A2 Media Studies
Textual Analysis
Textual Analysis: Of A Horror Teaser Trailer
The Last Exorcism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7gCUvf38jE
Film Information
· Distributor – Lionsgate.
· Release Date - August 27th 2010
· Genre - Horror
· Production Budget - $1.8 Million.
· Gross Revenue - $54,313,581
· Teaser Trailer Length – 1.01 mins.
Textual Analysis: The last Exorcism.
The Last Exorcism is an American film based on a young girl who has been possessed by the Devil. It was written by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland. The film is told from the point of view of a disillusioned minister, who after years of performing exorcisms decides to take part in a documentary about his last exorcism while revealing the fraud of his ministry. After receiving a letter from a farmer asking for help in driving the Devil out, he meets the farmer's possessed daughter. The film stars Patrick Fabian, Iris Bahr and Louis Herthum.
The trailer starts with the production name and other company’s names that have input in the film; ‘Lionsgate’, ‘Studio Canal’ and ‘Strike’. The editor has used a transition that creates tension. The transition is fast and breaks up; the effect of this is that it makes the audience wonder, what is going to happen next. As the production names are appearing, diegetic sound is used. The sound builds the tension as it is loud and slow. Also it has a very dark one to it that creates suspense. It then fades straight into the first shot which is a long shot then zoom in of the reverend through a window. His hands are together with his head down, this Non verbal communication represents worry and a sense of giving up. The costume he is wearing is a suit; by his wearing a suit it shows his formality as a reverend. The shot zooms right into his hands showing us that, that is the focus. Holding your hands together can also represent praying; this shows a sign of hope and also refers back to him being a man of God.
The next shot is the reverend driving in his car; he looks calm and relaxed as he does this. The =n a quick cut is used to show the house he is approaching. The setting of this house looks scary, it looks old and dangerous. It then cuts to a black screen and these words fade in: Reverend Cotton Marcus Has performed over 50 Exorcisms. There is a quick cut to the young girls face; the shot used is a close up. She seems to be smiling and then her face drops (panning used). There is a quick flashing image which the audience isn’t able to make out then the words ‘This will be his last’ fades in. The effect of this is that it keeps the audience on there toes as they don’t know what to expect. The voice over adds to the intensity as it is telling the narrative over the top.
Low key lighting is used in the next few shots and is the main type if lighting used throughout this trailer. The next shot is of the father talking to the reverend, non-diegetic sound is used we hear actual dialogue from within the film. There is then a quick cut to a fast zoom of the young girl standing in a dark corridor in a long white night dress. This is a very conventional costume. It is common that in exorcist films the possessed ‘girl’ is wearing white, to represent innocence.
The next shot is of the reverend holding a crucifix up to his head. Straight away from seeing this e know that he is praying and is about to perform the exorcism. It then fades into what we expect, the young girl laying down in what looks like a barn with the reverend holding her head. This is also another typical convention of exorcist films because normally they have to pass the ‘demon’ out of the human and into an animal and then kill it. The next shot is an extreme close up of the girls face, the transition used to get to this shot is a quick cut. The girl is sweating and she looks scared and in shock, it cuts to the reverend holding her hand, this shows the connection between the two, giving the audience the idea that everything is going to be ok, then there is another quick cut to a shot of the girl laying on the hay, then all of a sudden her neck turns abnormally and then cuts straight to a black screen. By cutting to a black screen straight after we wonder what happens next, this entices the audience to watch the film.
The next three shots are of the reverend, the father and the girl. They all show NVC and we get an idea of what is going on. The reverend has his head in his hands, this represents worry and confusion. The father look as if he is pleading with the reverend to help, he looks helpless and scared. And then the next shot is of the girl who now looks even worse, her hair is in front of her face, making her look like a different person. This kind of shows the change is character as the devil possesses her more. Her eyes look focused straight into the camera, making the audience feel as if she is staring at them.
The producers name cuts in, the colour of the writing is red/orange this gives the effect of fire. The reverend then fades then cuts quickly to an extreme close up of the girl. These cuts give the impression that they are talking to each other, showing her is still trying to help her.
‘And producers of Shaun of the Dead’ is the next thing that it cuts to. By mentioning previous films that the audience may have watched influences them to want to watch this film.
A fade to a black screen again creates more suspense, then a fade in to an eyeline shot of the girl’s feet with chains around them. The chains connote that she has been chained up by the father and reverend. The fact that she is walking also makes us think that she has escaped from it. We then see the reverend in a dark room looking up because he can hear the floor creaking. Synthetic sound is used to create the effect of the creaking floor.
The same font that was used earlier to show the producers name is used again. It reads this time:’ If you believe in God’…’You must’…’Believe in the Devil’. This is there to scare the audience.
The next shot is a close up of a gun in a mans hand, we cannot see who is holding the gun but from the costume and build we know it is a man. This builds anxiety because the audiences wants to know what is going to happen and who is holding the gun.
There is an upside down shot of the girl and it looks like during editing the colour was altered. There is like a red layer of colouring over the shot. This represents blood and violence. The fact that it is upside down and crawls towards the camera also adds the fact that she is demented because she is no longer behaving like a human and more like an animal.
There are then many quick cuts show her behaving abnormally. They are mostly close ups with low key lighting. The use of low key lighting is very vital because it represents the darkness of the devil.
The last shots in this trailer look as if they have been hand recorded; they are very shaky; the purpose if this is to make the audience feels as if they are there themselves. There is a big fire and we do not het to see what is burning all we see is the reverend with an axe hitting something.
There is a black screen for about 2 seconds and there is a close up of the side of the reverends face and we can see that he is looking at something, there is then a quick cut to the girls and is bent all the ways backwards and starring into the camera, again this makes the audience feel as if she is starring at them.
The image of the movie poster is shown but it blurry, it then has a flashing image of her face and then with the same red/orange font it has the writers and directors names. The last image we see is the release date in the same font.
The trailer is only 1.01 minutes long and we get a very good outline of what the movie is going to be about. The trailer includes a lot of convention horror film things. For example the fact that a girl is used for the person who is possessed and the fact that she is wearing white. The colours used are also quite conventional because most of us will associate red and orange to fire.
By Olympia Amoo.
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