Deciding on the genre type/'A Nightmare On Elm Street' (2010) - Trailer Analysis

After brainstorming as a group, we came to the conclusion of making a trailer that fits the teen supernatural horror genre, as a result we decided to analyse a trailer most suitable and similar.

The 2010 version of 'A Nightmare On Elm Street', directed by Samuel Bayer, whose work I became aware of through his contribution to music videos [at first Green Day's "American Idiot"music video(s)] came to mind. Bayer's modern take of the 1984 horror, shows a distinctive difference to accommodate young, modern audiences.

The trailer begins with dark, lifeless establishing shots with smoke and thunder-like music, suggesting that something is coming. Panting of a person running away from a noisy car driving awkwardly and fast, creates an uneasy mood 18 seconds into the trailer. The subtle transition of Kreuger running fast and then in slow motion, slows down the chase and gives the effect that I have seen occurrent in most horror trailers, where there is fast-paced action and often a montage of shots, then quiet or slow footage before a shot that shocks the audience.

Uncanny in the Inception (2010) trailer towards the very end, I noticed the sound to be repetitive 'thud' noises, getting faster, frightens the audience by making them involved in the action. It could be perceived, that they have played with the idea that the sound of a heartbeat suggests life whereas the heartbeat sound, in the trailer, getting faster suggests terror, as opposed to the safety aspect that it is supposed to represent. I would like to bring in these techniques during the editing stages of our trailer using SFX, so that it has a similar, yet unique effect on the audience.

Looking at the titles/credit sequences, I have an idea of how we need to merge them in cleverly, so that it is fluent and maybe use the titles as a cue which hides action, and so keeps to the suspense in the trailer. On an editing note, I notice how some frames are just a black screen, which plays as a tool to scare the audience and has the effect of them not knowing the full story, so engaging more interest. The background sound of a child singing gives the trailer a sinister feel to it, and it shows that the story of Kreuger has always been true, bringing the audience out of reality and into the fictional story.

The tagline for the film at the end ("Don't fall asleep") sounds more like a warning, but is memorable and frightening. I hope to use a similar idea in our trailer, as it is one of the last things you see before it ends.