Title of the film- Silent House
Director- Chris Kentis
Institution- Open Road Films
Year of Release- January 21st 2011
Silent House conforms the codes
and conventions of other horror film trailers as the green band is showed at
the beginning of the trailer followed by the institution ident. The trailer
opens with an establishing shot to allow the audience to grasp a better
understanding of the location of the film. There are then flashes of the girl
talking to her dad saying how she can hear stuff upstairs. The girl then finds
her dad dead, which represents a linear sequence as the audience are wondering
who killed him but it could be the man who was upstairs in the house. There are
then shots of the girl walking around her house but every time these shots are
shown, the killer gets more visible and gets closer to her as she tries to
escape by running around her house but everywhere she goes, the killer is
there. In addition to this, the only light within the shots is the light that
she is holding and therefore because the scenes are so dark it represents
danger and evil. The clothing worn by the characters is all normal clothes,
which is what builds up the most tension because you don't know what is going
to happen next and any character could do anything. In addition to this, every
scene fades to black which builds up tension as the audience are always left
wondering what is going to happen next.
The genre of this is a psychological horror film. The audience is able to identify this due to the props used, e.g. knives and the various emphasised sound effects, which speeds up as the trailer goes on to build up tension for the audience. We cannot evidently see who the killer is in this trailer. This does make the audience wonder if it is a psychological thriller although not revealing the killer does create a code of enigma. There is much sound used throughout the trailer to create an effect on the horror genre. Firstly, diagetic sound is not used that much in this trailer; it is used mainly at the start of the trailer to represent the characters and their relationships. An example of this is at the start of the trailer, we find out that Sarah and her dad have a close relationship in the film as they the dad calls her “sweetie”. Halfway through the trailer she says “daddy, what have they done to you?” when he is lay flat on the floor, this shows her concern for her father emphasising that their relationship is strong, this also makes the audience want to see the film to find out what happened to him. Furthermore, non-diagetic sound is used in many different areas throughout the trailer. The trailer mainly consists of non-diagetic sounds. At the start of the trailer the audience is presented with a voiceover for all of the titles used, these titles communicate with the audience by guiding the audience into the storyline and to emphasise the severity of the event by using titles such as “the silence….will kill you!”. The backgrounds of these have blood on them, representing danger. The voiceover does this by saying “one of the most shocking and twisted events ever recorded”. This gets the audience’s attention instantly. There is non-diagetic music used in this trailer, to increase the intensity of the trailer. For example, in the trailer there is an increase in the pace of the music to grab the audience’s attention and create a code of enigma so we wonder what is going to happen to Sophie as we have already seen what happens to her dad. Throughout the trailer we get many different sound effects which get the audience on the edge of their seats by increasing the tension of the trailer, such as loud bangs, which would effectively scare the audience and the pace of the music speeds up. It does this by using effects such as camera flashes, emphasising door slams and footsteps to increase the tension of the audience and make them wonder what will happen to Sophie.
The target audience of this film is for males and females between the age of 15-30 years old. The trailer targets an audience by having a female as the main character, this attracts more females to watch the film as females are not stereotyped to watching horror films as much as makes would be. From the trailer, the audience get an understanding of the film where it reveals part of the plot, an idea of the main characters which all add up to the narrative of the film. Sophie and her dad move back into a house which they lived in when they were younger. They have an ordeal with an unknown killer which is haunting them for 88 minutes. It seems like throughout the trailer she is being followed by someone who is taking photos of her, following her every footstep, it seems like they are trying to get inside Sophie's head by making noises around the house and killing her dad. There is a slam of a door then all escape routes to the house become locked, there is no way out for Sophie, which suggests why the music gets faster as it is a race against time for her. She then bumps into her father to find him dead on the floor. After this, Sophie then goes looking around the house for ways to escape and get help. We then see the killer/person who is haunting her, they have no features which we can identify, leaving us a mystery at whom it is and why they are there. A chase then encounters throughout the house with this figure and Sophie. Sophie finds an escape route by opening her door, we see a reflection of a different killer/spirit, she then looks at the photos on the desk and when she eventually gets into the car she looks in the mirror and the figure is standing looking at her.
The trailer sets up the mood and expectations and the idea of a psychological horror where a women has moved into her house and is being haunted by someone or something paranormal and the audience want to know what this is but the trailer doesn't reveal is which makes the target audience want to see it more to find out what it is that is following her. As an audience we don’t know why or what is haunting Sophie but we are expecting something to happen to Sophie, but we don’t know whether she will survive or not. Film trailers are very effective as a promotional device for films because it is easily accessible as it can be found online or on television through commercial breaks. The film trailer ‘silent house’ shows some key codes and conventions which are very similar to other horror films. It goes against some stereotypes of normal horror films, but also goes along with others. Silent House does go along with a psychological thriller stereotype by having the female as a main character with emphasised screams being used to make the audience feel scared for her if they were in her situation. Having an age range of characters around 18-35 years old which is roughly the age of the target audience. This allows the audience to out themselves I'm the characters situation. The film is set in a massive haunted house which is very stereotypical of psychological horror films, which is established at the beginning of the trailer. Although the film does go against the stereotype of having a hand held camera being used throughout the film, this makes the audience feel a sense of realism, almost like a documentary for the audience to watch.
The genre of this is a psychological horror film. The audience is able to identify this due to the props used, e.g. knives and the various emphasised sound effects, which speeds up as the trailer goes on to build up tension for the audience. We cannot evidently see who the killer is in this trailer. This does make the audience wonder if it is a psychological thriller although not revealing the killer does create a code of enigma. There is much sound used throughout the trailer to create an effect on the horror genre. Firstly, diagetic sound is not used that much in this trailer; it is used mainly at the start of the trailer to represent the characters and their relationships. An example of this is at the start of the trailer, we find out that Sarah and her dad have a close relationship in the film as they the dad calls her “sweetie”. Halfway through the trailer she says “daddy, what have they done to you?” when he is lay flat on the floor, this shows her concern for her father emphasising that their relationship is strong, this also makes the audience want to see the film to find out what happened to him. Furthermore, non-diagetic sound is used in many different areas throughout the trailer. The trailer mainly consists of non-diagetic sounds. At the start of the trailer the audience is presented with a voiceover for all of the titles used, these titles communicate with the audience by guiding the audience into the storyline and to emphasise the severity of the event by using titles such as “the silence….will kill you!”. The backgrounds of these have blood on them, representing danger. The voiceover does this by saying “one of the most shocking and twisted events ever recorded”. This gets the audience’s attention instantly. There is non-diagetic music used in this trailer, to increase the intensity of the trailer. For example, in the trailer there is an increase in the pace of the music to grab the audience’s attention and create a code of enigma so we wonder what is going to happen to Sophie as we have already seen what happens to her dad. Throughout the trailer we get many different sound effects which get the audience on the edge of their seats by increasing the tension of the trailer, such as loud bangs, which would effectively scare the audience and the pace of the music speeds up. It does this by using effects such as camera flashes, emphasising door slams and footsteps to increase the tension of the audience and make them wonder what will happen to Sophie.
The target audience of this film is for males and females between the age of 15-30 years old. The trailer targets an audience by having a female as the main character, this attracts more females to watch the film as females are not stereotyped to watching horror films as much as makes would be. From the trailer, the audience get an understanding of the film where it reveals part of the plot, an idea of the main characters which all add up to the narrative of the film. Sophie and her dad move back into a house which they lived in when they were younger. They have an ordeal with an unknown killer which is haunting them for 88 minutes. It seems like throughout the trailer she is being followed by someone who is taking photos of her, following her every footstep, it seems like they are trying to get inside Sophie's head by making noises around the house and killing her dad. There is a slam of a door then all escape routes to the house become locked, there is no way out for Sophie, which suggests why the music gets faster as it is a race against time for her. She then bumps into her father to find him dead on the floor. After this, Sophie then goes looking around the house for ways to escape and get help. We then see the killer/person who is haunting her, they have no features which we can identify, leaving us a mystery at whom it is and why they are there. A chase then encounters throughout the house with this figure and Sophie. Sophie finds an escape route by opening her door, we see a reflection of a different killer/spirit, she then looks at the photos on the desk and when she eventually gets into the car she looks in the mirror and the figure is standing looking at her.
The trailer sets up the mood and expectations and the idea of a psychological horror where a women has moved into her house and is being haunted by someone or something paranormal and the audience want to know what this is but the trailer doesn't reveal is which makes the target audience want to see it more to find out what it is that is following her. As an audience we don’t know why or what is haunting Sophie but we are expecting something to happen to Sophie, but we don’t know whether she will survive or not. Film trailers are very effective as a promotional device for films because it is easily accessible as it can be found online or on television through commercial breaks. The film trailer ‘silent house’ shows some key codes and conventions which are very similar to other horror films. It goes against some stereotypes of normal horror films, but also goes along with others. Silent House does go along with a psychological thriller stereotype by having the female as a main character with emphasised screams being used to make the audience feel scared for her if they were in her situation. Having an age range of characters around 18-35 years old which is roughly the age of the target audience. This allows the audience to out themselves I'm the characters situation. The film is set in a massive haunted house which is very stereotypical of psychological horror films, which is established at the beginning of the trailer. Although the film does go against the stereotype of having a hand held camera being used throughout the film, this makes the audience feel a sense of realism, almost like a documentary for the audience to watch.
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