The Woman in Black Film Trailer Analysis

The trailer begins with a warning for the audience about the age restrictions and limitations of the film, this is indicative of the horror/thriller genre as it is frequently used to signify and warn of gory or frightening content within the trailer.

The second shot to be shown in the trailer is a short 2 second clip of a train pulling away from a platform to reveal the main character, there is no sound featured in this clip until the sound of heavy wind and church bells chime in time with the editing of the next shot which lists the various conglomerates involved in making the trailer, CBS Films , a company widely recognised for films of the horror genre such as “The Last Exorcism” and “Afflicted”, along with Cross Creek Pictures who produced films such as “Black Swan” and other thrillers and Hammer for films such as “The Quiet Ones. All of the production companies involved are shown in this shot on a black background to allude to the fact that this is trailer for a horror movie.

The next 20 seconds consist of showing the audience the setting of the film which is the dark and creepy looking haunted house, all of which are lit darkly under darkness or clouded skies, it also reveals a marginal amount of the plot line, which a small amount of speech from various characters warning the main character off the house and talking about opening doors to the past.

 

This proceeded by this image of a family picture with the eyes of the subjects scratched out – an eye line match the main character to show the audience from his point of view what he can see and therefore involving them in the trailer and content of the film- to the background of the house previously seen in the start of the trailer revealing a link to the audience, which is edited to the beat of the deep ringing sound in the background.

The next shot is a zoomed in version of the above picture to reveal a scary looking foggy image of a woman as this is again editing in sync with the sound this is created to put the audience on edge, make them jump but also show the main story line without giving too much away so that the audience will still want to watch the film. Directly after this is dialogue from the main character “I think she’s after me” before revealing a door opening, this all links together after the same image of the family is cut to again with the eyes of the family scratched out. All of the shots are becoming increasingly shorted and more jump cuts are used.

The next sequence of shots use a change in background music, as each shot cuts to black there is a thudding noise before cutting to the next shot, its change from a distant sound of creepy bells chiming to thuds editing in sync to the jump cuts of the protagonist investigating the house which sound as though they could coming from within the house , as shown above there is a long shot of a rocking chair swinging back and forth, the lighting in this sequence is very dark, with only a small amount of natural light through the window behind the chair, each of these cuts only lasts a second adding to the overall drama of the trailer and building up tension.

The next of these shot is the one above this is the first time that we really see the main character in any detail. The under lighting from the candle illuminates the expression of the character and also adds creepy looking shadows into the background, more is also revealed in this shot by the period clothing, which tells the audience that this is a period horror movie. After this shot there is an eye line match back to the rocking chair so the audience can see exactly what the character is afraid of.

 

Before the shot above there is a white flash across the screen to simulate a flash of lightning, before cutting to a long shot with a new diegetic background sound of rain to indicate that an outside setting has been introduced. This is again followed by an eye line match to show the point of view of protagonist.

The nest scene is of a child’s toy before cutting to a scene where a shadow creeps down the corridor to show the psychological thriller elements of the film to play with the audiences expectations and minds.

 

This text appears as though it has been written onto the window the=at the character was looking through in the previous shit, this use of graphics is clear as it looks as though it is raining. The text also relates to a previous part of the trailer where one of the character says “If we open the door to suspicion where does that lead?” implying that the audience are about to find out where “the door” leads to.

 

The next series of shots are fast paced and take place within around 5 seconds; the one above is one of the first in the sequence it shows another eye line match as the character looks out of the window and his face quickly fragments into the haunting woman, after the previously quiet and slower paced parts of the trailer this comes as a shock to make the audience jump, the sound becomes sharper and louder, after this the cuts get quicker and quicker as well as showing more horrifying scenes such as crying children and a room on fire.

After this dramatic sequence of shots, it falls silent for the final shot of the trailer, this gives an eerie feel to the whole trailer to summarise the film, it also relates back to the other text shown in the trailer.