Film Trailer Analysis - Sorority Row

I have chosen to analyse the Sorority Row trailer as it is one of the films which has most inspired me throughout the creative process of this course. Although I have chosen to produce a trailer of the Supernatural sub genre, certain elements of this film relate to my narrative; and also by combining different characteristics of the two sub genres it will create further intrigue and excitement for the audience as both genres

After discovering that her boyfriend Garrett cheated on her, sorority sister Megan, with the help of her sorority friends - Cassidy, Jessica, Ellie, Claire and Chugs, Garrett's sister, pulls a prank on him; she fakes her own death while making out with him. With the help from the ‘sisters’, Garrett brings Megan to a steel mill, intent on dumping her body in the lake. After Jessica jokingly mentions they need to release the air out of her lungs so her body won't float to the top, Garrett stabs Megan through the chest with a tire iron, killing her for real. Panicking, the group decides to dump Megan's body in the mine, along with the tire iron. Eight months later, the girls have grown apart and put the incident behind them, although Cassidy still feels guilty about the whole thing. During the party held after graduation, the girls all receive a picture sent to their phones: a robed arm holding the bloody lug wrench Garrett used to kill Megan. One by one the girls are killed in gruesome and terrifying methods, eventually leading them all to question

As the Sorority Row trailer begins the genre of the film is not clear to the audience. The American house party shown in the beginning of the trailer refers to the target audience; we see this as teenagers are drinking alcohol having fun, with an upbeat track running in the background. Edits are used at the start of the trailer showing the clips lasting for about one second; this is used to highlight the fun element to the trailer. The setting is clearly established at the start of the trailer as it is shown before anything else. In order to establish the setting the camera pans the house to give the audience a full view. As the film is set in a university this also reflects on the younger target audience. The mise-en-scene at the beginning of the trailer denotes young people dancing, drinking and cheering this connotes a sense of fun to the start of the trailer. The director uses this sense of fun at the start so the audience do not expect the trailer to end in the way it does, therefore this highlights the dramatic change. Camera angles and movements are used differently at the start of the trailer low angle shots are used to connote the power the characters have at the time. As the trailer continues we see edits cut to the girls, which basically establishes the main characters within the film. Dialogue is used from one of the characters which gives the audience a view of the story line ‘that boy needs to be taught a lesson’ this sounds as if the film is based on revenge as the Non-Diegetic sound suddenly stops when the character says this line. We then see a prank take place where a boy is shown making out with a girl, without him knowing it’s going to be a prank. The girl then pretends to be sick, choking on her own vomit. The director makes it clear to the audience that this is a prank because of the edits. A text clip appears saying ‘A PRANK’ then after several seconds we then see ‘NO ONE WOULD EVER FORGET’, the text clips are used to make the storyline clear to the audience, and to back up the moving image in case the audience do not know what is going on. As there is cut to the car scenes a handheld camera is used within the car to make the scene look more realistic.

 A number of different musical track are used in the trailer as the upbeat party track changes to ‘They did a bad, bad thing’. We then see the car pull up to a typical horror movie scene, where the friends are about to dump the body even though this is still a prank. With the boy actually thinking that he has murdered the girl he then actually stabs her with a tool from the car. When this happens a screeching Non-Diegetic sound effect is used to make the audience jump and therefore this gets them involved. The edits used also turns the screen colour into black and white which highlights the sudden change from the fun jokes, to the seriousness of the trailer. The clips then start to turn to a faster pace as the moving image trailer now gets exciting. Screams and cries are then used which is a typical horror convention used in all horror films. The audience now see more text clips including things such as ‘A SECRET’ and ‘NO-ONE WOULD EVER TELL’ the director does this to summarise the film.

However, when the prank becomes reality the music starts to become fast and the editing as well, they include close-ups of the characters reaction to allow the audience to identify with them. They use back lighting to create suspense and mystery. Throughout, manly they use fade to black to connote everything you are watching is building up to something bad. Then the music is still parallel with the scenes as they are all celebrating there graduation but their facials expressions are contrapuntal to the music. You could also say by having a celebration after connotes the relief of throwing the body, evidence of any dead body away. They use close focus on some of the girls in the ‘sorority group’ to emphasise on the facial expressions and allow the audience to relate to them. They allow the audience to see the man in the hooded gowns from one of the protagonists view and then an extreme close up to her eye to connote her feelings and how she actually feels because she widens her eye to connote shock and a bombshell.

They use both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds to allow the audience to have a feel of some of the movie, by using diegetic. By using non-diegetic allows the audience to have more enigma codes presented to them as the voice over gives some clues in to how they feel and what they are thinking but then it makes the audience think twice about what they are shown and screams to show the audience that they will be screaming throughout the movie and the excitement after.

A close up shot is shown of the victims hands and then we see her get dragged away, this is also a typical horror convention used in a variety of horror films. Shortly after a long shot is used showing a silhouette of the girls and the killer as they prepare to dispose of the victim’s body down a mine shaft. A worm’s eye view shot is then used as the body gets dropped down the mine shaft, which connotes the power in which the murderers have, the worm’s eye view shot also remains as the weapon is dropped on top of the girl. The screen then cuts to a white cut which lasts for about four seconds. We then see the graduates celebrating which is also another dramatic change within the trailer. However we then hear some dialogue saying ‘no matter how happy as this day is, one of our sisters is still missing, to Megan!’ this shows that it is now in the present as the characters dwell on the past. Text tones alert when there is a close up on a picture message of the murder weapon. This indicates that the body has been found therefore the girls start to worry. The trailer then refers back to the start and one of the most vital parts of the storyline as dialogue is used ‘it’s a prank; it got to be a prank’. As the trailer shows the first murder the girl is lying down on a sofa which connotes the vulnerability. The killer is also hidden and dressed in black who represents death.

The costume is a graduation costume therefore it could be anyone as it is the graduation day, this keeps the audience thinking, and makes them determine to find out who the killer is. As the second killing proceeds, the lighting makes the shot look red which connotes blood therefore relates the genre of the film. As the camera cuts to a wall with a message saying you’re next written in blood it is typical of a horror film to include death threats as such. The clip then goes quiet for a number of seconds which automatically makes the audience think something to make them jump is going to happen; we then see a girl jump up and slam against the window. The crescendo used also makes the audience jump and indicates that something scary is going to happen. After this we see a number of fast clips showing an action packed finale of the trailer. The clips show the killer chasing the characters however we don’t see any of them get killed, this leaves the audience is suspense so they will go and see the film. The crescendo of music then cuts as the title of the film is shown. Finally we are then left with some humour as there is a medium shot of an old lady holding a gun when saying ‘don’t think I’m afraid of you, I run a house with 50 crazy bitches’ this is used to show the element of humour in which the horror includes, therefore leaves the trailer on a positive.