You’re Next Trailer Analysis

Camerawork:  This trailer starts with a close up shot of a CD player taking a CD, then after the lionsgate logo continues to establishing shots of the film’s setting showing it as a typically isolated area looking very peaceful. This is very typical of horror trailers using the calm area surrounded by nature connoting safety from the human world to juxtapose the rest of the film in which something will eventually kill and torment them all. This also puts the audience in a calm state with a lack of creepy atmosphere to exacerbate the shock of the up coming plot development and jump scares. The calm natural area looks desirable to the protagonists and the audience which allows the audience to relate to the protagonist’s situation of feeling calm and safe which makes them invest in the story presented by the trailer more.

The establishing shots then fade into close ups of certain features within the setting and characters continuing the calm atmosphere with a close up of the characters holding hands to say grace connoting a religious aspect of the characters. These people seem innocent and god fearing, as if they wouldn’t hurt anybody but the audience knows something terrible will happen to them. This helps the audience

Wide shot with car full of main characters in the centre shows very clearly the isolation they are headed towards, the car also looking very small in comparison to the shot suggests a connotation of weakness and being overwhelmed by nature.

The way the car is driving away from the camera symbolises the direction the characters are going is away from the society the audience are in.

The long dirt road connotes the idea of untamed wilderness. The end of the road being covered by the lone tree shows the characters going to an unknown location unseen by others.

once again relate to the protagonists/victims for a split second giving a lot of connotations of their innocence and showing them as good people, this makes the situation scarier as it shows the killers with no revenge style motives to kill, this could happen to anyone.

Once the calm atmosphere ends a nighttime scene is shown through a shot of a woman through a window in a point of view shot, this is a very widely used shot in the horror genre, especially in slasher films. It shows the innocent victim being watched, unaware of their impending doom. It is a convention of many horror films. This shot also uses the reflection of the window to create the composition showing the bunny mask staring at the victim creating the definite view of the bunny being the evil killer.

The trailer continues to use multiple close up shots of the characters looking out the windows of the house showing the characters realizing the danger around them creating the sense of unknown terror. A close up of a rock being thrown through the window is shown through a close up showing the danger very close to the audience to make them see the danger very closely and feel intruded just as the characters in the film do. This engrosses the audience in the film and is a convention of many horror films, showing the horror close up intensifies it.From this point on the camerawork in the trailer uses a steadicam with some shake on it to show the rest of the shots creating movement for the audience making them seem more included and creating the sense of fear in the movements.

Editing: The start of this trailer uses very slow editing between shots with use of fading; this connotes the calm atmosphere of the setting accompanied by the shots used and non-diegetic sound.

As the non diegetic music stops the editing also changes, the fading is replaced with cuts to give a sharper transition between tension creating shots. The cuts also use an extended time period for the black screen which leave the audience hanging onto each previous shot making the image of each character’s reaction to the situations around them making them memorable and leaving the audience wanting more information for each split second of black screen. The “Less is more” mentality is implemented here.

As the tension turns to horror the editing is used to excite the audience, when the crossbow is shown in a point of view shot the screen flickers, flashing black to the shot in time with the creepy non-diegetic sounds this transitions the trailer from the terror atmosphere to the horror atmosphere. Terror is the psychological horror method of scaring audiences by not showing the danger and letting the human imagination take over where as horror shows the danger normally close up invading the space of the characters and showing the danger very clearly. The flashing transitions this with the crossbow point of view shot.

The trailer then uses slow motion tracking shots of the characters moving to avoid the danger of the crossbow that isn’t very conventional of the horror genre but shows the audience a connotation of the action genre showing the film to be more exciting than the typical horror/slasher film. More slow motion is used as the bunny masked man breaks into a window and goes to kill a character with an axe, this builds the tension in this scene for the audience.

Sound: The use of sound in this trailer is very conventional of horror genre trailers. The starting of this trailer uses the calm non-diegetic music “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed from 1972. It is played relatively quietly with clips of the characters talking saying very nice sounding lines “Beautiful” “Thanks to Mum and Dad” which creates the calm atmosphere in order to destroy it with the horror on it’s way.

The music is then interrupted by a dropping sound effect as if it’s representing the character’s high mood being lowered as danger is on it’s way connoting the decent from humans to targets for the film’s killer/s. This shows the change in tone of the trailer to the conventions of horror.

In the Point of view shot into the window as the bunny mask is revealed in the reflection of the window an ominous sound effect creating the creepy atmosphere as the antagonist is first on screen which shows the audience

Mise-en-scene: The most prominent prop used in this trailer is the mask. The killer in the plot wears a creepy rabbit mask; this is conventional of the genre as it

disguises the killer and dehumanizes them making them more representative of a threat to the characters in the story rather than a human who is killing them. Giving the killer the false identity shows them more as a danger than a character and a catalyst for the story.

Another notable prop is the crossbow used by the killer shown in the point of view shots and the bolts shown in close up tracking shots showing the stopping power of the weapon, this shows the danger of the weapon in the hands of the killer.Other potential weapons are shown in this trailer in the slow motion tracking shot, a pot of knives is knocked over and scattered across the floor connoting the surrounding of the victim with danger as the victim falls over with knives in the foreground falling around them.

Crossbow bolt in the family portrait shows a clear image of the theme of the film and the danger the characters are about to encounter.