Friday the 13th - Horror trailer

In this trailer there are not many interitles, except numbers counting up from 1-13 which fits in with the name 'Friday the 13th.' As each number comes up something bad happens to each of the characters involved. By having nearly no intertitles, there is room for more scenes to encourage audience members to watch the film. Although the trailer shows a lot of scenes, it does not give too much about the film away as the killer is only shown once or twice and where he has come from is unknown.

The genre of this film is horror, as it involves a group of people going to a deserted lake house where some sort of evil human being called Jason is lurking waiting to have his revenge for reasons unknown. There is a lot of screaming, murder and blood which fits in with the cliches of the horror genre.

The target audience for this film would most likely be 18 upwards as it is quite gory and scary, and probably involves strong language. Also people of a younger audience may find it too scary to watch and may not be appropriate for them.

The unique selling point of this film could be that it is from the directors of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' which was quite a successful film and many people applauded it on it's scare factor. As it is from directors who succeeded with a different film, the audience may be encouraged to watch it as they expect it to be just as good. The element of the 'Jason' person, where he has comes from and why he is doing what he is doing, could also be a unique selling point and he is not explored much and is sinister and mysterious so we want to know more about him.

The narrative in this trailer is a group of people go to a deserted lake house in 'Camp Crystal Lake' where a mysterious person called Jason lives. A girl goes missing and as her brother desperately tries to find her an old woman informs him that no one ever goes missing, they die. As this Jason character enters our screens, he begins to kill many people, and the trailer then ends saying 'His name was Jason, and today is his birthday.' The trailer gives us a sort of storyline, but also stays mysterious so we want to see the film to find out everything there is to know.

At the beginning of this trailer there is a high angle shot of a lake to establish the setting. There is then a low angle shot of a 4x4 driving through a forest by that same lake which shows that this location is of importance. We then see mid shots of all the characters to establish them and who they are, and that they are important. We also see their relationships with each other. Further into the trailer there is a long shot of a girl water skiing across the lake which shows how vulnerable she is as she is in a big open space where anything could get her. As she falls off the ski the shot changes to a close up where we see her frightened look as she spots something lurking in the trees. There is then a close up of loads of 'missing' posters with a girls face on them in a pile with a shoe stepping on them. As the trailer continue there is an extreme close up of a girl screaming which makes us wonder what she has to scream about and where she is. There is then loads of close ups of the different characters faces, which show the fright they are feeling, which suggests they are in a very dangerous place with no way of escaping. As one of the characters moves a curtain back, we see a mid shot of 'Jason' standing behind her which is incredibly quick but frightening, as he is wearing some sort of mask to cover his facial expressions. Towards the end of the trailer, when numbers start to appear, Jason starts to kill people in many different ways. Most of the shots are mid shots or long shots in order to fill everything he is doing into the shot, so there is nothing we miss out on.

The pace of this trailer is quite slow at first, so that we familiarise ourselves with the characters, their relationships and who they are. As the 'baddy' starts being shown the scenes speed up so we do not 100% know what he looks like or is he is a human or monster. This is effective as we are encouraged to keep on watching the trailer in the hope of seeing more of him and what he is planning on doing to these people. When the trailer gets to the number scenes, the trailer speeds up dramatically so that we do not capture every single thing that is happening, but do get to see that loads of people get attacked. We even see a police officer and people we have not seen before be victims, so we are encouraged to watch the film to find out who they are and where they came from. The fast cuts and short takes increase tension and overload our senses as there is so much happening at once.

In this trailer there is happy music at the beginning where they move into the cabin, but as the girl falls off the ski, the music becomes very dark and scary, and sounds like a drum beat. There is then a sort of sound effect that would generally be made when someone dies on a heart rate monitor, which could suggest that people are going to die as it is a horror film. After the old lady says 'she ain't missing, she's dead' there is a loud drum beat coupled with a scream, this tells us that the murders are beginning to take place, and the scream could be from the missing girl. In this trailer there is plenty of sound effects like a heart beat and breathing etc. which follows on to what sounds like a person laughing in the background. There is not a common music throughout except towards the end which is dramatic and tense, which helps create the atmosphere that is wanted throughout the trailer.  

There is quite a lot of dialogue throughout so that we hear conversations between the characters. It also enables us to find out why they are going to this deserted 'camp crystal lake' and their relationships with each other. The use of dialogue adds more tension to the trailer as we are given some information about what happens to people when they stay at 'Camp Crystal Lake.' 'People go missing around here, they gon' for good' this is effective as it encourages us to watch the full trailer and the film to see how the people go missing, and where they may possibly end up when they go missing. If there wasn't dialogue in this trailer it may be difficult to understand, and the message may not be put across properly so the trailer would not be as frightening as it is when dialogue is included.

At the beginning of the trailer we hear an old woman say 'Did you know a young boy drowned here? He was my son, and today is his birthday.' The effect of having this voice over is it sounds creepy and distant, and informs us on some information as to who the killer might be, and why he may still be residing around this lake. By telling us he drowned there, it intrigues the audience as it creates mystery surrounding the character of Jason and whether or not he is the killer, or simply a victim in it all. It also makes us wonder, 'if he is the killer, how did he manage to survive drowning without anyone knowing.' At the end of this trailer, the same creepy distant voice appears informing us 'his name was Jason, and today is his birthday.' This makes us question why he comes out on his birthday to kill, and what relevance there is to killing on his birthday.