Film Trailer Analysis: Unfriended

In the beginning of the trailer we are immediately shown the Universal logo to help appeal to the audience straightaway as to get their attention as quick as possible. This is shown with the inclusion of a light joyous piano melody to help signify happiness amongst the images shown of different people, this is highlighted by the caption "online, your memories last forever", hinting at the movie revolving around the idea of the internet. As the different shots of memories are shown the music cuts dramatically whilst showing the caption "but so do your mistakes", this helps emphasise what is going to happen in the trailer and allows us to empathise with the girl in the video as we see the effects a bad video can have on someone. We can see this through the supposed abuse she received after the drunk video was shown, whilst in the video we are shown a high angle shot of her as to connote her vulnerability in the scene. As the scene develops we can see the effects of the video in full as there is a loud bang to signify her death.

The trailer develops further as it states that it is the anniversary of the suicide, this conforms to some horror genre stereotypes as often something bad will happen on the anniversary of a death and so the audience may relate this theory to the film and so would expect something bad to happen. Afterwards we are introduced to the main feature of the film through the use of Skype to help portray the storyline through many perspectives at once whom we assume are the main characters. We are shown some sort of unknown caller in which adds a sense of mystery into the trailer as we don't know who the person could be which also plays on expectations of a horror movie as the enemy is normally 'unseen'. As the trailer continues it gradually becomes more tense as the non-diagetic music helps show a potential danger to the characters shown. We can see through the various closeups of the characters of what their current feelings are like and the scene becomes more of an enigma to the audience as we see a message from the supposedly 'dead' girl.

The scene becomes more eerie to the audience as the conversation between the characters suggests that maybe it is the girl talking, before the scene shifts to a picture of her with a sudden increase in volume of the sound to help highlight the evil in this trailer. The scene carries on until we see a caption from the messenger stating that someone will die, helping to emphasise the danger the characters are in and helping to immerse the audience into the trailer. The trailer succeeds in making the audience curious as they find out one of the characters actually posted the video, whilst this happens we see the power the entity has as it states "lights out", plunging everybody into darkness. The dark may be a representation of the intentions the entity has for the characters involved and helps portray them as being helpless and vulnerable much like the girl from the start.

The trailers sound gradually gets louder to help represent the danger associated with horror movies whilst we can see a statement saying "a new genre of horror", helping to persuade the audience into watching the film. We can see a viewpoint of one of the characters where the camera seems top be focusing largely on the darkness behind him which helps suggest the entity is around somewhere. The trailer then uses a sense of irony through blackmailing the characters to help emphasise the emotions the girl from the start supposedly felt, almost as if the entity wants the characters to suffer.

The trailer uses constant reminders of third party opinions to further persuade the audience of the horror movie qualities the film contains and makes them want ot see the film more. We are also shown a different type of camera angle in particular with the idea of a pov shot in the eyes of the killer where it goes towards him, before we see him being killed off, this is followed directly afterwards by the caption "who wants to play next" suggesting that none of the characters are safe. it also adds tension as we are not sure on who the next victim is and so the audience is further immersed into what is going to happen to the characters and can sympathise with them as they try and escape their inevitable deaths, as suggested by the idea of leaving the chat will end up killing you. The trailer begins to gain pace as their is a countdown present which could be a reference to the amount of people who are still alive at that time whilst the final shot of the trailer focuses on one characters scream of sorts to help further emphasise the movie to the audience as it fades to the title screen.