17 people completed my questionnaire, 10 of these were girls
and 7 were boys. I don’t think the difference in the amount of people from each
gender will make much of a difference to the results as I tried to spread these
people out over a wide age range.
Although I tried to ask a range of ages, the majority of
people were in my age range of 16-20, this could be for two reasons; firstly I may
have made the mistake of asking people mainly at College, where everyone will
be in this age range, or this is the most popular age group when it comes to
watching horror movies.
13 of the people said they were influenced by the marketing
of the movie and will consider how well it has been marketed before seeing it.
People also listed things which they would look for in a horror trailer to make
it successful:
Interesting
and easily remembered
Cliff-hangers
(Not giving plot away)
Genre
indicators
Anticipation
Jumpy
and suspense
Good
storyline without giving too much away
Interestingly, 14 people out of the 17 liked horror movies,
7 of these were girls, 7 boys. This left 3girls who didn’t enjoy horror movies.
This could suggest that the horror genre is more for males, as it was only the
females who disliked them. However, there were just as many girls liking them,
but this could follow the idea that horror movies make good ‘date’ movies,
where the girl goes to see it in order to be looked after by the boy.
When asked, it appears that the most popular sub-genre of
horror movies is ‘Psychological’, with 9 out of 17 people choosing this. With
the increase in paranormal movies recently it is no surprise that this comes
second with 4 people, then slasher with 3. One person also decided to choose ‘Zombies’
as their other subgenre, as there was a period where these were very popular,
and in fact still are.
When I asked them to name their favourite horror movies, the
results also spread across all these subgenres:
The
Shining (psychological)
Friday
13th (Slasher)
Paranormal
Activity (Paranormal)
Dawn
of the dead (Zombie)
Zombieland
(Zombie)
Jeepers
creepers (slasher)
Psycho
(psychological
Putting all these results together, I have decided to come
up with an idea that is easily reached by both genders at my age group of16-20
but something that will also be appropriate for older ages too. I want the
trailer to be jumpy and build suspense without giving too much of the plot
away. I should also try and make it psychological as this was the most popular
category.
Here is my final magazine front cover. I took inspiration from 'Total Film' magazine, even incorporating their logo. However, i made it look my own by applying an old film texture to the writing. I also took inspiration from the way they used cover stories and how they presented them. To make it look as professional as possible, i used a barcode with the appropriate publisher on it, and also showed the date, issue number and price.
We had a group photo shoot where we took a photo of me covered in blood, and i then edited my eye to make it look bruised and white, making the image more scary. The story is about a girl with a split personality disorder who kills everybody, so we tried to show this by splitting my face- one side normal, the other bloody and dark.
The trailer begins with a wide shot, establishing the scene
of an old nursery. The colours are dull, and dark, and made up of blues, greens
and greys. The colours connote sadness and remorse, which help set the tone of
the film, and also add to the gothic horror element of it. Everything is silent
at this point other than the sound of howling wind, which also sets the scene
of the fact it is set in the marshes. The sound of howling wind is also a
typical sound you will find in horror films. Suddenly, on top of the howling
wind, we hear the sound of a chime, along with a close up of an old Victorian
toy monkey strumming a harp. More toys begin to make noise, and up to this
point we had just been given lots of close ups of other toys such as a china
doll, who’s hair is in a state and has cracks and dirt on her face. Dolls are a
popular child’s toy, thus symbolising innocence. However, the fact she is
broken and not well looked after makes it less innocent and scarier. The toys
begin to move as they play the music and chimes as they are part of a music
box. The fact the toys each have vacant expressions add to the creepiness. We
see a shot of the house from outside- it looks abandoned, dark and creepy. With
broken gates, ivy on the walls and smashed windows. Quick shots of the horse
and cart carrying him over the marshes are squeezed in between the shots of the
toys. In the foreground of one of these shots we see a grave. There is also a
shot from someone’s point of view as they walk down the dark corridor. We also
see a few more quick shots around the dark mansion, such as the huge lobby room
which appears to be abandoned as all the furniture is covered in white sheets,
the stair case and chandeliers are all black adding a sense of darkness to the
room, making the house seem creepy.
We then hear an almost ghostly sounding breathe, or a very
quiet scream. As we hear this we are shown an old black and white photograph of
a family as they stand in front of the mansion. There is also dialogue on top
of the other sounds in the trailer at this point, as a young girl begins to
recite a rhyme about ‘The Woman In Black.’
“During afternoon tea,
there’s a shift in the air. A bone- trembling chill that tells you she’s there.
There are those who believe the whole town in cursed. But the house in the
marsh is by far the worst. What she wants is unknown, but she always comes
back. The spectre of darkness, the woman in black.” Having a child read the rhyme makes it seem
much for terrifying, as if you understand the story, it is about the children
killing themselves after they are cursed by the woman in black.
We then see a shot of three little girls playing with their
toys, all turning and looking into the camera as if they have seen something.
The fact their toys are all in good condition contrasts with the previous shots
of broken toys. The girls are all wearing pink and white dresses, and their
room is filled with sunlight, making them seem very innocent.
At the line ‘A bone
trembling chill…’ we see a shot of another toy as it bends backwards in
time with the chimes of music. The abnormal movement of the toy shocks the audience.
Straight after this is another shot of the black and white photograph we saw of
the family stood in front of the house, however this time, their eyes have been
scratched out and the photo has been torn.
Zooming in on the photo, it becomes an extreme close up on
one of the windows in the house. We hear the line ‘…that tells you she’s there.’ Looking closely at the window we can
see the faint silhouette of a woman stood at the window, the dark space of her
eyes visible, making it obvious she is watching them. This cuts straight to a
shot of some children watching as Arthur drives past. They look shocked and
scared. We see Arthur look around as he is driving as see more children
watching him as he passes the houses. There is an establishing shot of the
whole country town as we hear the line ‘…there
are those who believe, the whole town is cursed…’ We see a shot of a mother
screaming and crying, which makes sense if we listen to what the rhyme is
about.
‘But the house on the
marsh is by far the worst.’ As we hear this line we see an establishing
shot of the house and the surrounding marshes. From this point on the tempo on
the trailer begins to get much faster, as we hear the noises the toys are
making getting faster and faster too. The nature of the clips are also less
innocent and become more scary. A toy turns it’s head and looks directly into
the camera, this then cuts to the man being asleep, and over his shoulder we
see a woman dressed in black slowly walk towards him. As this happens, we hear
a loud screeching noise which is very common in horror trailers to create
atmosphere.
We then see Arthur looking through the window at night. We
see that it is raining, and he is lit up by a flash of lightning. We can also
hear thunder- a thunderstorm is a common symbol for the horror genre. As he
looks out the window he sees a child crawling out of the mud and towards the
house. This makes no sense until we see the next clip which is him ripping the
wallpaper off the wall and discovering writing painted on the wall written in
what appears to be blood. We assume it is about the child we saw in the marsh: ‘You could have saved him.’ In the foreground of this shot, the monkey toy
with maracas we saw at the start of the trailer sits there still, but as Arthur
pulls the paper off the wall, it suddenly starts moving as if it’s been wound
up.
‘What she wants is
unknown…’ The rhyme continues as we see a shot of Arthur looking lost in
the fog, which then cuts to a quick shot of him diving into the marsh and then
another quick shot of him sprinting through a forest at night. ‘…But she always comes back…’ We then see another clip of the three girls we
saw playing innocently previously. Except this time they are all walking
towards the window in a trance, throwing down their toys and standing on them,
completely forgetting how much they were enjoying delicately playing with them
a moment ago. We see the girls look like they’re about to jump out the window. ‘…The spectre of darkness…’ It then cuts to a clip of Arthur as he sprints
down the old dark corridor in the house, and locks himself in a room, where the
muddy body of the child we saw in the marsh appears to grown from the bed. As
this happens, the music suddenly cuts off and we are shown a clip of the monkey
again, but this time it suddenly stops too, building suspense. We start to hear
slow chimes, and between each chime, we see a quick shot; a fire, Arthur
sprinting, and lots of ghostly looking children standing in the rain in the
forest outside the house.
The last shot is a typical shot to scare the audience and
make them want to see the film even more. Arthur looks out the window and
watches as the only road to escape the house is flooded over with water, thus trapping
him. As he stands watching this, along with a loud bang, a ghoulish face
appears over his shoulder.
