Trailer Analysis - 'One Missed Call'

‘One Missed Call’ -Trailer Analysis

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1F7hJNsi5M

I have never seen this film before, but the trailer includes a variety of the common conventions of horror. The film consists of the characters receiving strange phone calls with a ringtone that is not theirs and when they listen to the message that is left, they hear their own voices and soon realise that they are listening to their own death. A few days after they hear the message they do in fact die as they heard on the message and then someone else is called off of that persons contact list and the film continues this way.

          The ringtone itself is very scary. It’s a very simple tune, the sort of music that you would expect a child to listen to, or the music that comes from a musical box. I think because the tune is very innocent and ‘gay’ it makes it all the more scary. Horror movies often use something innocent and childlike to represent something very dark and evil as it sets the audience on edge. For example, a child’s play park at night time is seen as very spooky or a child’s teddy being placed in the scene of terror. It gives the audience a feeling that something is wrong. The trailer starts off with the ringtone being played and a CU of the phone with two girls in the background. One of the girl’s then states, ‘That’s not my ringtone’. Straight away the audience is pulled in just by this very simple tune that they now know represents something evil and very unknown to the characters and the audience. When I make my own horror movie trailer I would like to include a tune like this.

          As the trailer continues we follow the girl who received the message and she is shown to be very scared and weak. She is on the phone to the other girl asking for help, who is seen as very confident in what she is doing and is very determined on helping her friend. This gives the audience the idea that she is the films protagonist and will most probably be ‘the final girl’ who will face the monster at the end. While they are on the phone the victim states, ‘Ever since that bizarre phone call, I keep seeing things’ and at this point the audience sees a very quick glimpse of a woman with a very distorted face. Horror movies often only show quick glimpses of the monster or perhaps not at all as to leave the audience to use their own imagination to create an image of the monster which will scare them more. Showing the monster clearly for a long period of time will remove its scare factor and creates less suspense for the audience.

          We then see the girl die in the exact same way in which she heard on the message and the protagonists gets there just in the brink of time to bear witness as she dies. We watch as the protagonist takes this in and realises what she’s up against. Clips of the next girls who get the message are shown as the protagonist explains the situation which gives the audience information of the storyline without giving anything away. When I make my horror movie trailer I don’t want it to just consist of scary clips with scary settings, I want it to show the storyline to give the audience an idea of what it is about without giving anything away.

          We then get shown another character who doesn’t seem to be one of the victims but he is an investigator who will help the protagonist throughout the film. He states that there is a blatant connection between the murders and he then pulls a red piece of candy from one of the corpse’s mouths. Again, like the childish ringtone, I think the candy will set the audience on edge as candy usually belongs to a child and ‘ghost children’ are seen as very spooky. Also, I think the fact that the candy is red is important as the colour red is a visual signifier that usually connotes blood or danger. We then see a quick inverted shot of a ghost little girl in black and white, again, only giving the audience a quick glance at the monster. The black and white inversion gives a very disorienting feel to the trailer and this is a very common convention in horror as it sets the audience on edge. I hope to include a lot of disoriented clips in my horror movie trailer.

          We watch as another character dies in the exact same way he heard on the phone and the protagonist continues to explain what is going on, all the while the scary ringtone is being played in the background. We then follow another girl who has had the call while we watch the protagonist becoming more and more confident, ‘I’ll keep you safe – any dead people call, we’re not home’ she states as she tears the mobile apart and throws it on the bed. To make things more scary the phone still begins to ring even once it has been broken which shows the monster to be unstoppable and very powerful which will pull the audience in even more.

          We then get the theme of ‘the past coming back to terrorize’ as the protagonist talks of tracking down these phone calls and going back to where they all started. We then get an establishing shot of a run-down building in which the protagonist has to go inside and face the monster herself. As she enters the building the spooky ringtone begins to play again, the sound coming from somewhere inside the building as longer shots are used to show her walking around. Then suddenly, with a big bang of music, something pulls her to the ground as she is being dragged somewhere by a monster invisible to the audience while she is screaming her head off. From this point onwards much faster and shorter action shots are shown, the music being played at this point has a very fast beat and during these quick shots we see quick glances of the monster.

          After these quick shots the scary ringtone begins to play again as we see the protagonist and the investigator standing in the run-down building. We are shown a point of view shot with the investigator holding a torch and once he shines it quickly on the monster a loud bang plays as he gets dragged away by an invisible force as the protagonist is left by herself screaming. This is the last clip of the trailer before the movie release dates come up, the scary ringtone being played in the background.

In total, around 114 – 119 shots.