Overall I think that trailer for the film- The Pact is a brilliant one all round. It is really encouraging for horror lovers to go and watch the film to see what it has to offer. Throughout all of the trailer it keeps spectators on the edge of their seats with fright anticipating what is going to happen. The short clips as in every trailer from the film in this case which are extremely scary, show the audience the extent of the terror in the movie overall. Something which is really brilliant about the trailer is the way that it instantly shows a horror setting showing the camera entering a dark, gloomy, pitch black door way. This introduces the genre of the film to begin with. I like the way the writing on screen pops us with in a suspicious, scientific type sound to add furthermore horror effect. The majority of the settings contained and shown inside of the trailer are dark and neutral. When the woman is driving her motorbike on the road it is daytime but however it is not very bright and is shown quite gloomy, miserable and depressing weather. It isn’t happy and the setting matches the scared, terrorising content in the film. When day time is shown inside the trailer, despite this it still seems to be quite dark and gloomy overall and when in the house during the day it is exactly the same. When the woman goes and asks for ‘Nicole’ in the house it is daytime and the surrounding area is presented in low key lighting being dull and sets suspicion around the area. When the woman also does the method to try and find out if there’s a spirit in her house with the letters on the floor and the crucifix it is again another point in the trailer with a dark setting. She lights only a candle as her form of vision which again provides low key lighting in the surrounding which is aimed to create more terror for the viewers. Apart from the majority of the settings in the trailer being shown as dark and terrorising they are also more urban. The trailer is based mainly in the central characters house. The most frightening and anticipating aspect inside the trailer is when the woman flickers the lighter to see and when turning round there is a figure present in the same room. Again in this setting it is completely dark to begin with and extremely terrorising for viewers.
There are also various technical codes inside of the trailer. The camerawork contained seems to be very robust, slow, smooth and simple when starting the trailer and telling the basis of the story of the film. However when reaching scary, intense parts the camerawork becomes very quick, sudden, sharp and distort to empathise terror and fear for the audience. A good example is right at the very start of the trailer when her little girl on video call says ‘mummy. Who’s that behind you?’ and when she turns around the camera sharply changes direction focussing on a figure in the doorway to create terror. There isn’t any actual music added inside of the trailer but there is sound. The sound tends to be sharp, sudden high and low pitched sounds to once again frighten spectators. These sounds only occur of course at the terrorising and scary parts in the trailer and apart from this when showing the rest of the trailer there tends to just be voices talking which also is reasonably suspicious as the mood is quite dull because of this. Also with just the voices speaking in other parts of the trailer it makes the spectators think when the next sudden scary aspect is going to come with loud frightening sound. The costumes of the majority of the characters are plain and simple and not very horror like at all. The make up on the girl who tries and contacts the ‘other side’ is very faint and pale. This however is very horror like.
There isn’t really much Iconography which I can talk about inside of the trailer but there is however still some. The main central character of the woman as explained is a mother. She appears to have some kind of paranormal spirit inside of her house and of course will do everything she can to protect herself as well as her daughter from this. This can relate to her playing a typical, protective motherly role. She is the victim but also is the hero at the same time. Something else which I can relate to iconography is the male helper. He seems to step in also in the trailer entering the haunted house with the central character looking around. I can relate this to an indicator of masculinity of him helping out being a gentlemen.
There are various character types contained inside of the trailer. There is of course the main central characters who’s life the film focusses around which in this case in the woman. You then have the central characters daughter who appears to be on video call and then I think in her bedroom in the house. These characters are normal everyday people. There is also then the helper who appears to be a physchological kind of woman. As explained she is actually quite a horror type of character with bold eyes and pale skin. She can seem too connect with spirits and so therefore is a different type of character. There then also seems to be another type of helper which is the man. He seems normal just like the central character however and and outgoing, everyday type of guy. You can also tell this from his simple, normal type of costume.
There are many themes which are present inside of this trailer. One of the main ones is Female Power. As described previously the woman is in most control throughout the trailer trying to fight off the paranormal spirit inside of her home. She has the most power out of the characters and does it all on her own mostly with the slight help of the other characters.
I can also relate this trailer to the conventions of horror. In many horror movies (of course depending on the type), you expect to see particular aspects and witness certain events. For example you would typically expect to see things like blood, death, weapons, large frightening characters, ghosts/spirits etc. In this trailer there are many of these. There is a paranormal spirit in the house which shuts doors, and as shown drags the central character in her house and picks her up etc. The central character also has a knife in her hand at one point in the trailer which is a typical weapon many would expect to see inside of a horror movie. Darkness is another convention in horror movies which is common and something audiences expect to see. As explained when talking about setting, their is a lot of darkness present in the trailer which provides extensive fright.
After looking at the four theorists as explained previously on my blog some of these can relate to this particular trailer. I cannot relate Tzvetan Todorov as I am only analysing the trailer and so therefore do not know the whole story of the film. I can relate some of Vladimir Propp's theory of character roles from the characters I have witnessed in the trailer. The Villian of course tends to be the spirit in the house. The hero tends to be the central character who is the woman trying to get rid of the spirit/find out what it is, and the man as well as the pale skinned girl are the helpers who aid the woman slightly in the trailer. The donor maybe the girl as she may be able get in contact with the spirit present which is a large help to the woman. The other character roles which are: The princess, her father, the dispatcher and the false hero I cannot relate to the characters in this trailer. Looking at Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions in the trailer I have identified a few. These are:
Day/Night
Spirit/Human
Male/Female
Young/Old
Light/Dark
Normal/Abnormal
I cannot relate the theory of Bordwell and Thompson to this trailer.
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