3rd Class Trailer Review- Toxic Avenger

NAME OF FILM: Toxic Avenger
YEAR RELEASED: 1985
GENRE OF TRAILER: Comedy Horror
MARKS AFTER VIEWING: 1/10

What happened in the trailer?
The first part of the trailer shows the main protagonist being bullied before he turned into a superhero from landing in toxic waste. It then shows him saving the day and being a hero, followed by a collection of different scenes showing him as a superhero.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
The only positive aspect of this trailer that I can force myself to mention is that some of the cinematography was good for the time of release for this film. I could also compliment the fact that they included the generic feature of body horror.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
This trailer as a whole was disappointing, unsuccessful and tedious. I found it hard to watch as I feel it is such an awful trailer and goes on for much too long. It is over 3 minutes long, and I find that 2 minutes is a long trailer so this seemed to go on for a long while. The disadvantage of having a long trailer is that too much of the plot was revealed, and this particular trailer revealed almost the entire narrative of the film. Another problem encountered by the duration of the trailer was that it became repetitive and the narrator overused the term ‘Toxic Avenger’. I also found that there were too many puns and clichés throughout the trailer and as a result, the comedy horror was not funny in any way. I couldn’t even laugh at how awful this trailer was, because it was so tedious and overly tacky. The intertitles were awfully presented but fit in with the aesthetics of the trailer’s vulgarity. The editing was very simple and there were no impressive cuts or montages or even quick sequences. In addition, the music was contrapuntal and didn’t go well with the trailer at all. In some cases contrapuntal music works but in this case it just made the trailer much more unimpressive. Also, the sound effects were tacky and unrealistic which again made it worse. As a whole, watching this trailer was a bad experience and put me off ever watching the film as I'm sure it would with most horror fans. It doesn’t appeal to the audience in the slightest.

What the average score in class was and why:

This trailer only scored a 3/10 as a class average, because of its general failure to excite the audience and disappoint anyone interested in horror. Everything about it was tacky and cliché, which isn’t what modern audiences look for in a horror film. However, I'm sure at the time of its release there were some people who enjoyed the film.

2nd Class Trailer Review- Evil Dead

NAME OF FILM: Evil Dead
YEAR RELEASED: 2013
GENRE OF TRAILER: Horror
MARKS AFTER VIEWING: 9/10

What happened in the trailer?
At the beginning of the trailer, the narrative is established and we see that something evil has been released from a seemingly important book and possesses the characters and is attacking them. We then see a montage of clips from the movie showing the horrific occurrences that the evil does to the characters which is mostly body horror.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
My favourite aspect of this trailer is the fact that there was lots of body horror shown and so it was clear all the way through that the genre was a gory horror and there were genuinely horrific moments that proved promising for horror fanatics. Another positive aspect of this trailer was the fact that it established the narrative of the film and didn’t just focus on the body horror. The audience were left with a general understanding of what the narrative will be when they watch the film and told the story which also was an exciting narrative and wont bore the audience that watch this trailer. I also really liked how the intertitles appeared with the beat of the music dramatically and so it made them stand out a lot more than they would if they appeared randomly. This is something I would like to include in my own trailer because it adds a sense of sharpness and refinement. In terms of editing, I thought that the quick montage sequences were very effective and created the perfect feeling of panic while watching the trailer and it helped the pace of the trailer to become more exciting. Also with editing, I thought that the collision cutting was very effectively executed and it was consistent throughout the trailer. It would go from slow paced and narrative-based, to quick flashes of action and body horror. This trailer showed the conventions of horror that are an enclosed creepy location, low key lighting and body horror. The mise-en-scene was perfectly fitting to the film and worked extremely well. One of my personal favourite parts of this trailer is the scene after the final intertitle is shown. I really like how instead of following the general expectations of having a jump scare at the end, they decided to have a horrifically gory moment with someone slicing open their tongue and licking a woman’s face. In my opinion, it was the perfect ending to a fantastic trailer and fit flawlessly with the sub-genre as this isn’t a horror movie where there will be many jump scares and will mostly consist of shocking body horror.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
In contrast to the positive aspects of the trailer, there were parts which I found disappointing as if they were corrected it would’ve been a perfect trailer. Firstly, I thought that there was far too much body horror shown and ruined the shock that the audience would experience if they were to watch the film. If you watch the trailer before the film, you would’ve seen all of the extreme body horror and so it would be disappointing as a result. I think they should’ve left the body horror to the imagination and maybe used restricted narration to tease some of the gore. In addition to this, I think that there was too much of the plot revealed. At the beginning it establishes the narrative well but it then goes too far and spoils the later events in the film which I feel are unnecessary to the trailer and reveals too much plot. This is very similar to the body horror problem and I think this is because the trailer as a whole was far too long. They could’ve ended the trailer earlier and saved some of the surprise for when you watch the film but because it was over 2 minutes long, too much was revealed.

What the average score in class was and why:
The class averaged a score of 9/10 and was the highest scoring trailer that we reviewed. The general view of the trailer was that the intertitles were appealing and successful, there was plenty of collision cutting, the use of parallel music was effective and there were genuinely horrific body horror moments. Most of the class agreed that it would have received a perfect 10 if they had restricted the amount of body horror and plot that was revealed to the audience.

1st Class Trailer Review- 30 Days of Night

NAME OF FILM: 30 Days of Night
YEAR RELEASED: 2007
GENRE OF TRAILER: Horror/Thriller
MARKS AFTER VIEWING: 9/10

What happened in the trailer?
At the beginning of the trailer, we see a man and woman silently still in a kitchen and something suddenly bursts through the window and drags away the now screaming woman. The screen then fades to black and we see clips of the film which seems to be about a town where night lasts for 30 days and vampires attack them.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
The editing in this trailer is very successful. I really like the use of fast paced editing to create suspense and excitement for the film, and I like the clever use of collision cutting. The use of a jump scare at the beginning of the trailer is cunning and unexpected which makes it much more effective and successfully scares the audience which is what horror fans love and expect from a horror trailer. Rather than finishing with a typical jump scare, the trailer ends with explosions and quick sequences which express the more action-oriented part of the film. But the use of the jump scare earlier in the trailer indicates that this film will be scary as well as action packed. The appearance of this trailer in general is very effective and the dingy filter used looks aesthetically pleasing and fits the themes in the film. Another aspect of the trailer which I feel makes it successful is that the vampires are not shown too much and so it teases the audience as to what they look like, which leaves the element of surprise for the film when it is shown in cinemas as it doesn’t give away the plot or characters backgrounds. In addition to this, the intertitles used between clips on this trailer don’t give too much information away but inform us enough to be helpful. Also, the intertitles are animated to change to red when the trailer picks up and becomes more action packed which connotes danger and blood which then foreshadows events of the film. I also thought that the music used in this trailer was very clever and interesting. For the first half of the trailer, parallel music was used to set the mood and show that it is a horror film and it worked really well with the suspense and then in the second half when the action picked up, the music was slightly more contrapuntal than parallel and if you heard the music in another context, you wouldn’t imagine it being linked to a horror movie. I felt that this works well because it showed that the film isn’t pure horror and does have elements of action and thriller, and this is good because it establishes the genre to the audience so they know what to expect. The cinematography in this trailer was also varied and interesting, and showed that it isn’t a boring film with the same shot used continuously. Close ups were shown which is a typical convention of horror, as well as a creepy location which again establishes the genre of the film.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
The reason I didn’t give the trailer any more than 9/10 was because I felt that the trailer could have been much better with a few small changes. Firstly, I felt that there were far too many fades to black in between clips. I think they worked to begin with and teased scenes to the audience but as they were used more, they became tedious and unnecessary. I felt that it ruined the pace of the trailer slightly and jump cuts could’ve been more effective for the content and events of this particular film. I also felt that the trailer as a whole was too long and maybe used too many clips. It lasts just over 2 minutes and shows a lot of footage from the film, which I feel is enough and maybe a little too much. It teases the audience to begin with but doesn’t stop where it should stop and continues to show us more of the action sequences in the film which some people could view as spoiling the action in the film when they watch it. Other than these aspects, I think the trailer was highly effective and successful.

What the average score in class was and why:

The average score in class that this trailer received was 8/10. The general opinion as a whole was that it was a fantastic action horror trailer and showed enough conventions of this sub-genre to make it clear to the audience what this film would be like to watch. The class also really liked the use of intertitles and felt that it complimented the genre and overall composition of the trailer.

3rd Dawn of the Dead (1979) Image Analysis

This scene clearly shows body horror and is one of the more gruesome moments in the film. It indiscreetly illustrates the more relaxed censorship that was in order at the time of this film’s release and that they could get away with more horrific body horror. The film was released as unrated in the USA as a result of the body horror, and had about 11 seconds cut out resulting in a UK release rated 18. However, it was still a huge success and made millions worldwide and made a huge profit. I think audiences would have been ready for the body horror as the 1970s institutional context included movies being released such as The Exorcist and I Spit on your Grave which steadily pushed the boundaries of on screen violence and so the audience for this film would have seen this before. Although this was becoming more popular in the film industry it was still seen as shocking that this was shown. Special FX Technician Tom Savini had a major influence on the body horror effects in this film and used his auteur style and used experiences from his soul to create more visually shocking effects. This was portrayed in the realism of the effects. Also, the close up of the guts being eaten by the zombies implies that the director wanted this to be seen and wanted it to be one of the main moments of the film as it was most likely exciting to have the ability to show this much. This is also one of the only moments that we see what the zombies can really do and shows them as the monster of the film and shows them as a danger rather than an obstruction.

2nd Dawn of the Dead (1979) Image Analysis

This scene is of Peter and Stephen enjoying their time at the shopping mall and they are taking advantage of the ability to get away with anything they want. This scene highlights consumerism and this is very effective with the audience because at the time of the film’s release, shopping malls were a new and exciting obsession for Americans and it was the start of something new. This illustrates Janet Staiger’s audience/context theory and the idea that in order for the audience to fully understand a film, they have to understand the time of when the film was released and so in this case, it would apply to the audience knowing about consumerism. The whole idea of the film being set in a shopping mall shows just how exciting these were for Americans at the time because the zombies are walking around in them implying that they are relatable and want to spend time shopping. This scene is part of a montage of clips showing the characters enjoying the mall which again highlights consumerism which is a main theme and ideology in this film. Romero himself as auteur of the film, was not a fan of consumerism and so he would’ve wanted to put people off from it and so made Peter and Stephen look like thieves so that the audience would feel bad about it. The shot itself in a high, long expressionist angle and shows that the survivors are not superior and that the zombies are in fact dominating the world and there are too many of them for them all to be stopped. Despite their smiles, it also shows how they are trapped in the mall by the zombies and while they are enjoying it now, they won’t be in the long term.

1st Dawn of the Dead (1979) Image Analysis

This scene is when there is a zombie on the way to attack Peter and Stephen is unsuccessfully trying to shoot the zombie. However, he fails to do so and Roger pushes him out of the way and takes over. In this shot, a phallic symbol has been used to show the masculinity of the characters and how they are using guns. This shows how the character who we would most expect to be the male hero in this film is actually terrible with a gun and has no idea what he is doing. He continues to be inept throughout most of the film even though he is tall, good looking and a TV reporter. With this occupation and appearance, he is the typical male hero but Romero has decided to make him awful in this situation. This is something that the film's auteur George A. Romero likes to do in his films as he likes to shock people by flipping the characters around and therefore challenge the horror conventions. In Romero’s film ‘Day of the Dead’, one of the zombies is one of the heroes of the film which is another example of his auteur style and shocking the audience by not adhering to Propp’s Character theory. This particular shot is a mid-shot which is not an expected convention of a horror film but works well in this scene as it shows the audience what is happening in the scene and allows them to fully engage with the characters and what they are doing. Also, it would be largely irrelevant to use a lot of close ups in a gory horror because they are mainly used in psychological horrors so we can see emotion.

3rd Psycho Image Analysis

This scene is the moment in the film where everything is revealed and we learn that Norman’s mother was dead all along and that Norman has been dressing up as her and killing innocent people for his enjoyment. This links to Ed Gein because it is a known fact that he was a serial killer and would kill women for their skin so that he could become his mother. The fact that the skeleton is smiling suggests that the mother is proud of her son. Norman’s Oedipus Complex has led him to become obsessed with his mother even after she has passed and he brings her back to life through himself. The skeleton of the mother is found in an enclosed creepy basement which is a convention of the mise-en-scene in horror films. The low key lighting also puts forward the idea of good and evil parts of the mind and that this body sparked the psychotic acts that Norman performed. When the mother’s skeleton was revealed, the moving light bulb produced the illusion of the eyes and mouth moving which made the scene much more terrifying as it didn’t seem like the mother was dead. This illusion is relevant because it shows us that to Norman, his mother isn’t dead and so we are made to feel sympathy for him as he doesn’t really know what he is doing. This revelation is an important moment in the narrative of the film because it shows the source of Norman’s deranged mind and ties up any questions the audience may have had while watching the film.

2nd Psycho Image Analysis

This is the scene where Marion is killed by Norman/Norma (Norman's mother). The low key lighting in this scene hides the identity of the murderer, who we later find out is Norman dressed as his mother. This is the first moment in the film where the editing changes to fast-paced and there are quick sequences, as it is the first murder. It is also the first time the audience will associate the film with Ed Gein case which the movie was based on. This demonstrates Janet Staiger’s Audience Theory and the people watching this movie would be terrified as they can now recognise the character as Ed Gein which was the man involved with the case that had only recently happened prior to the release of the film. What viewers found so terrifying was that two years prior to the film’s release, the real Ed Gein was discovered to have killed two women and use their skin to make a costume and pretend to be his mother, and this was shown in Psycho. The murder is brutal for the time period the film was released in, and would be seen as shocking. In the 1960s the Hays Code was pushed to the limits by Psycho and so people wouldn’t have expected this scene at this time of limited films. The cinematography for this scene was mostly close ups/point of view shots which are the best camera angles for showing emotion in a scene and to this movie, emotion is an important concept. The parallel music used in this scene is very successful and has become an iconic sound for murder scenes in horror films as it is loud and unpleasant which usually fits with the events of horror films. The collision cutting used in this scene creates a jump scare which to this day is the most recognisable aspect of a psychological horror. The auteur of this film, Alfred Hitchcock, was well known for being the master of montage editing and this scene is an iconic use of his talents with filmmaking and editing. This scene also portrays the idea of sadism and how the murderer is enjoying seeing Marion in pain and scared by making the stabbing over-exaggerated

1st Psycho Image Analysis

This scene shows Norman Bates looking through the wall to the room where Marion is staying. He is watching her as she undresses before she has a shower. The scene has low key lighting and the shadows are covering the majority of Norman’s face which foreshadows the truth behind the murders. This voyeuristic act by Norman illustrates Laura Mulvey’s “Male Gaze” theory, and shows the audience the first sign that Norman is psychotic.  This is also the first sign we see that Norman is attached to Marion in an abnormal way. This scene is the most prominent presentation of voyeurism from auteur ‘Alfred Hitchcock’. In real life, Hitchcock himself was a voyeur fascinated by blonde women. In many of his films he would enjoy watching blonde women suffer as they acted out the scenes he specifically wrote for blondes. An example of this is the shower scene in Psycho and it is rumoured that Hitchcock made sure the water used was ice cold so that he could watch the blonde actress suffer and scream. The angle of this shot allows us to see the concentration on Norman's face as he is watching Marion, and it purposefully shows us the darkness covering Norman’s mind which represents the part of him that he created to deal with his mother’s death and shows his schizophrenia.