Within this post, I will be analysing how the horror film trialers "Chernobyl diaries" and "The Cabin in the Woods" use narrative and charcateriisation and what effect this has on the audience.
Looking for: Narrative (order in which events appear)
Characters (the type of characters that appear)
Chernobyl diaries - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygmVZaYgbn8 (trailer link)
Characters: The villain – the unknown creatures trying to hunt the humans
The donor – possibly the Ukrainian who has all of the equipment
The princess/prize – the woman who appears to be vulnerable and weak
The hero/seeker – no obvious hero as they all get same amount of screen time
Narrative: Equilibrium – Beginning where they are having a conversation at the table
Incident – Travel to Ukraine and find a horrible discovery
Disequilibrium – Creatures hunt the group and they try to fight back and escape
Resolution – N/A
New equilibrium – N/A
The Cabin in the Woods - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ENUBUdFswM (trailer link)
Characters: Villian – man with the strange eyes who appears devious when speaking
The hero/seeker – possibly man who drives car as he gets most screen time as helps
Other features – don’t really fit the categories which shows they are breaking maxims
Narrative: Equilibrium – Beginning they are all travelling in car having fun and laughing
Incident – Find the cabin and strange things start to happen
Disequilibrium – They realise they are trying to be killed and try to escape the area
Resolution – N/A
New equilibrium – N/A
After analysing the trailers, I have identified that the characters and narratives the two films use are very similar to the theories created by Tzvetan Todorov and Vladimir Propp. The Cabin in the Woods is slightly more unique than Chernobyl diaries in the sense that it only uses a few features which are shown in the theories. A major aspect which highlights the significance of film trailers is the need to just show the equilibrium, incident, and disequilibrium. It is very rare that film trailers will show the resolution and the new equilibrium as trailers are supposed to create anticipation and the need to go and want to see it. If the whole narrative was included, people wouldn’t want to see the film as they know the story.
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