The main gothic conventions that we have studied throughout the course of the semester so far can be seen in this movie trailer. We can see the utilization of the unreliable narrator. In the trailer the man states that “it’s okay, there’s nothing here”, which turns out to be false after we see that there is someone in the house. From this unreliable narrator we can also see the uncanny (familiar made unfamiliar). Through his assurance that everything is ok makes it seem like he is familiar with the house. We later see that this house that is/was familiar to him is now unfamiliar. The last that is seen in the trailer is the ambiguous ending. It pictures the two main characters in the chair then the screen goes black. We can see in this trailer as well as the works we have read that these conventions accomplish the task of pointing out our common issues/fears. The Strangers trailer takes it one step further and not only points our fear but puts it to the test using quotes involving truth.
Reality is a hard thing that people have a hard time dealing with and it’s amazing how human beings react to this in different ways (i.e. depression and/or suicide). This trailer makes use of quotes to express truth and to put these common issues/fears to the test. “Inspired by true events” is a quote that is pictured early in the trailer. Right off the back this allows the viewer to know that everything that is about to happen can actually happen in real life. Here the viewer subconsciously imagines themselves in the trailer, hence the word “true”, which would be more likely than a fictional trailer. Once the trailer has you in it, it can now test you through the unique usage of quotes.
“We always tell ourselves, there’s nothing to fear” is the next quote that is pictured on screen. After this it shows a close up of the girl locking the door. I spoke in my research essay about security in humans. We naturally have a guard up for bad things like this to happen. The next quote states “but sometimes, we’re wrong” testing our safety trait. The majority of us would like to be safe but putting this quote right after she locks the door contradicts this feeling. To go along with safety this quote also contradicts our nature to wanting to be right. At this point in the trailer the arrangement of quotes has the viewer in denial.
The last quote states “what are you afraid of” mocking our feelings of denial. In the back of our minds we are afraid but pretend not to be. It’s obvious that after watching this trailer the majority of us would probably be scared. This quote is used to reiterate the fear that we have from watching this trailer. The arrangement of these quotes is meant to give the viewer the impression that this trailer is all true even though it states “inspired by”. Next the quotes are designed to relate to the viewer and establish norms specifically stating that it is “We” that tells ourselves there is nothing to fear. From here the trailer switches lanes telling us that we are wrong leaving us stranded from a security standpoint. The trailer then ends asking the viewers what are they afraid of teasing the viewers by stating the obvious.
REFLECTIVE TAG:
I really enjoyed this assignment because it gave me a chance to work on something that was a little less stressful and time consuming after just completing the research essay. I think that the film trailer analysis allowed for the most creativity. I felt like it was tough at certain points in the assignment because I still had the research paper length in my mind. Also I felt like another hard part of this assignment mostly pertained to those who had already seem their movie. It was so tempting for me to fall into a summary of the movie until I remembered that it’s an analysis and also my audience has just seen the trailer. If I could go back I think I would have picked a different movie trailer to analysis so it could have been more of a mystery, possibly allowing me to dive deeper into this 3 to 4 minute video. Through this assignment I have learned how the simple use of words can place fear into a person’s heart by determining how they think. I thought the quotes did this very well because it almost said what I was thinking while watching the trailer (i.e. “We always tell ourselves there’s nothing to be afraid of”)