Textual Analysis ; Teaser Trailer (Dominic)

Insidious

The teaser trailer I have watched and chosen to analyse is ‘Insidious’, written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan, who also was involved in other popular horror titles such as Saw and Paranormal Activity. The genre of the film is a physiological horror with the synopsis of this film being a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension. The film was distributed by a variety of companies but was more heavily pushed by FilmDistrict, it was released in theaters on April 1, 2011. In terms of cost-to-gross ratio, it was the most profitable film of 2011 so far.

The teaser trailer lasts for 52 seconds; beginning with the distribution company logo of FilmDistrict combined with a low non diegetic sound, a conventional start to any film trailer reguardless of genre.

Then a black fade transition occurs with new garage looking background with a red smear denoting blood, which vaguely gives you an impression of the film genre. The white writing emerges on the background saying “From the makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw” as this happens match on action takes place with the low anonymous non diegetic sound returning. This instant reveals the genre of the film and lets the audience know and also possible fans of the Paranormal Activity and Saw films.

A quick close up shot of a young boy happens with low key lighting. Young children are a convention of horror and especially the psychological sub genre, this could be because children are seen as innocent in society thus causing a disturbance or fright in the audience when they see them evil which is against the norm. Ethnical issues such as abusing children come into play as well as the majority of western societies find it hard to harm children, so it adds to the fear factor of the child antagonist being unstoppable.

A variety of different quick cuts occur with high exposure giving of a scary X-Ray effect, very popular in horror films when seeing ghost or possessed life forms; flash of light blinding the audience from seeing the complete image of the subject

After the quick cuts a 2 second pause of a black transition happens, then a close up of the boy appears with medical attachments attached to him, giving the impression that there is something wrong with him possibly an illness. Dialogue happens with a close up of the boy’s mother by his bedside talking she has a worried NVC which gives a distressing tone. The garage background returns with the writing “comes a phenomenon for a new generation”, helping the narrative to develop and keeps a consistent pace to the trailer which will create suspense for the audience.

The non diegetic sound returns as the background fades an establishing shot of a house appears and the close up of a man, presumably the father, connoting a family unit which would further drive the fear factor, as the ideology of a family unit is love and comfort but this looks far from the ideology as the problem facing this family seems to have destroyed this positive view and vibe of a family, this is emphasised as the mother cries “I wanna leave this house” the noise of the low diegetic sound increases which speeds up the narrative. Quick cuts then occur follow the music with the mother dropping the phone suggesting that she has seen something horrifying, then the father’s eyes appear on the screen, another convention of horror; extreme close up shot of the eyes.

The garage background appears with the the writing “beyond your dreams” the quick cuts happen with effects such as the high exposure take place again and a woman dressed in white, also a typical horror convention. Then the background returns with the writing “beyond your imagination and your control”, then a repeat of quick cuts which speed up the tempo of the narrative with the shots ending with a screaming woman, all this suspense gives the audience a perception that the climax of the trailer is close.

Another black transition happens of a 2 second pause with the house hallway fading back into the screen, with low key lighting, then a woman’s voice is heard saying “it’s not the house that’s haunted it’s your son”, the woman’s face is then seen, she is older than the mother 50s and her lexis she uses “your son” suggesting that she does not know the family, making her position in the film unknown. Quick cuts then occur again, with non diegetic sound of a ghostly scream happening as the captions quickly run through. Then the loud non diegetic sound end with the film title Insidious taking up the majority of the screen with the grungy iconic background still there. The informative writing at the end revealing the release date “everywhere april 1”, gives the impression of a world wide spread of the problem that faced the son in the movie.

Insidious Teaser Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxpvRRpyzE