Halloween II - Official Teaser Trailer! - HD (mariama)

             TEASER TRAILER

The trailer below follow the  style and genre of  horror. It  uses  iconography that is common to its genre, through the use of and types of characters they have used, such as a victim in a hospital bed and a villain chasing her, we can clearly tell a part the different between each of the characters, for example the character the audience is suppose to recognise as the villain, as he wears a mask to hide his  face from his victims typical of most horror villains in horror films, the main villain is also carry’s a knife for a weapon although the character of the victim who is prostrated as a young female who has gone through a terrific situation  is also holding a weapon (gun) she is no way shown using it, she is also prorated to be quite defenceless. The character of the villain moves in the darkness and in slow, suspicious mannerism.

I feel that the character of the policy officer or a member of authority is always used in horror movies to exaggerate the fact the  villain is unstoppable.

The trailer is set a night, in either a deserted street , hospitals or their own home, feeling that the character is all alone in their setting adds more fear to the audience it also uses   low key lighting throughout the trailer and quick cuts of day time, again a typical iconography of a horror  films.

The trailer in general follows a non-liner scene structure, i feel that this is done as to not reveal to much of the film actions, living some mystery to the audience, however between 55sec- 1mins 5sec it appears to me following a liner film structure. This may have been purposely done to allow the audience to briefly follow the film before being interrupted by a screaming girl, engaging them and wanting them to want to go and watch the film in the cinema.

The trailer those not introduces location very well at all it used a levelled  long shot, all you can make out is a dark street, with a few  low key lights and a police car coming from the distance, you can hardly even make out the opening characters, she just looks like a black blur.

The narrative of this trailer on like most beings about half way through the clip at 1mins 24sec ,and its slow paced and very deep. I feel that the use of a narrator was done so that the audience can some what figure our for themselves the trailer and enjoy it for about a minute, and narrator helps them to fill in the blanks about the trailer such as the quote ‘ the secret about his madness will finally be revelled’ and also to persuade the audience that the film is worth watching.

The trailer’s theme follows a continuity of the other Halloween trailers, it is still the same Mike Myers going out on a rampaging killing spree.

The pace of the trailer starts of slow cuts to  black and stays that way until about 1mins 15 when it gradually begins to get faster in pace as the music changes so those the pace of trailer by  1mins 39sec both music which is non digetic and cuts speed up to synchronise with one another. The changing of pace in both the cuts, scenes and music  creates a lot of suspense for the audience as the are even more curious about what’s happening. the voice over and back grounded noises all create a sort of naturalistic environment the sound of the knife slicing the floor to match the action not that it also adds effect and emphases on the knife cutting the floor board.

Throughout the trailer I feel that a greyish-blue filter was used, you can see it clearly between 31sec-46sec. this was probably done to give the trailer more of a night time effect .

The informational graphics revealed is a message from the film rating  and MPAA (Motion Picture of America Association) organisations at the start, which is in  a green background with clear bold non serif writing. Then graphic from the main film company appear in a black back ground and bold non serif  blue writhing, the black background was  used so that it was easier and looked more effective when the cut into the first shot which is very important. the end captions or graphics become more creative they made the captions look as if the have been clawed or sliced with the knife at , the end captions all follow  a continuity with each other but not with the first captions. 

textual analysis (mariama)

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Above are two different movie posters for the same horror film ‘ Halloween’ released in august 2007. At first glance we can see that both poster went with completely two different conflicting colours. In poster 1 they used, a low key lighting although the poster seams all lit up , compared to poster 2 in which they went for a high key lighting the main colour scheme for poster 1 was redish orange almost to represent fire and heat, and fire usually denotes danger or a horrific event in horror films, whilst in poster 2 they went for a colour scheme of white which for a horror movie poster is very unusually as white usually denotes peace and purity.without looking at the exact dates of release it would seem to me that poster1 tells the audience the climax of the storyline which involves heat and danger and poster 2 tells the audience the end where the character of Mike Myers is at peace after causing havoc. The two posters may have also been done to attempt to attract two different types of audience, poster 2 seems more peaceful may have been done to attract a more female audience or to be exact mothers , as they may feel that showing the images of fire is too much for there children to see, whilst poster 1 could be aimed at male teenagers who enjoy violent.


Both posters do not follow the contemporary colour scheme of other horror movie posters, notice how there is no image of red blood in either of the posters, even in poster 2 were there is a clear image of the character holding a knife, we as an audience still do not see the usually image of thick red blood instead there is an image of black stain which is suppose to represent blood.Both posters also do not follow the colour scheme of a dark midnight blue and black for there backgrounds. The image of poster 2 is of the character of Mike Myers looking away from the house which looks like its been drawn and almost smiling, showing that he is pleased himself, whilst in poster 1 the main image is of the character of Mike Myers, had resembled a huge flame, and in the image of the flame there separate images of what looks like the future victims of the character of Mike Myers , burning, it looks as if the victims are also representing the mask that he always wears. under the large image there is also a smaller images of the character of Mike Myers holding a knife facing the image of the house again looking like he is pleased with him selves and he is checking out his creation. So although they are two different types of posters I feel that they both still however denote the same message that the character of Mike Myers is pleased with the pain, suffering and destruction he has brought to others.


The heading or the title and the condense verison of the end credits ’Halloween are also different from each other. the positioning of poster 1 condensed end credits follows a more contemporary form of presenting them which is as the bottom unlike poster 2 which has it in the centre of the page, poster 1 and 2 also both do not have the title ‘hallowween’ at the top of the page instead the have it right on top of the condensed version of the end credits, and at the top of the page they have the tag lines. It seems that the layout of poster 1 and the black leading into the image of the flame was purposely done so that the main image of the poster would stand out more crabbing the attention of its target audience.


Notice how in poster 1 they used a San serif font for their film title whilst in poster 2 they used a serif font this again elaborates my point that these two poster are target at two different audiences . serif- fonts are know to be quite an old type of font whilst San serif are a more modern type of font.


It is ironic that the title of the film is called 'Halloween' which a celebration that usually happens in the autumn moth of October end and yet the film has been released in poster 1 at the end of the summer month of august, implying that they may have had to different released dates in two different countries.

Textual analysis (mariama)

                   MAGAZINE

This is the front cover of a American horror movie magazine ‘Fangoria’, notes how the magazine has bindery holes on the left side of it, it almost looks like is designed to look like the front cover of a note book . implying that this magazine is aimed at students to be precise male student , good student feel that their note books are very important to their learning, i feel like seeing from that perspective then the magazine front cover is implying that this magazine should be as important to them as their note books. I say that the magazine is aimed at the male gender because the magazine those not follow a what is contemporary known as a female magazine, also because of the colours used , through out the magazine we do not see colours that are usually connoted with the female gender , such as pinks and lilacs. Instead it seam that their is a disorganisation of colours use, there are mixtures of light and dark greens usually green connotes health but we don’t see that in this magazine, they also have red i feel the connotation of anger best fits the use of red, there are also use of yellows which usually connotes sunshine and happiness. If we look at this magazine using meaning of colours then it would seem that their is a misuse of colour however the use of these mixtures of colour give the magazine an almost puke green look as if the magazine is moulding an effect which is consistent with the zombie theme the magazine has going on as zombies are dead he and mouldy .

with masthead of the magazine is written in San serif font showing that this magazine is quite a modern one, the ‘A’s’ and the ‘G’ especially have sharp pointed edges, denoting that this magazine is rough and that their target audience is not a soft one. They have even tried to make the ‘O’ more pointed.

The main image of this magazine is an image of the character of mike Myers from Halloween notice how the masthead ‘FANGORIA’ is placed in front of his image with a bright red colour and white lining this shows that the image of the character of mike Myers is not as important as the masthead and that the editors of the magazine felt that it was more important that the masthead stands out. The other smaller images of the magazine front cover are consistent in showing the audience a continuity in theme i.e. Zombie looking scary characters.



Placing the cover lines round the main image shows that it is more important for the main image to stand out so that the main image can attract fans of Halloween. Cover lines such as ‘Rob Zombies’ exclusive set visit captures fans of ‘Rob Zombies’ attention and it also shows continuity between the main image and the cover line, it seams that the magazine has gone out of its way to attract a variety of audience.

At the bottom central image we see the use of high key lighting, however the use of low key light becomes visible, the more we get change our views towards the edge of the magazine front cover.

Textual Analysis of Horror Magazine (Joel)

The font cover consists of a coloured image of Jack Nicholson which appears to be an image shot from one of his most recognisable films ‘The Shining’. This is a medium close up which enables viewers to get a full image of the character. The position of the characters eyes suggest that he is looking down on his targets which show that he is a powerful character in the film. The blood smeared on the bottom half of his face suggest that he is a cannibal. There are bruises circling his eyes that give the impression that he can be bodily harmed but the mad facial expression gives me the impression that his character has no sense of feeling pain. From what I can tell his hairline seems quite far back which could mean that the character he is playing is of a middle aged man. If you were to take away the blood and the bruises he would look like a normal middle aged man this connotes that his character has turned into a ‘mad man’ due to stress. The photography in this magazine front cover uses high key lighting identifying to the audience that Jack Nicholson is the star of the film, although he is most obviously the villain, which is not usually a convention followed in horror films.

The masthead ‘FANGORIA’ is very distinctive and artistic, as the name was adapted from a set of teeth that is associated with vampires and used as a magazine the name. The masthead and the style of the font is very consistent as the writing is sharp and the two letters ‘F and A’ are extended at the end to create this image of a vampires fangs. The masthead is bold and is written in capital letters (sans serif) that are tinted red to influence the purpose of blood; primarily what vampires are commonly linked with. Above the masthead is a cover line ‘nightmare on elm street: Freddy Reborn’ this implies that a new ‘Freddy’ film is coming out which is a useful tactic to incite fans of the ‘Freddy’ films especially by using recognisable quotations from the film. The size of the font is smaller than most cover lines which suggest that fans will have a quite a while to wait before it is promoted any heavier.

The illustrator of the magazine has been creative by using medium sized droplets of blood to use puffs as  advertisements such as; ‘Season of The Witch’ and ‘Mothers Day’ This an effective method because it will draw viewers to the adverts and also the bright yellow writing makes it seem significant because it is very bright.  Another caption is of ‘Survival Of The Dead’ which has been written in the same format as the film which is a good use of continuity which allows audiences to become familiar with their brand which is a useful promotional tool.

A bar code is visible on the right hand corner, which is used for identification; alongside ‘FANGORIA #292 issue number positioned on upper right hand corner of the magazine. The magazine website is written in small print underneath the bar code, for people that would like to visit the website. 

All different colours and font styles and sizes used throughout this magazine front cover make this magazine eye catching as it has various connotations. When I consider all of these points, I would say that the most likely target audience would be the demographic audience intended for horror films which is usually aimed at males between the ages of 16-24.

Textual Analysis Movie Poster 'The Happening' (Joel)

This poster is very effective especially when it comes to the photography and special effects. The photography is unique to most posters because it has been taken at an slight angle or better known as a canted shot. This gives an impression to the audience that things are out of balance, which is suggestive of an possibility of an battle of good and evil, at this point 'evil' is most likely tipped to the other side.
The effect of the buildings being stretched is similar to an reflection in an distorted mirror which prepares the audience that weird things are going to appear in this movie. The blue filter also connotes that it may be a sci-fi but it also gives an feeling that the world is cold. The man, women and child are clutching each other tightly and appear traumatised judging by their body language and facial expressions. This suggest that the man and woman are a couple and the kid is their daughter, this shot portrays them as vulnerable. Because the photography is taken from an high angle it implies that they are inferior and powerless. They are on the floor which reflects that their status, in what it seems a broken society is very low. All of this suggest that it is an horror film that does not consist of blood and hardcore murder but instead it will create fear in the audience by creating perceived terror thus keeping the audience biting their nails until it bleeds.

However, the poster follows most conventions such as the main photography taking up the majority of the screen and the main subject of the photograph being placed in the middle of the poster. The masthead 'The Happening' is the largest text on the poster and the main actors name 'Mark Wahlberg' is above it. This is an USP because it a popular actor which will draw in a lot of fans of his acting to the film. It also shows that he is almost as big as the film therefore there will be loads of people who will come to watch the film just because he is playing a leading role. Similar to many posters it has the directors name at the top which has the same effect as the leading actor at times and it also shows when the film is being released. Also the additional information such as producers and other actors is supplied at the bottom of the poster in a small font.