Insidious Trailer - Analysis

Insidious (2011)

Genre: Horror
Sub Genre: Supernatural
Director: James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw)

Plot: After an uncanny night in the attic in the new house, Dolton falls into an unexplained coma leaving his family in search for answers and help to awaken him. Little do they know that Dolton isn't actually in a coma at all, and that he is desperately in need of rescuing from the dark place in where he is lost. After 3 months of Dolton being in his coma he has been moved out of the hospital and into his own home so that he can be taken care of by his family, but since him being at home, weird and paranormal activities start occuring in the house. Renai, Dolton's mother is convinced that the house is haunted and when confronting her husband Josh about it, he does not believe her, however Josh's mother confesses to seeing a vision of a 'friend' in Dolton's bedroom.
They invite a medium who turns out to be Josh's mother's old friend to come and investigate the 'supernatural phenomenon' with her team of ghost hunters. The medium explains that Dolton is not in a coma but has the gift of being an experienced astral projection traveller, meaning that he has the ability to leave his physical body when 'dreaming'. Unfortunately, Dolton has travelled too far leaving him unavailable to return to his body and trapping him in a place called the 'Further' which isn't for the living place and allows 'entities' to try and get inside his physical body.
The medium then tells Josh that he also possesses the gift of travelling and so in need to rescue his son he needs to travel to the Further and snatch him away from the spirits.

Trailer Analysis

Mise-en-scene:
-low key lighting, creates a better mood for the audience to watch it, more scary to watch at night as more creepy and makes you on edge about what's coming next
-big, open plan American house, typical house design for a horror film, lots of corners and dark places for supernatural things to occur
-set within the house, making it scarier for the audience as it could be personal to them and increases the scare-factor as if suggests it could happen within their home

Camera Shots:

-        Movie trailer opens with a medium shot of Josh, one of the main characters, which introduces his importance and relevance throughout the film. In this shot the background detail is minimal due to it already being established beforehand in the movie

-        There are a few wide and close up shots of the family showing the stereotypical American family lifestyle

-        During the scene of Dolton falling off of the ladder in the attic there is a wide shot suggesting and showing to the audience that the attic has great importance to the film and that the upcoming events will be centred around it

-        Over the shoulder shot of Josh and Renai looking at Dolton in a hospital bed showing that he is the main focus in that particular scene, and that he is a victim of the spirits in the house

-        There are a lot of wide and midi shots of the inside of the house to highlight that the film will be based within it

Sound:

-        Trailer introduced with score music that has been created specifically for the film and is played throughout at varied volumes creating an unnerving feeling for the audience – the trailer ends with the score music stopping and then coming back at the very end quite loudly with a scary figure on screen, increasing intensity for viewer

-        There is the stereotypical dialect from the characters with an American accent announcing where the film is set, as well as threatening dialect from a character who is thought to be a spirit from ‘The Further’ creating suspense and shivers for the audience

-        There is a consistent sound effect of a ticking noise throughout the trailer which relates to the film itself as that sound has great importance to a main scene

Editing:

-        The opening scene in the trailer cuts to another clip that shares relevance to that particular scene

-        There is an eye line match shot in the hospital clip which shows Renai and Josh looking at Dolton, showing the importance of the scene, what has happened to Dolton and how it is impacting other characters

-        There are a few fade in fade out shots when the trailer starts to create suspense and tension for the audience as the music gets louder and the clips get quicker

-        Superimposition is used for a lot of shots which increases the intensity of the trailer as the clips are all blended together without a transition, but making it scarier for the audience as everything all seems to be happening at once