THE WOMAN IN BLACK TRAILER ANALYSIS

The Woman in Black is a 2012 British horror film. A young lawyer, struggling with work after the death of his wife, is sent to a remote village to settle the estate of a deceased eccentric woman who owns an English manor. The village residents want him to leave as they are trying to conceal a deadly secret. But he refuses, and soon discovers that the house of his client is haunted by the vengeful ghost of a woman dressed in black. Out of all the trailers that we chose as a group to research into, The Women In Black is certainly a more period horror based around ghosts. We chose this film because in our trailer we hope to create something with the supernatural/ghost genre, therefore we wanted examples from films with a different style and which included the most effective techniques that would be useful in the production of our own trailer. The casting of this film is very clever in terms of how Daniel Radcliffe, popular from the hit movie Harry Potter, is the main character. Harry Potter and The Woman In Black have similar conventions in terms of the fact they both show elements of the supernatural and magic therefore Daniel is straight away very relevant and suited to his character.

Straight away in the opening scene, the setting of the film is very much deserted, uneasy and ultimately creepy. A blue filter is used as there is a long shot of the house to portray the "haunted" effect and give the audience a slow introduction to the film. Along with this, a tracking shot is used which moves around areas of the haunted house. This is done to increase the tension as the house appears to be very dark and gloomy. The trailer then instantly speeds up as the audience are shown various mysterious things. The length of the shots are very short and flash by very quickly which leaves the audience wanting more. It is also an effective way of increasing the audiences heartbeat as all the sudden action is very fast.

The trailer for 'The Woman In Black' represents an upper class working lawyer. This challenges the stereotype that upper class people have perfect, uncorrupted lives. This adds to the effect of the genre as the audience thinks that if bad things can happen to higher class people then it can easily happen to them too. The setting of the film in a castle mansion also relates to the class represented. The age of the characters is primarily young which enhances the idea of not being in control as the ideology of young people is that they cannot look after themselves well. The gender of the main character (a young man) presents the idea that a man should be strong and fearless. This stereotype is challenged as he becomes weakened and afraid of various events including ghosts of young girls. Because of this, the target audience would be primarily young people because firstly Daniel is very popular within young people because of Harry Potter, therefore, a large amount of the audience will consist of these young people anticipating his next character. Secondly, the film is very thrilling however not too terrifying which makes it suitable for a younger audience.