Textual Analysis On a Trailer -Friday The 13th (remake)

What Genre is this film and how does the Trailer indicate this? The trailer for Friday the 13th is obviously a horror film trailer. As most Trailers and Films for horrors go, we usually see some form of equilibrium at the beginning, this trailer does exactly this, we see the untouched lake, the sunset, which suggest a sense of peace and serenity, but we also hear the birds call. Obviously this is to be expected because of the setting but although it fits in perfectly with the ’peace and quiet’ it also suggests a sense of loneliness, its the only thing we can hear. It goes along with the expectations of a horror film, ’there’s no one here to help you’. It also reinforces the expectations that the ‘setting sun’ create, it’s the birds last call before night fall, and again one of the scariest settings for a horror film is simply in the dark. It also subtly hints at what’s going to happen later on in the film/trailer, it’s the birds last call before nightfall, therefore it could be someone’s last breath, or someone’s last words before nightfall, will everything be the same by sunrise? After this first shot, everything we see is generally dark. It makes the audience empathise with the characters who are seen in the trailer, as in effect we can only see what they can. But it also has the sense of mystery we cant really see what’s going on, which makes everything seem a lot more scary and obviously makes people want to watch the film to find out. We see a lot of shots with flashlights swerving around, this creates a sense of disorientation, which again makes us empathise with the characters, we don’t know what’s happening which is really a lot scarier than actually knowing what’s going on and adds to the fast paced effect we usually see within film trailers. The sound within the trailer is a major giveaway to the fact this is a horror film trailer. Like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailer, we also hear a heartbeat sound in the Friday the 13th trailer, again this makes it seem quite fast paced as the heartbeat gets faster as the shots get faster. It works really well as the heartbeat is in sync with the characters realisation that something is wrong , that something bad is happening, and so as an audience we can make the connection. Throughout the trailer we can here the ‘typical’ horror score. We hear eerie echoes and whooshes , the ‘sound of silence’ and so on, these are a big factor of horror film trailers as they tell the audience what they should be feeling. When we hear the echoes we feel a ‘creepy sensation’ which tells us something is wrong, the whooshes designed to draw us in, they usually lead on to a louder sound, perhaps a scream, which obviously makes the audience jump. The ‘sound of silence’ the sound which sounds eerie and silent, makes us feel like were alone, but aware, something else might be (and probably is) watching, waiting. There is a voice over in this trailer, something which seems unusual for a modern horror trailer, as usually they tend to change the feelings an audience has about the film , it makes them seem less scary. However this voice over works well. This Trailer relies heavily upon sound as they have chosen to create the chilling atmosphere by almost blinding the audience with darkness, which works really well. However it also limits how much of the story they can convey in the small time slot they have, which is where the voice over comes in. They use it to give the audience an idea of the storyline, of what the films about, as obviously the idea of a film trailer is to sell your story and your film. We can also see how the trailers relies on sound to help create the tense atmosphere they are looking to achieve as the voice over is really the only speech we hear throughout. Towards the end we hear screaming, and whimpering. But the only speech we hear is a girl saying ‘Oh God’. I think this works well as it makes the audience actually feel the atmosphere rather than having someone hand it to them on plate. This works especially well when we have extended shots of a black screen. As the audience has to actually use there imagination, which draws them into the film, and makes things seem scary but it also means that the trailer is not giving to much away. A lot of the sounds we here are normal everyday things, which are used to make the audience nervous, even scared as they are things that they might actually hear often. For example there is a shot with someone opening a door slowly , and we can hear the sickening creaking sound as it happens, this is something we often see in horror films/trailers, for example the same idea is used in the trailer for the original ‘Halloween’. We also hear footsteps running, and heavy breathing in horror film trailers as these are the most basic things and yet the scariest. There are a lot of hand held shots within the trailer, another common feature of horror films as it makes things seem as though they are out of control, and in some scenes unnatural. This particular trailer also used unnatural lighting. Although this is a must as most scenes are set in the dark at night but I also think it works well as it reinforces the fact that the ‘killer’ is human but also unnatural. We also see the darker scenes covered with a bluish tinted colour. This is seen within most horror films. It makes things seem cold, and again reinforces the idea of the ‘unnatural’ killer. It also adds to the idea of ‘being alone’ especially in this trailer as they are in an abandoned camp. I think that this film differs slightly to other horror films trailers, as we don’t actually see anyone die, or anyone in real danger. There is a lot of running and screaming, but we only see one actual act of violence, which is towards the very end. I think this works well as again it makes the audience use there imagination, they have to think about what’s happening. We also only start to see close ups of characters towards the end an I think this has the same effect as leaving out the violence, we see there reactions to what’s happening at the end (which is when we usually see the most gore) but we don’t know why these reactions are necessary. We also see one of the close ups in black and white, which I think works well as it shows that these are raw emotions, just like black and white are raw colours. What do you learn of the story of the film from this trailer? We don’t actually learn a great deal of the story from this trailer. Which I think works well as it makes people curios. But I think that because it’s a remake they can afford to leave things to guess work as the majority of people have heard of or seen the original Friday the 13th film. Nearly everything we learn about the story comes from the voice over. We know that it is set at what we assume is some sort of holiday place or camp or school, as we know there were counsellors. We the later see a sign that says ’camp crystal’ we assume its abandoned as there is no real sign of life within the trailer, and not enough characters to make it seem as though they attend. We know a boy called Jason drowned and that the day we assume we are seeing (Friday the 13th) is his birthday. We know that people are in trouble and we assume that the man we see in the mask is after them.