Trailer Analysis
The Exorcist
This film was directed by William Friedkin in 1973.
The story revolves around a mother and daughter who are staying in Washington DC. The daughter becomes posessed and her mother finds a Exorcist who removes the demon but loses his own life in the process.
The trailer starts off with a black screen while some music goes over the top of the screen, it has quite a creepy air to it which helps to set the genre of the film. After one or two seconds the title "The Exorcist" appears on the screen and hovers for eight seconds. The font used for the title has quite an old fashioned air about it, almost like Roman nunerals (this adheres slightly to the opening sequence of the film), the Roman nuneral look is combined with block capitals which helps the title to stand out. The colour of the title is a bright red which suggests to the audience that it is blood, it also provides a strong contrast against the black background which is very dramatic. This would further grab the audience's attention as it further confirms the genre of this film. This coupled with the music still playing softly in the background would produce a creepy atmosphere for the audience.
The title slowly fades into darkness and into a clip from the film. As the quality of the film is not exactly the highest due to the age of the film, we are just able to make out a woman's face who has her face illuminated by a single candlestick. This is the protagonists mother who is searching some sort of loft, the fact that we can only see her face is quite creepy but as she is looking around the candleflame suddenly flares up. This is one of my favourite parts of the trailer because all we can hear is the music still playing, then suddenly the flame makes a very loud whooshing noise and the mother screams.
I have watched this clip countless times and it still makes me jump because although I know it is coming I never fully prepare myself for the sound of the flame and her shriek. A ferocious sound suddenly erupts, it is horrendously loud and stops the audience from recovering from their earlier shock.
The clip changes and we hear her daughter yelling and the sound of a bed banging against the floor. The lights change to a cool blue which gives the clip another change in atmosphere as it is almost suggesting that there is a supernatural theme.
There are horrible snarling noises put through thos clip and we see the mothers distress and her anger at the priest who is meant to be helping her daughter. I feel that this trailer is very good as it is showing the audience the nain themes of the film and also exlempifying the shock factor of this film.
There is a very clever transistion included, as we see an image of Regan. Her face is puffy and scarred, this would have disgusted the audience as the make up that they used looks very realistic.
After a while the screams die down until there is just the sound of heavy, laboured breathing. We see the mother opening the door to usher in a silhoueted figure. The mysteriousness of this figure is exlempified by the mist swirling around him.
The traile ends with the name of the film, the director and the writers name in bright red.
One of the reasons that I like this trailer so much is because we are given hints about what happens in this film but it isn't ruined for us. Another reason is because there are several moments which have influenced many horror films throughout the years and continue to do so today. This film has also influenced many different films such as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (Paul Schrader 2005,Morgan Creek Productions ) and
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