Name of film: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D
Year Released: 2013
Genre of Trailer: Horror (Highlights)
My Mark after Viewing: 8/10
What happened in the trailer?
This trailer follows the story of a young girl who has recently learnt about the passing of her grandmother, the owner of a large house in the middle of nowhere. She and her friends take this opportunity to stay at the newly abandoned house. However, whilst exploring it, they come across the evil Leatherface. We first see him sitting at a desk, threading a needle and trying on the legendary mask of sewn up skin. This is when the group starts realising something is wrong and, one by one, he comes after them in various horrific ways. A direct sequel to the 1974 classic, much of the story is new, but a lot of the traditional horror elements are still present. As a green band trailer, there is absolutely no gore, yet there is enough to keep the audience satisfied and wanting to see more. The new appeal of this film is the fact that it is also in 3D, never before seen in any previous Texas Chainsaw film.
This trailer follows the story of a young girl who has recently learnt about the passing of her grandmother, the owner of a large house in the middle of nowhere. She and her friends take this opportunity to stay at the newly abandoned house. However, whilst exploring it, they come across the evil Leatherface. We first see him sitting at a desk, threading a needle and trying on the legendary mask of sewn up skin. This is when the group starts realising something is wrong and, one by one, he comes after them in various horrific ways. A direct sequel to the 1974 classic, much of the story is new, but a lot of the traditional horror elements are still present. As a green band trailer, there is absolutely no gore, yet there is enough to keep the audience satisfied and wanting to see more. The new appeal of this film is the fact that it is also in 3D, never before seen in any previous Texas Chainsaw film.
Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you
think you could include in your own trailer?
The trailer begins agonisingly slowly in a way which makes the film look like another indie teen movie. With the addition of a calm soundtrack and long takes, the pace is set well from the beginning. One particularly interesting aspect is the dip to black effect used for many of the opening shots to slow down the time for narrative. This is instantly followed by a slightly faster build up with the introduction of intertitles cross-cutting with shots of the villain, Leatherface. The most captivating feature of this trailer, I found, was the soundtrack. It begins with the simple acoustic guitar song before going deathly quiet and being interrupted by the loud eruption of the sound of chainsaws for a few brief seconds. After returning to a quiet dripping tap, the sound is almost non-existent, up until Leatherface puts a chainsaw onto one of the girls’ shoulders and she screams against a gag. After that point, there is a weird vibrating sound followed by the build-up of a strings section, culminating in the final, shocking clip of the girl in the coffin and the loud noise of the chainsaw, once again. This soundtrack changes the entire pace of the trailer throughout and sets the tone for each individual section. Overall, it has a good narrative structure in which the characters and story line are introduced, then the villain, then the action. The trailer follows many conventions of traditional horror without being too explicit either. It also has no need for a narration because of the well-integrated intertitles which explain the connection with the original film and the new story. Restricted narration is used particularly well here to make it appear scary without showing anything gory.
The trailer begins agonisingly slowly in a way which makes the film look like another indie teen movie. With the addition of a calm soundtrack and long takes, the pace is set well from the beginning. One particularly interesting aspect is the dip to black effect used for many of the opening shots to slow down the time for narrative. This is instantly followed by a slightly faster build up with the introduction of intertitles cross-cutting with shots of the villain, Leatherface. The most captivating feature of this trailer, I found, was the soundtrack. It begins with the simple acoustic guitar song before going deathly quiet and being interrupted by the loud eruption of the sound of chainsaws for a few brief seconds. After returning to a quiet dripping tap, the sound is almost non-existent, up until Leatherface puts a chainsaw onto one of the girls’ shoulders and she screams against a gag. After that point, there is a weird vibrating sound followed by the build-up of a strings section, culminating in the final, shocking clip of the girl in the coffin and the loud noise of the chainsaw, once again. This soundtrack changes the entire pace of the trailer throughout and sets the tone for each individual section. Overall, it has a good narrative structure in which the characters and story line are introduced, then the villain, then the action. The trailer follows many conventions of traditional horror without being too explicit either. It also has no need for a narration because of the well-integrated intertitles which explain the connection with the original film and the new story. Restricted narration is used particularly well here to make it appear scary without showing anything gory.
Which aspects of the trailer did you think were
unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
The issue with a green band horror trailer is the restrictions placed upon what things and cannot be shown. Watching it the first time, you could be mistaken for thinking that the trailer makes it look like a particularly gory, scary horror film. Having watching it multiple times, the truth is that there is not one single shot of explicit gore. However, this is an issue for the film’s target audience. Particularly looking at die-hard horror fans who love the original, Texas Chainsaw Massacre fails to highlight any of the gore which is particularly thrilling or disturbing – one of the major deal breakers for a lot of horror fans. Seeing as this franchise is well known for its body horror, this may be a problem. One of the other big issues I found came towards the end of the trailer in which the main female protagonist gets into the coffin, hiding from Leatherface. The tension here is well built whilst the screen is in black. However, this pause is much too long and makes the ending of the trailer feel cliché. There is possibly no jump scare here because the audience has too much time to prepare for it. Instead, there could have been another section after the title of the film – however, it cut straights to the credits instead.
The issue with a green band horror trailer is the restrictions placed upon what things and cannot be shown. Watching it the first time, you could be mistaken for thinking that the trailer makes it look like a particularly gory, scary horror film. Having watching it multiple times, the truth is that there is not one single shot of explicit gore. However, this is an issue for the film’s target audience. Particularly looking at die-hard horror fans who love the original, Texas Chainsaw Massacre fails to highlight any of the gore which is particularly thrilling or disturbing – one of the major deal breakers for a lot of horror fans. Seeing as this franchise is well known for its body horror, this may be a problem. One of the other big issues I found came towards the end of the trailer in which the main female protagonist gets into the coffin, hiding from Leatherface. The tension here is well built whilst the screen is in black. However, this pause is much too long and makes the ending of the trailer feel cliché. There is possibly no jump scare here because the audience has too much time to prepare for it. Instead, there could have been another section after the title of the film – however, it cut straights to the credits instead.
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