FINAL DESTINATION 5 TRAILER ANALYSIS – SHAUN LIDDLE

At the beginning of a horror trailer there is usually some kind

of establishing shot, however in the Final Destination 5

trailer the first thing we see is the object in which kills one of

the characters. White fade edits are used in the trailer which

in not a typical convention of horror trailers as usually they

stick to black fades. As the trailer progresses we see a

woman lying on a bed waiting to get laser eye surgery. The camera pans up from the woman’s body to her face, and

then we see a close up of the woman’s scared face, this is done to highlight the emotion in which the woman has. A

high angle shot is used to give connotations of the woman’s vulnerability. Dialogue is used as we hear the woman

say ‘a lot is going on in my life I don’t want to miss anything’ this gives the audience the impression that the woman

is watching her back. The audience will also know this because they would have seen the previous four films.

More white fades are used and the lighting of the shots is extremely bright. I feel that this represents a morgue

which therefore represents death, which shows where she will be going very soon. Serine Non-Diegetic sound is then

used as the man leaves the room to go and collect another file. This automatically gives the audience the impression

that something bad is going to happen. We then see a close-up of a monitor warning the machine should not exceed

5.0mW as the machine reaches 5.1mW this highlights the fact something terrible is going to happen. We then hear

the woman shout ‘is that supposed to be happening’ in a worried voice, this also connotes the helplessness of the

woman as there is nothing she can do. The viewers then see a close-up of the emergency stop button which is red;

this connotes a sense of danger and also connotes blood. After this we see a close-up shot of the woman’s face

denoting a frightened look. We also hear the woman screaming which shows she is in pain highlighting her

vulnerability. A red flash of the laser eye machine is then shown, in addition this connotes the sense of danger which

is about to occur. Dialogue is then used as the woman screams ‘HELP ME!’ this is a typical horror convention in which

director’s use in films because it shows the defencelessness of the victims.

As the trailer continues it takes us back to the

past with a voice over saying ‘you’re not

supposed to be here, you were supposed to die

on that bridge’ we then also see a establishing

high angle shot of the bridge which shows the

audience where the characters were supposed

to die. The audience will know of this because they would have seen the previous four films. We then see the

tragedy that was supposed to occur on the bride, as this happens we also hear a deep voice over saying ‘the lucky

few survive the disaster’ this is a typical horror convention as the voice over is used in many horror films to effect the

audience. More dialogue is then used ‘then one by one death comes to them all’ the directors use the voice over’s to

summarise the main plot of the film. As the trailer progresses rock music is used as it comes to the end of the trailer,

this is used as the edits get faster to create excitement for the audience. We then see a close up shot of a coroner

which quite obviously represents death therefore reflects of the genre of the film. I have noticed in this film trailer

that the clips are not used chronologically; the director does this to keep the audience attached to the trailer, rather

than just having a long running boring sequence of the trailer.

The pace of the trailer starts to get faster towards the end showing certain clips of how the tragedies happen. We

also see typical horror conventions as certain props such as knives are used to also create the sense of death. We

then see a close –up shot of a girl screaming which is also a typical convention which directors use in films.

As the title slowly fades into the screen at the end the audience think that the trailer is ending, however we then go

back to another clip. We see a close-up of a woman giving acupuncture and then there is a cut to a high angle shot of

a man lying on a bed getting the acupuncture, this connotes the vulnerability of the victim. As the audience have sat

through the whole trailer they expect that something bad is going to happen to the man. As the camera pans down

the man’s body showing all of the needles in him. We then see the legs of the table collapse and then the man fall’s

face down onto the floor with the needles sticking in him; this adds a squeamish effect the audience making them

literally hide their face in their hands. This is shown in the film trailer to make the audience involved.