Usual Conventions Of Horror Trailer

I have noticed how different film trailers can be when watching them in the cinema and at home. The trailers are exactly the same but there is always something different about watching at horror film at home rather than at the cinema. The usual conventions of a horror trailer, I personally think that trailers where made to watch in the cinema, it’s dark and loud and you don’t get distracted because its just a large screen and some seats, where at home you can easily get distracted and pay no attention to what is going on, on the TV. From the horror trailers that I have watched both at home and in the cinema, I have noticed that there are similarities. One of the similarities that I have noticed is the music in the background of the trailer, the music is usually rock or metal music, this creates a atmosphere when the film on the trailer isn’t creating one. Another similarity I have noticed was the colour schemes. When I was watching trailers I noticed that the colours on screen are misty yellows and greys, a lot of blues and blacks are used. This is like a subliminal message to the audience that this film will be a horror, even before anything in the trailer happens. Other conventions that I have noticed whilst watching horror film trailers are that the shots of the trailer are always fast paced; this makes the audience feel tense and create the atmosphere of terror within the audience.  Whilst I was watching some of the horror trailers that had come out recently I had noticed that there was always a part in the trailer where the screen went blank and the voice over would play, this is because it makes people concentrate on what the voice is saying, without getting distracted by clips of film that are being played in the background. This is also a good way of scaring the audience, after the blank screen; there is sometimes a jumpy piece of film that is shown, scaring the audience. Personally, the more scared I am of the trailer, the more I will talk about it to other people and I will go and see it. The people who make the trailers want their trailers to be different and to stick in people memories so that more and more people will watch the film. I thought it would be a good idea to watch a film trailer without the music going on. I thought that it would help me pick out some of the conventions that are shown on screen without getting sidetracked but the sound effects, vis versa, The film trailer that I watched without the music was The Crazies. I have seen this film and thought that it was horrible, it really was scary, but when I watched the trailer without the music, it didn’t look scary or anything, this made me realise that without the music, films and their trailers really wouldn’t be scary at all! The music is always an important part of the trailers and the music and sound effects must be chosen carefully to ensure that it is as real as it looks.

In conclusion, horror films are basically the same, the music is mostly the same genre and the techniques that are used are usually the same too, the only thing that isn’t the same in a horror trailer is the plot of the film, but this can also be very similar.