Woman in Black trailer analysis

The trailer begins with a steam train heading into the distance with the sun setting in the background. This could immediately connote that someone is going on a remote journey and like the sun setting also connote they too are going into darkness. This is an establishing shot letting audiences know the protagonist is being led away from their comfort zone into the unknown. At the beginning the shots fade quite slowly into the next as to start the trailer with a feeling of equilibrium and to build the suspense. The setting already looks isolated with the warmth of the sun in the scene is slipping away. The nondiegetic music accompanying this scene is hauntingly gentle, hiding the horrors of what is yet to come.

This is our establishing shot of where the film is revolved around. It is typical of the conventions of a horror, an isolated desolate mansion that once seemed a thriving happy family home that had its equilibrium ruined and now is haunted. It adheres to Roland Barthes enigma code, the setting denotes mystery, its the beginning of the tangled ball and as we go along we begin to unravel the mystery. However in the horror genre the audience are never shown the new equilibrium to keep the suspense. The iconography of the abandoned house is used in numerous horror films to reiterate Barthes enigma code.

This shot is a chilling point of view establishing shot, which gives the impression to the audience that someone unknown is watching his arrival to the house. The iconography of the cross immediately connotes death and pain and gives audiences a warning early on in the trailer that the characters are doomed. A conventional creative feature of a horror film is a dark and eerie atmosphere. It is clear that we are being presented with an incredibly spooky atmosphere which gives a sense of foreboding. The weather, grey and misty, is effective is reiterating this.

When our protagonist first enters the house he is immediately stripped of his power and control through use of this effective high angle, and stairs are a typical way of showing a characters importance. Also, again it feels as though he is being watched secretly, like he is entering somewhere that is forbidden or private. It is important to notice that the Woman in Black slightly defies Todorovs narrative theory. At the beginning there is no equilibrium, just simply a new character entering the already present disequilibrium. Instead the film more follows Noel Carrolls Philosophy of Horror.

The iconography of the crow is symbolic of death, and the trailer is now beginning to pick up the pace due to the editing. The incorporation of jump cuts adds more suspense and builds up anticipation. The exaggerated diegetic sound mixed with a dramatic non diegetic sound makes the action more vivid and real.

Having credit like text featured in a horror trailer is a typical convention. The backdrop is always black or really dark with contrasting bold text to reiterate another convention of non naturalistic lighting.

The involvement of children makes the story even more twisted as children are seen as innocent. A mother out for revenge makes the use of child victims even sicker. Horror genre theorist Barbara Creed believes the representation of a woman as the monster links to the

patriarchal society. At the end of horror film trailers the disequilibrium is never solved as that would ruin the mystery before anyone actually watches the film.