Trailer Review: Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

Name Of Film: Dawn Of The Dead

Genre Of Trailer: Action Horror  

Year Released: 2004

Your Mark After Viewing: 6/10

This is a scene trailer, and features some key scenes of the full movie. The first scene we see is pretty much the full scene from the movie, it shows the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and features some great camera angles (fixed on board camera on Anna’s car) and it really sets the scene of what the film is about, it gives the audience vital clues to the narrative. There is quite a few jumpy bits in the trailer too, particularly when the music at the start changes from a pleasant calm soft piece of music to an eerie and loud jumpy piece, with a sharp transition between the two. Restricted narration is present because this is a green band trailer, so excessive gore and body horror can’t be shown, but here it works extremely well and this is a very well put together movie trailer! I found it hard to find criticisms for the trailer, but on I have is the choice of font. It looks a little ‘cheesy’ and I don’t feel like it fits the trailer, it really lets the whole thing down, but apart from this it is a very good horror trailer.

Trailer Review: Dawn Of The Dead (1978)

Name Of Film: Dawn Of The Dead

Genre Of Trailer: Action Horror   

Year Released: 1978

Your Mark After Viewing: 3/10

 

This movie trailer is a stark contrast to modern film trailers, it features a narrator that introduces the narrative of the movie so the audience know exactly what they are getting from the film. The trailer also introduces the main characters, and shows a variety of scenes from the movie, although it could be said that the trailer shows a little too many of these scenes, a little too much of the movie is included in the trailer in my opinion. It is certainly behind in the terms of quality compared to modern trailers, although this is an unfair comparison considering the age of this trailer. The trailer features a lot of restricted narration and shows no body horror, it gives no clues to the actual films gory content. However I did not enjoy this trailer, it wasn’t scary and it didn’t make me jump, nor did it make the movie seem enticing and a ‘must watch’. There was not enough suspense or low key lighting to make it seem eerie, nor was there a lot of action scenes to show off the scary parts, the narration over top didn’t help this because it made the trailer seem almost comical.

Trailer Review: Cloverfield

Name Of Film: Cloverfield

Genre Of Trailer: Action Horror   

Year Released: 2008

Your Mark After Viewing: 8/10

 

This horror film has the effect of being filmed on a video camera by one of the characters which gives it a much more realistic and personal response with the viewer. The trailer is a scene trailer and the audience really get a lot of information about the film, we get introduced to all the main characters and we also see what upsets the films start equilibrium. The fact that there is no backing music makes the trailer seem more realistic in my opinion, it makes everything seem much more believable and a little less ‘Hollywood’. The trailer features jumpy bits when there the lights go out and there is a big explosion, this creates suspense and fits a fair amount of the generic conventions. There is also restricted narration as we never see what is causing the explosions and destruction, which keeps the audience wondering and in turn would make people want to go see the full film. I don’t really have any criticisms of the trailer, I thought it was brilliant and is exactly what I look for in a horror trailer.