Saturday 10 November 2012

Trailer Analysis 3

Child's Play



The music played at the beginning of the trailer sounds like it is coming from a child's music box. This automatically gives the audience the impression that it is about a child. However the music sounds very eerie leaving a sinister twist on something that should be innocent. This creates the sense that something is already wrong. This trailer also have an overhead narrative which is quite uncommon in trailers currently, as this trailer is a few years old this may be a played out convention. However it is used to hint at the narrative and leaves specific expressions like 'everyone has a birthday they always remember'. The birds eye view shot of the building shows where the narrative will take place. The fast zoom in on the building isolates the specific flat emphasising the chaos that will happen there. The fact that it zooms in quite fast also implies that there is a sense of panic. There is then a shot of a Happy Birthday banner emphasising the narrators words and reinforcing that this is where things will start going wrong.
 
A panning shot is used to reveal the 'good guy' this is to show every angle of the doll and cause the audience to become suspicious of it as the audience feels as if they are circling the doll like a cautious dog circles something it is investigating. The red in the doll's and the little boys clothing foreshadows the death that will occur later on in the narrative. The ambient lighting however leaves a happy and 'normal' image along with the little boy's excited reaction to his birthday present. As this was his birthday presents the hint dropped by the narrator makes the audience immediately suspicious.
 
A medium close up shot of the doll and the little boy shows the creepy expression on the dolls face as it greets the little boy. This shot is also a slightly over the shoulder shot again concentrating on the doll's face. The narrator then says 'this is Andy's' emphasising that the doll will be involved. This being said over the shot of the mother and child embracing gives a sense of dramatic irony as the audience already know there will be something wrong with the doll while the mother and child are happy about its arrival. There is then a fade to black that lingers for a while until a shot of the little boy and the doll are in bed sharply appears on screen. In the shot the dolls eyes are extremely, unnaturally blue and its expression is very exaggerated implying that the doll is not normal.The zoom in of the dolls face only emphasises this coupled with the sinister music and the profile lighting that hides half of Chucky's face the audience is now certain that there is something wrong with this doll. It also creates a sense of unease as it is in bed with the little boy making the audience feel protective over the child as he is completely innocent to the fact that something is wrong as he sweetly says 'goodnight Chucky'.
 
The music then stops as it fades to black only leaving a howling wind sort of noise creating the feeling of the calm before the storm. The shot of the doorknob slowly turning is a strong convention of horror films along with the squeaking of the door meaning the audience will understand what is about to happen, it is foreboding something tragic. Also the audience does not know whether it is the doll or the little boy opening the door leaving them in suspense while they wait to find out if the doll has come alive. The point of view shot continues to leave the audience in suspense as the person who has come out of the room is still not shown. The fast movement of the character however implies that whatever is roaming through the house is unnaturally fast and therefore not human. The scary music in the background emphasises the fast movement being unnatural. At the sighting of the woman there is a loud stab of sound hinting that something is about to happen to her. We then have a medium close up shot of the woman reading a magazine unaware of Chucky running past her in the background. This is not unlike the way a shark hunts down its prey, circling it the way the camera did in the beginning of the trailer, b now we see this to Chucky's advantage leaving he audience feeling vulnerable as the position of power has been switched. The woman turns around as she hears a noise to find nothing there, a convention of supernatural horror films as characters within these films tend to doubt themselves meaning the antagonist has an opening to create terror. This shows the audience what sub-genre this film resides in attracting the right target audience to see the film.

The close up shot of the woman's face along with profile lighting shows her expression of suspicion and also shows that Chucky has a lot of places to hide making the audience feel like he could jumped out at anytime. The narrator then says 'most accidents happen at home' while the camera zooms in to a spilt container of flour with not reasonable explanation for why it has fallen over. This emphasises that something is going to 'accidently' cause the woman harm or in fact her death. The strangeness of the spilt flour is mirrored in the woman's confused expression and reaction saying 'how did that happen?'. A shot of a hammer being picked up without the any implication of who is piking it up implies that no one will know who the killer is or believe that it is Chucky. The panning shot leave the audience bewildered as they cannot focus on one point the woman is then thrown out the window confirming that there is something wrong with Chucky but also leaving the audience wondering how Chucky was able to kill her and how he is going to be found out. The narrator also says 'This was no accident' reinforcing that Chucky was the one who killed the woman. The mother then runs towards the commotion of ambulances and police cars screaming her son's name the same eerie noise that was heard before the woman turned around to investigate the noise is played in the background making the audience relate the noise to Chucky and trouble. The camera starts moving faster and faster into each scene and as it follows each person showing that there is a heightened sense of panic and also making sure the audience cannot focus on one point also making them feel panicked as they don't know what is going on.

A point of view shot from underneath the sofa looking at the concerned expression on the mother's face implies that Chucky is hiding there and also makes the audience feel like he will spring out and attack her in the way he attacked the woman. The narrator says during this shot 'Someone has moved in with the Barkley family' emphasising that Chucky in now a tormenting the household. The next shot is of the woman running away from whatever she has seen under the sofa however the audience has not seen it again leaving the audience in suspense as to what is going on. However the next shot is of Chucky's lower half and his shadow. His walk is unnatural and very sinister while in his shadow he appears to be holding a knife. This cements the fact that Chucky is a murderer. The little boy then pleads with his mother saying 'I know who did it' it then cuts to a shot of the little boy and Chucky. The little boy looks at Chucky with suspicion and says his name answering the question posed when he said he knew who killed his aunt. This is the first verbal confirmation that Chucky is the killer but as it is coming from a very young child it become unbelievable again playing on the convention that characters doubt the likelihood of these supernatural events to occur. Fast paced but sinister music is played as there is a close up shot of the mother's panicked expression as she says 'Nobody believes you about Chucky' this implies to the audience that the mother denying Chucky as the killer will come back to haunt her as if it didn't mean anything she would look calm and the music would be less provoking.

A close up shot of the dolls battery pack on its back makes the audience wonder if it is being powered by something else. The woman opens it but the audience is never shown what is inside but can guess by the reaction of the mother. This confirms that Chucky is powered by supernatural forces. An over the shoulder shot reveals the detective's reaction to the mother explaining what Chucky is. It is just like the scene when her son tried warning her again foreshadowing that nobody will suspect Chucky and everyone that doesn't believe it is him will be vulnerable to him. As this scene is happening the audience is shown a shot of Chucky holding a knife creating dramatic irony leaving the audience pleading with the characters to believe that Chucky is the killer making them feel more involved. This is emphasised by the narrator saying 'no one believes the truth'. There is then a montage of Chucky terrorising serveral people while the narrator say 'or lives to tell it' implying that even if you do believe the killer is Chucky he will kill you anyway meaning no one is safe.

The line 'theres nothing innocent about child's play' while the title shows on screen in big bold red letters implies that something the audience thought as innocent and sweet is being challenged and changed to something very sinister.

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