Horror/Psychological Thriller Trailer Analysis

Grave encounters immediately establishes genre, a mock-umentry horror much like its predescesor 'Paranormal Activity' which launched this genre in to the big time. The institutions are left fairly casual due to the extreme content of the trailer, and that its not such a 'blockbuster' production.

The handi-cam style is clearly portrayed even in the trailer as it has used a theme in the titles and editing to compliment this style. Its structure and pace starts off slow and around the mid way section a montage is used to create realism and to add excitement. Sound is key to this trailer as the last two shots incorperate enhanced sound effects.

The target audience is clearly the core audience, mainly for a male audience as horror is a male dominanted category. This trailer doesn't especially brake boundaries as far as construction goes, but again this is typical for horror and usually narrative is incredibly simple and shallow.Overall I believe this to be successful, as it has key elements that have been used to full effect, and one part in particular did genuinely scare me.





Primal aims for a more adventure and historical approach in compemporary style, this is showed at first through the title which are fairly modern and technical. Also shown through the adventure like soundtrack.

We are given an idea of setting through initial long shots and characters and quickly introduced through action clips and small dialogue. There is a constant and slightly persistant use of enhanced sound effects which achieves an eerie and disturbing mood.

The trailer is effective, but the titles are quite meaningless and stressed which takes quite alot from the main peice. Elements of the natural underlie this trailer and believe this could have been used to a greater effect.




We are presented with intriging opening titles that are incredibly basic, but the information and content makes the viewer terribly engaged. We are eased into the vaticant city with a beautiful establishing long shot. Soon we are informed that 'Antony Hopkins' is an award winning actors that is staring in 'the rite'- this already gains a unique usp.

The trailer reveals a rough structure to the narrative and reveals little into the complexities of the film, this makes the films seem less deep but appeals to a less intellegent market aswell. There are more titles that fade in and out of sequences to inform the audience about the narrative. As usual there is end montage that shows alot of action and horror, follwed by an ending punchline. This trailer is very slick and hours after I even had to watch it.




We are greated with 'whats the first thing you remember...FIRE' immediately its obviously a thriller horror. The titles soon show the legendary director 'Jon Carpentor' also we are told he is actually 'the legend', this attracts the initial following audience of his films such as 'Vampires'.

Again the production of the films is shown off, and again we find out its the same director as the globally appreciated cult horror, 'Halloween'. The 'sexy woman' role which is consistantly used in horror, is put the forefront of this short of the 4 trailers, this is mainly because of 'Amber Heard's' reputation and aesthetic she adds to 'the ward' Once again a finishing clip is used to leave to audience with something to reflect on and to be scared, which is what needs to be achieved. I think this trailer is again good, but appeals to a less picky market than the other and it seems far more teen based, although Jon Carpentor has a huge adult fan base