Research - Revenge Horror

The trailer starts off with the production company, like every trailer does. The first image you see is of a dark house in a forest. From this the audience already know the setting for the movie, in a forest. They can also assume by this image that the movie is going to be a horror type. The second image we see is of a girl lying down, as the shot is a close up and just of her we can assume by this that she will be the main character, so in the space of 10 seconds the trailer has told us who the main character is, where its going to be set, and what genre it is going to be. Most of the trailer just shows the main character in it, close up, it never shows properly the villains, as you only see flashes and glimpses of them.

Inbetween the clips there is text shown, this text is put there to give the audience an idea a bit more about the movie, also if there is text on the screen the audience has to be concerntrating on the screen properly to read it, so it makes the audience take in more of the clip.

There's not much speech in the clip, the first sentence of speech in the clip that you hear isn't until 24 seconds, 'whats a pretty thing like you doing here all alone', this is done whilst the screen is black which gives it an earie feeling, it makes the audience question who this man is, the way you hear the voice makes the audience believe that he is the villian. The most effective part of this trailer, i believe, is the speech, 'forgive me father, for I will sin', the music dies down at this part and it is just a close up of her. From the clips before the audience knows something has happened to her, e.g. torture, rape, beaten, etc... so when she says this line, the audience knows that the story is going to change, like the girl has changed herself, then after this the music gets faster and you see a flash of the main character, followed by the villian getting hurt.

The title 'I spit on your grave' shows up 56 seconds in, however it is then followed by another clip, which shows that the title for the movie does not always have to come at the end of the trailer. Then after this it shows 'coming soon'.

I believe this trailer is effective because the audience wants to know more about what actually happened to the girl and what did she do to the villians. It leads a lot of unanswered questions, which will make the audience want to watch it even more to find out. The trailer shows a basic plot; the main character gets attacked somehow, and she comes back to get her revenge.

Three Sub-genres

Out of all of the sub-genres of horror, I have chosen three that I would like to do; serial killer horror, supernatural horror, and revenge horror, I am now going to have to research each of these three genres in a bit more detail, so that I can make my final choice on which genre I am going to do.

Conventions of a Horror Movie Trailer

Movie trailers have conventions, one of the conventions in a horror movie trailer would be that in the trailer they would introduce the main characters and possibly some other characters in it. Horror movie trailers also establish the plot, and give away some detail of what the movie is going to be about, without giving away the actual movie, it usually shows the setting and shows flashes of clips that grab the audience's attention, making them want to find out more and watch iy. However, for a teaser trailer it may not show any real clips of the movie and it would not give the amount of detail that an ordinary trailer would about the movie; it may only show a glimpse of one character followed by 'coming soon'.

Propp.

In a horror movie there is usually:

- Lead character - can either be the villian or the victim.

- Victim - often survives in the movies.

- Villian - They usually have trademark characteristics to how they kill, e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

- The storyline is usually good against evil, which good usually wins.

- Propps theory of equillibrium. Equillibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair, and new equillibrium. E.g. in The Ring... Equilibrium (normal day), disruption (someone dies and unexplained death), recognition of disruption (main character finds out about the tape that is the course of the death), attempt to repair (main character goes in search of where the tape came from, so she can try and stop the killings and manages to do so, therefore saving herself and her son), new equilibrium (back to a normal day).

However, all of this would not be shown in a trailer, but without knowing what my movie will be about and knowing things such as if my main character will be a villian or a victim, I would not be able to create my trailer. So even though I'm only creating a trailer I still need to think about this.

General Horror Conventions

The general code and conventions of a horror movie are: ghosts, apparitions, miracles, gloomy weather, fast paced music for tense scenes, organ music to give suspence or for creepy scenes to give it a spooky feel, dark lighting, deserted places (old houses, forests, fields), villian, victim, hero. I'll take all of these into account when I come to make my horror movie trailer, poster and magazine front cover.

Horror Sub Genres

Horror is a genre which is meant to frighten the audience and give them a feeling of horror or terror.
Having chosen my genre, I have now looked into the sub genres of horror movies, the main sub genres that I found were:
- GHOST - (The Sixth Sense , ghostbusters)
- MONSTER MOVIES - (Frankinstein, Dracula)
- SERIAL KILLER - (Halloween, Saw)
- SCI FI HORROR - (The Unborn, 28 Days Later)
- COMEDY HORROR - (Scary Movie, Shaun of the Dead)
- POSSESSED - (The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror)
- SUPERNATURAL HORROR MOVIES - (Paranormal Activity. The Others)
- RELIGIOUS HORROR - (The Omen, The Prophecy)
- REVENENGE HORROR - (I spit on your Grave, The Last House on the Left)
- PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR - (The Blair Witch Project, The Ring)

A2 Media Coursework

For my A2 media coursework, I am going to create a trailer, a movie poster, and a front cover for a magazine that will feature my movie. The genre that I am going to choose for my movie will be horror, as I know quite a bit about the horror genre, and believe it will be interesting to do.