The Haunting in Connecticut Analysis

This screen below is seen at the beginning of every trailer that we have watched . It tells us on each different trailer beginning, who the preview has been approved for and who by.

The first shot of the trailer that we see is a bird’s eye view of what we believe to be Connecticut, this may be due to the fact that the movie title is ‘The Haunting in Connecticut’. As we see this birds eye view there is high key lighting as it is set in the day time. We get are first part of dialogue “why do bad things happen to good people” this already lets the audience see that something bad is going to happen. This first seen almost allows the audience to feel a sense of security before the scariness happens.

The setting of the trailer is carried on as we pan along a street as if we the audience are in the car with what the audience see as one of the main characters. At this part in the trailer the setting, dialogue and footage is still quite happy and upbeat. The moving footage fades out to a plain black screen with the words NORTH CONNECTICUT telling us where the trailer is linking back to the first shot where the audience believed it was set in Connecticut. This kind of effect is repeated 3 times throughout the trailer with words such as ‘BASED ON A TRUE STORY’ and when the trailer is going to be released. .

Dialogue runs throughout the beginning of the trailer as the non-diegetic voice over whilst the family are getting introduced into their new family home. Serious music is played in the background as the trailer begins, going into what sounds like a piano piece, putting the audience slightly on edge.  We then see medium fast cuts of the family sleeping in their new home, when we are cut to a view of the TV in one of the sons bedrooms in the basement, where we see someone walking away in the reflection of the TV. As this happens we have another non-diegetic sound effect which sounds like a drum as the man in the reflection walks away, the piano piece then carries on. This gives the audience more of a scare as the loud sound causes it to become more eerie.

Most of the cuts which show us the characters in the trailer are generally head and shoulder shots this allows the audience to see the facial expressions throughout the trailer. It also allows the audience to feel like part of the trailer, as the shots tend to be shot reverse shot. As we get about half way through the trailer the cuts between each scene are sped up, building on the atmosphere of the trailer and the ‘scariness’. Many of the cuts are faded between each different section. The final cut is a head and shoulder shot of the back of the main character, the music slows down and we see him looking into a door, at the end of each trailer there is a final scare for the audience, this is when we see the face of a man the other side of the glass door. When this happens once again we get a non-diegetic sound effect which makes the audience jump more. The screen then fades to a plain black screen which is followed by a shot which tells us who presents it, the producers, a website and other information is provided. Again this tends to happen at the end of each movie trailer.