Sinister Trailer Deconstruction

At the beginning of the trailer, a shot of a family is shown; the voiceover states how they were all killed. This is effective as at the start of the trailer as it catches the audience’s attention straight away.
The dad is then shown climbing up into the loft, the whole loft is empty apart from one big box. The box is ominous and eerie music is played as the dad sees the box, this indicates to the audience that there is something strange about the box and forebodes that something bad is going to happen.

A shot is then shown stating that the  producer of the film also produced paranormal activity and insidious, as both of these were successful films, the audience can tell the film is going to be good.

The father finds old tape reels and plays them, they are videos of the dead family, the film then quickly switches to shots of them all hanging. This is effective as the screen quickly jumps to a normal family video to them all being dead, it is jumpy for the audience to watch.

The shots then jump to a montage of a symbol of a specific demon, shown in many different locations that they’ve found it, and the symbol links all of the videos together. This shows the audience that the main theme in the film is the demon, and it is said that he is a demon that takes possession of children’s souls,(indicating that the children of the family are in trouble)

Pictures of the deity are shown, and a video of a child walking into a pool, and turning into the demon. This makes the audience jump as they are not expecting to see the scary face.

Text is included in the trailer between film to add extra effect, the typography is also typical of the horror genre, the font has serifs and the text appears smudged down the cracked wall.

Again images of the demon are shown, mirroring the evil spirit getting closer and closer to the characters in the film as the same thing that happened to the other families, happens to them.

Another image of the demon is shown, but this time the image moves and looks at the main character, once again growing ever closer to the family.

-Following up to the statement about the deity consuming the souls of children, the audience then witness the effects taking place on the children of the main family.

- The next shots which I think are the most effective throughout the whole trailer is the film reel still turning but not playing as it has come undone, so it continues to click as it turns, this click keeps being repeated as more images are shown, it keeps a steady beat and keeps the audience on their toes.

-A montage of scary images are then shown, for example an axe being dragged across the floor as bodies lie in the background, this shows to the audience there is bloodshed included in the film.

 -The children are then all shown, possessed by the demon, they all sit round as his image is shown in the background, this is stereotypical of horror films to have the young children as victims.

The face of the demon then takes up the whole screen which makes the audience jump as its unexpected, something I would consider using in my own trailer.

The name of the film is then shown at the end of the trailer, which is again typical of horror trailers, the images are shown first to catch the audience’s attention, a jumpy event at the very end of the trailer to keep them watching, then the name is shown so the viewers remember it.