Analysis of 'Mirrors' teaser trailer

The genre of the film Mirrors is clearly given during the teaser trailer. The setting shown through the mise-en-scene shows a house in the suburbs which is a conventional setting for horror. This is because of its “middle of nowhere” and deserted feeling that makes the film much scarier to watch. A scream is given to show that something scary is happening and that the characters are in fear. Several weird angles are used along with many close ups to disorientate the spectator. The lighting is very dark creating a grim atmosphere. The teaser ends with a boy seemingly being sucked into the floor in a very quick shot. Shots like these are often used at the end of horror teaser trailers as it leaves the audience wanting to know what happened and is suppose to make the jump.

The name of the movie is revealed towards the end of the teaser.”Mirrors” is displayed on an intertitle in the same style as the other intertitles throughout the teaser. A white text is used against a black background so that the movie title sticks out due to the high contrast between the two colours. Black is a colour that is one of the most important to the horror genre (another being red). The text on the intertitle is mirrored underneath it to go with the films mirror theme.

The teaser displays many production values. Firstly a logo for 20th Century Fox is show to tell the audience that the film has been produced by Fox or at least distributed by them. This is important as 20th Century Fox is a very well known company and is part of the huge News Corporation conglomerate. Therefore a film by them is expected to be high budget. A star of the film is revealed through the use of intertitles. With Keifer Sutherland being displayed as the star his fans will know that he is in the film and likely go and see it for him. Other members of the audience will learn who is in the film. Using a star in the teaser makes the film look high budget and well made as they could afford to get a “star”. Special effects are used towards the end with a child being sucked into the floor the also implies the high budget. There is no director given leading to the assumption that the director is not well known or a big “name”.

The music used in the teaser is very sinister sounding adding to the tension and suspense. The music is also quick emotive keeping in the tone of the genre. The music builds up to several crescendos during the teaser leaving the audience with a sense of wanting more. The music also adds to the shock of many shots as its crescendo can really make a shot have a large “shock factor” impact. A heartbeat sound effect is used throughout the teaser to represent the feeling of the characters. They are panicking and scared and the use of this soundtrack helps us to feel how they do and connect with the characters.
Dialogue plays an important role in the teaser. Asynchronous sound is often used to maximise the use of the short time a teaser has to tell its information. Dialogue such as “there’s something in the house” is used to tell the audience what is happening. This keeps the killer or supernatural force mysterious without revealing too much. The viewer never fully learns what the villain is in this teaser; thus leaving the wanting more. “I’m so scared” also helps the audience to sympathise with the character and this will hopefully leave them wanting to find out what happens to the character. A voiceover is not used in this trailer.

The teaser does not use any grammatical structures or alliteration. However the sentence on the intertitiles is broken up to keep the audience guessing as to what it is going to read next. The sentence is broken up into clauses with other shots from the movie in between them.