Insidious Trailer analysis

Charles Harris

The trailer starts with a screen of text warning the viewer about what they are about to see. The green background is eye-catching

making sure the viewer will see the screen, and the white contrasts the green well enough to make the text easy to read. There is no audio yet, this means that the absence of sound will get people’s attention and making reading and understanding the text easier.

The company that made the film get displayed at the start of the trailer, a

convention to most trailers, this means that viewers can trust that

the film will be good if they trust the company to make good films.

Black and red are colours commonly used in the horror

genre, as they have connotations of death and blood. The

abundance of black in the companies logo plays to viewers’ fear of the unknown as they can’t

see everything in the frame.

The next section of the trailer consist of a black/ dark red back ground with white

righting jumping between says “insidious” and “is”. The jumpy nature of the writing puts the viewer on edge, and conveys the feeling that

something is wrong.

The connotations in the colour scheme are used to convey the plot. The black and dark red background represent evil while the

white writing contrasts it, representing purity and

goodness.

A non-diagetic crackling sound is being played, this creates an unsettling

atmosphere for the viewer.

The close up of the man is matched with the dialogue “are you ready?” said by a

off-screen character, followed by the character on screen replying “yes.” The diegetic convocation

creates intrigue for wondering what the momentous event is.

The medium close up of the character, presents him as an ordinary person (a man

wearing a shirt and an everyday haircut. The background shows a typical dining room with pictures, the most fancy thing in the room is a piano), the guy next door type, this means

that the viewer can relate to him as they probably know someone like him.

The trailer then fades into a close up of a metronome being

turned on. The fade shows that the

metronome is linked into the event that the

character in the previous shot is

“ready,” for.

The use of diagetic sound from the metronome, makes the viewer

curious about what's happening as well as giving pace and rhythm to the trailer as shots are timed and

edited around the fast tempo of the metronome. The metronome gives a sense of time, and becomes a sound

bridge across much of the trailer. When the metronome stops later on

in the trailer, it gives a sense that time has stopped or has ran out.

The text “from the makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw” conveys to the viewer that the film will be good as Paranormal

Activity and Saw are film both very highly regarded in the horror genre; this means that there a good chance that insidious

will earn the same high regarding.

“Paranormal Activity” and “Saw” are in a larger font and are in bold because

that’s what’s meant to be eye-catching about the statement as it’s the most

important information in the sentence.

The text is positioned on the left third in the middle, this is catch the viewers eye as

it is following the rule of thirds, and by being in a strange place, it follows the

strange nature of the film.

The camera is zooming in on the male character, this is

drawing the viewer into him and his life so they feel more invested, this is done so that

they sympathise with him when he is in danger.

Unlike before, the character’s eyes are closed. This makes him

shut of from the world and harder for the viewer to relate

to. This is done to show the change from his character being with society to being forced to be isolated from it because of

the events in the film.

By having his eyes closed, the character is vulnerable, this conveys to the viewer

the character is at risk

The house is filmed at a low angle, this conveys that the

house has power, putting the viewer at an inferior

position.

The establishing shot of a house as the camera tracks to the left

conveys a normal sub-urban family, which is relatable to viewers,

meaning the viewer will be more likely to relate to the characters.

That house is the only house shown in the shot, this makes the family seem isolated as no

neighbours are shown. Isolation plays to viewers’ apprehension

of being alone and gives the fear that no one is there to help

if the family are in trouble.

There has been non-diagetic sounds added

while this clip is shown, this is unsettling for the

viewer and increases tension.

There is a montage of the family leading a normal life, this is done to show the viewer that the event of the film could happen to

anyone, and that they themselves aren’t safe.

High key lighting is used to make the family and the house seem happy and

safe. This is done to show that a change in the atmosphere later in the trailer

when low key and chiaroscuro lighting is used, making the shots more dimly lit and

shadow-filled and, therefore, the shots seem more dangerous and unsafe.

The boxes in the background convey that the family are in the process of moving house.

This puts the family in a relatable position as many of the viewers will have moved house

before. The trailer also askes the audience to consider whether the family moving into the

new house will be welcomed by it. It suggests that from the moment they move in

things won’t be the same.

Next is a shot of the boy falling off a ladder, this creates sympathy with the viewer as

normal people don’t like seeing people, let alone kids, get seriously injured.

The low key lighting makes the place the boy is in seem very

dangerous and a bad place to be in.

The shot then cuts to the “Is Insidious Is Insidious,” screen which re occurs

through out the clip, this conveys to the viewer that the ladder incidence has something to do with the haunting.

The ladder breaking is in time with the metronome, this conveys to the audience that the antagonist has timed the incident to happen

– implying it wasn’t a freak accident. This shows how evil the antagonist is making the viewer want to see what happens.

This conveys the start of disequilibrium, contrasting

the previous shots of equilibrium.

The medium close up of the parents shows their worried emotion. There is the dialogue “he’s not in a coma,”

which creates intrigue for the viewer, making them want to see the film to

find out what’s happening

The over the shoulder shot shows the boy ‘not in a coma’ with his parents being so far away. This conveys how helpless the parents

are as they cannot get close to help or be with the boy, symbolising how helpless they are about the antagonist’s power, which is

separating them from their sick child.

The horse stops rocking in time to the metronome stopping, the sync

between non-diagetic sound and the rocking horse implies how powerful

the antagonist is.

The low key lighting, puts the horse in the shadows, making it look almost

sinister to the viewer. The sharp angles and misshapen horse further conveys

its disturbing impact.

The actress is being looked down on from an extreme high angle, this conveys the antagonist’s

dominance over the protagonist leaving her vulnerable, and gets the viewer to sympathise

with the protagonist.

The dialogue “now,” in a low pitcher with an echo and

distortion scares the viewer.

The shot is followed by an extreme low angle point of view shot from the actress

in the previous shot. This conveys the house’s dominance over the family.

The low key lighting in both shots creates many shadows, this shows

that there is much that is unknown and to fear in the

shadows.

The line “its not the house that’s haunted, it’s your son,” acts as a sound bridge between the

two clips. The builds tension for the viewer and gets them to sympathise for the son.

The close up on the actress’ face conveys her worried emotion to viewers. The choice in casting that actress

gives the appearance of a lady who looks nice and caring but with intelligence. Her age suggests experience in the

field, implying she isn’t a naive novice ghost hunter.

This shot may look at first insignificant, but it is pivotable to the disturbing atmosphere. The chiaroscuro lighting creates many shadows, causing the reader to not trust this part of the house, which looks like a cold, metallic, impenetrable, calculating heart. The use of a blue colour correction means

that this section of the trailer feels cold further showing to a viewer that this it is a menacing place to be. The lighting on the back wall could be

symbolism of a heart, therefore, conveying to the viewer that this is the heart of the house and the source of all the dismay in the film.

The extreme close up of one of the experts looking up shows how she is venerable and weak towards the antagonist, which is bad

because she is an expert. The extreme close up also show her fear. By showing an expert scared, the viewer understands how scary the

antagonist is making them want to see the film. It also begs the question, of whether the protagonists can escape or whether

disaster will totally overcome them?

gasp

There is a montage of the protagonists being

haunted in the film with the title being

intercut. The fast pace editing and cuts makes

the viewer feel on edge and distorted.

The trailer ends with a page of credits so that viewers can see who is associated with the film, and if they like

their previous works, they will go and see the film.

Towards the end of the trailer, the release date is shown. The mode of address uses the word

“everywhere,” implying the ghosts are released everywhere. The date April 1st is fools day.

The model’s eyes have been blacked out, this gives him an ominous look to the

viewer. ‘The eyes are the window to the soul’ and his eyes have been replaced by

a ghost, this conveys the plot that the boy is possessed. The model’s skin has been made really pale with his veins on show and heavy bruising around his neck. This conveys that the child is in danger and is probably dying, it’s then human instinct to care about the child, making people

see the film just to see if it’s okay.

The model’s eyes have been blacked out, this gives him an ominous look to the viewer. ‘The eyes are the

window to the soul’ and his eyes have been replaced by a ghost, this conveys the plot that the boy is possessed.

The hand in the window conveys the sinister and horror aspect to the

film. The fingers don’t look human like which intrigues the viewer as

they wonder what it could be, making them want to see the film.

The red door is in the centre of the picture and is the focus point of the picture. The red is symbolic of the

dangers that occur in the house and warns people not to come in, where as,

the light behind the door representing an afterlife. The use of connotations convey that the house is haunted, and sums up

the plot to a viewer.

There is an ‘expert witness,’ a review saying how scary the film is, people wanting to see a horror film will see this, and want to see the film as they know it’s scary.

The cloudy sky is an example of pathetic fallacy, implying that the family will go through some dark times. The poster uses the green and red colours to draw the viewer in so a vibrant

colour sky would hider the effectiveness of the poster.

The poster builds on the conventions of horror colour schemes as the most predominate colour is green. The

connotations of naturalness imply that the ghosts are apart of nature, and the relaxing side to colour , puts the viewer

into a false sense of security.

The measterhead is very iconic for the magazine meaning a viewer scanning a magazine rack will look at the masterhead and instantly know the magazine without reading anything. The name fits in with the horror genre with “fang” being pragmatics to vampires – a commonly recurring character in the horror genre. The typography makes the first and last letters look like

fangs, making the masterhead more iconic and continuing the vampire reference. The red outline to the masterhead makes it looks like it is dripping blood which conveys the horror genre. The sharp font also makes the text and the magazine look

dangerous which is appropriate for the horror genre and makes the reader want to buy the magazine.

The colour scheme follows horror conventions by using black, red and white. The red and white stand out from the black and are eye

catching. The red symbolises danger and the black death, the white could symbolise the purity of the child in the film or symbolise death for other cultured for example when

the film is advertised in china.

The secondary images at the bottom of the page show icon horror films which are also featured in the article. This helps to convey the films genre and shows to the reader that the magazine won’t just be about insidious.

The main image is of a ghost from the insidious and is iconic to the film. The use of chiaroscuro lighting makes the

model seem very dramatic and untrustworthy due it the shadows. The

way the face has been lit means the eyes can’t been seen, this further shows how untrustworthy the character is as it

can’t make eye contact – the eyes are referred to as the window to the soul,

so by having no eyes it implied that the character has no soul.

The source of light in the picture is a candle. A candle is a temporary light and is

easily extinguished, conveying how powerful the antagonist is as the candle is literally in its hand. Candles are a common feature of religion, which implies that the

ghosts are a god.