This is a trailer for the horror film Friday the 13th (2009). The trailer displays uses of a number of conventions of the horror genre. The opening shots of the trailer are of water and there is a voiceover of a woman saying "Did you know a young boy drowned here? He was my son, and today is his birthday."which tells us that something that happened in the past is a part of what happens in this film. This fits with the convention of past events coming back and events occuring on anniversaries. A lot of horrors are set in isolated places in the middle of nowhere, this film is set in large cabin with more than one floor in the middle of a forest so it definitely fits with this convention of a horror film. A lot of this trailer also takes place at night which is when the most scary parts take place in horrors and usually the majority of a horror film will be at night.
There are also some technical code horror conventions that this trailer gives examples of, such as extreme close-ups on the characters faces when they're getting attacked which show their fear. One part of the trailer, where we see the tents, looks as though it could be subjective camera work and puts us in the eyes of the killer. This is a very common thing in horror films and is quite strange as it puts us in killers shoes.There could also be another example of this when we see the girl in the water as the camera is quite shaky and we hear heavy breathing (which is another thing commonly used in horror films). There is also use of strange angles, such as a very low one when the girl is dancing. Towards the end of this trailer the cutting between shots becomes very fast and jumpy which builds tension and even though this is just the trailer so the jumps probably aren't in the actual film it does fit with the horror conventions and there probably are moments like it in the actual film.
In this trailer the majority of the people that you see are young males and females which is a very common thing in horror films, and usually some of the people who get killed will be quite sexual. In this trailer there is a blonde female who is gliding on the water topless. She falls off and then we see the "monster" of the film looking at her which could mean that she gets killed, which supports common horror conventions of characters who are immoral and doing other things that would be thought of as bad getting killed. From this trailer you cannot really work out if the film will have a Final Girl and none of the girls in the trailer seem to be androgynous like final girls often are. Another character that we see in this trailer is a police officer. Often in films in the genre of horror police offices are usually useless and are of no help. From the looks of this trailer the police officer gets killed so this film fits with that convention.
Another convention of films in the horror genre is that weapons are usually used and they are usually bladed. In this trailer we see a variety of bladed weapons such as an axe. The end if the trailer is counting up to 13 showing people getting killed by numerous weapons and in different ways. The killer in this film is wearing a mask over his face with is common iconography for horror films. The lighting if mainly low key so it is very dark. We someone in the trailer looking behind a shower curtain which I would perhaps consider to be something that people immediately connect with horror films because this type of scene happens in lots of horror films, such as the Psycho. At the end of the trailer we here the woman who was speaking at the start of the trailer but this time she says "his name is Jason, and today is his birthday." which again fits with the narrative structure of events occurring on an anniversary of something that happened in the past.
Overall I feel that this trailer does include a lot of the horror conventions which I feel makes the trailer quite good. It fits a number of different conventions into a small time of 2 minutes and 31 seconds which leads me to believe that the film itself will only support horror conventions even more.
There are also some technical code horror conventions that this trailer gives examples of, such as extreme close-ups on the characters faces when they're getting attacked which show their fear. One part of the trailer, where we see the tents, looks as though it could be subjective camera work and puts us in the eyes of the killer. This is a very common thing in horror films and is quite strange as it puts us in killers shoes.There could also be another example of this when we see the girl in the water as the camera is quite shaky and we hear heavy breathing (which is another thing commonly used in horror films). There is also use of strange angles, such as a very low one when the girl is dancing. Towards the end of this trailer the cutting between shots becomes very fast and jumpy which builds tension and even though this is just the trailer so the jumps probably aren't in the actual film it does fit with the horror conventions and there probably are moments like it in the actual film.
In this trailer the majority of the people that you see are young males and females which is a very common thing in horror films, and usually some of the people who get killed will be quite sexual. In this trailer there is a blonde female who is gliding on the water topless. She falls off and then we see the "monster" of the film looking at her which could mean that she gets killed, which supports common horror conventions of characters who are immoral and doing other things that would be thought of as bad getting killed. From this trailer you cannot really work out if the film will have a Final Girl and none of the girls in the trailer seem to be androgynous like final girls often are. Another character that we see in this trailer is a police officer. Often in films in the genre of horror police offices are usually useless and are of no help. From the looks of this trailer the police officer gets killed so this film fits with that convention.
Another convention of films in the horror genre is that weapons are usually used and they are usually bladed. In this trailer we see a variety of bladed weapons such as an axe. The end if the trailer is counting up to 13 showing people getting killed by numerous weapons and in different ways. The killer in this film is wearing a mask over his face with is common iconography for horror films. The lighting if mainly low key so it is very dark. We someone in the trailer looking behind a shower curtain which I would perhaps consider to be something that people immediately connect with horror films because this type of scene happens in lots of horror films, such as the Psycho. At the end of the trailer we here the woman who was speaking at the start of the trailer but this time she says "his name is Jason, and today is his birthday." which again fits with the narrative structure of events occurring on an anniversary of something that happened in the past.
Overall I feel that this trailer does include a lot of the horror conventions which I feel makes the trailer quite good. It fits a number of different conventions into a small time of 2 minutes and 31 seconds which leads me to believe that the film itself will only support horror conventions even more.
This is very good but would be even better if you took some screen grabs to illustrate your points.
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