing and makes them more ‘on edge’ We are then shown a same symbol and an explanation and we now know that this symbol represents a child murderer. The non- diegetic sound in the trailer is a simple slow music which builds the tension throughout the trailer and the audience is thinking something bad is going to happen.

Editing

Many of the clips in the trailer, there are lots of fade transitions to black, which creates the feeling of unease that something may be wrong; this technique is used In many horror trailers. In the last 30 seconds of the trailer, the trailer uses very quick cuts which show the fast pace building and the tension increasing. At the end of the trailer where it says “coming soon” follows the theme from an old projector.