3rd Personal Trailer Review- The Babadook (2014)

NAME OF FILM: The Babadook
YEAR RELEASED: 2014
GENRE OF TRAILER: Horror
MARKS AFTER VIEWING: 7/10

What happened in the trailer?
The trailer begins with a mother reading a spooky bedtime story to her son. The child begins to have nightmares about the monster in the book and the paranoia of this soon reaches the mother. As the trailer goes on, indescribable events begin to occur and we discover that the monster is real and is haunting the family. There are a few scenes in which the mother is standing her ground and demanding that the monster leaves and then the trailer ends with the monster repeating a terrifying line from the book to the frightened mother.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
I really like the tension and suspense that builds over the duration of the trailer and I think this is a very important aspect of a horror trailer. I also really liked the conventional use of restricted narration where we would hear the story being told but not seeing the scenes that match up with it. It came across as intriguing and effective. The location of the actual film was enclosed and creepy which again is a convention of horror, as well as the low key lighting used throughout the whole trailer. This created the spooky mood and chilling atmosphere that was intended. The music for the trailer is mostly parallel all the way through and fits well with the general chilling vibe, and actually helps a lot with causing tension and suspense in the trailer because the music keeps building as it goes on. The cinematography in the trailer I also noticed was well varied and effective, and each shot worked well and effectively. Particularly when the mother shows anger towards the monster and the low angle makes her seem superior in that one moment. The intertitles for the trailer were also very effective and visually pleasing, and they fit well with the theme of children’s books that the film centres around. These are all aspects I would like to try and represent in my own trailer as I feel they result in an effective and successful trailer.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
The main aspect of this trailer that I was personally disappointed with was the lack of a jump scare. There were certainly moments scarier than others but there was a minimal use of collision cutting which decreased the pace of the trailer and ruined it for me. The pacing started off well but it then continued to increase too slowly and never reached the point where collision cutting could have been used or a quick sequence could have been added. The suspense builds all the way through only to end on another tense scene. Collision cutting is definitely something I intend to include in my own trailer.

Why did this trailer get the mark you gave it?
I only gave this trailer a 7/10 because I felt that it lacked the important horror trailer convention that is a jump scare. I thought the tension building worked very well to begin with but there is no climax at the end of the trailer and so you finish feeling disappointed that collision cutting was not used. For me, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to add a jump scare but it was not included which made the trailer seem a much slower pace, and I therefore didn’t think it was as successful as it could easily have been.