Film Trailer Analysis: 30 days of night

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The genre of my horror film is supernatural although it does contain elements of the Vampiric genre because the storyline features elements referring to the legend of the Highgate Vampire. Therefore I have chosen to analyse the trailer of a modern day vampire film “30 days of night” an American horror released in 2007 directed by David Slade. The narrative is set in an Alaskan town which experiences darkness for a period of one month every year this begins when the sunsets on its first polar night. Due to the long period of darkness Vampire’s use this to their advantage and take over the small isolated town, strange occurrences begin when a stranger enters town he destroys the town’s communication and transport and is sent to the local jail by the Sherriff he bitterly warns the towns people that “death is coming”. Shortly after the town is cut off from the outside world due to the destruction of telecommunication devices and electrical outlets due to an unknown creature, the convent of vampires. The town becomes chaotic and all of the town’s people take shelter in a boarded up house with a hidden attic, the towns people continue to fight the vampires for their survival before the 30 days are up.

The trailer opens with a black fade to a woman standing over a kitchen sink there is an eerie silence in the window behind her we can see it is dark outside and snow is falling giving the audience the first glimpse of the location. The lighting and the colours used within the frame are dark and cold foreshadowing the events which are about to occur the silence could also represent ‘the calm before the storm’ a phrased used to describe the atmosphere that when things are peaceful chaos is not far away. The scene cuts from the woman to a man he is sitting in the living room on the edge of the sofa he appears anxious as his face is buried in his hands there is use of profile lighting as half of his body is disguised by the shadows. The scene cuts back to the woman casually leaning on the kitchen counter until something shatters through the kitchen window disturbing the silent atmosphere of the house. The audience cannot make out what has come through the window as the scene cuts back to the man who appears alarmed as he gets up. The woman violently screams as she is torn through the glass window at a great speed by the unknown creature. The creatures appearances is kept allusive at the beginning of the trailer to alarm audiences and keep them gripped to find out what the mysterious being is. The scene then cuts to the woman being hurtled through the snow under a house, the man chases after her in terror. He reaches out to her under the shadow’s screaming her name, there is shot of them as they grip each other’s hands as he tries to pull her out from under the shadows. Half of her face and body is visible in the light until she disappears into the dark abyss, the camera shows a shot from her point of view as the man is left lying in the snow with his hands still outstretched for her mortified he calls her name he becomes more and more blurred until the scene cuts to black reflecting she is dead the echoes of his voice become more and more faint until silence reins again. This opening scene of the trailer establishes where the narrative is set it begins with a sense of normality of a husband and a wife at home, living peacefully when their world erupts into chaos within seconds due to a violent being capturing the woman. The identity of the creature remains elusive intriguing the audience. Furthermore we see the characters within the narrative have little power over what is happening as they try to face this unknown evil the woman is pulled further into the shadows.

The Columbia logo then appears to show it is “a Sony pictures entertainment company” production however the logo appears in a grey black and white washed out form to reflect the film is from the horror genre.

Haunting music plays as the subtitles appear they are in a white uppercase display font against a black background with grey clouds mirroring what the sky would appear like in Alaska. The subtitles read “They have lived in the shadows”, yet again the identities of the creatures are not revealed to audience continuing the sense of mystery. More over the fact ‘They’ have ‘lived in the shadows’ reflects that the creatures are dark, evil, inhumane and unknown as they have not revealed themselves to man before. The scene then cuts to a man and a woman standing over the roof of a house their backs are facing us so we cannot see their faces, continuing to hide the identity of the evil from the audience. Furthermore the fact they are dressed in all black emphasises the importance of the dark to these creatures, they are also overlooking the town showing that perhaps they are planning to take over it. With each title there is a noise of a drum beating, the beating sounds like a heartbeat. Another subtitle appears over the same black background reading “They are the last of their kind” this tells the audience that they are not human but another type of species altogether rare, animalistic and monster like. We are then shown a cloaked figure leaning over a woman washed up on a shore with ship wreckage behind them, showing that their prey are humans. The next subtitle reads “But above the arctic circle” the scene then shows deserted icy slopes of snow, and an overhead shot of the small town in the dark establishing where the narrative is set and reflecting how the area is covered in darkness and extremely isolated demonstrating to the audience that it is the perfect setting for these creatures to inhabit. The following subtitle reads “Where night lasts for 30 days” again this establishes to the audience that the narrative takes place in a place where the sun doesn’t rise for a month giving a clue to the audience that “They” are vampires. As it is commonly known through legends and myths that Vampire’s cannot go out into the sunlight as they will die as they burn. This hints to the audience that the film is from the Vampiric sub-genre.

The following scene begins with the drums beating louder as an old man blunders his way through the snow alone with only a lantern for light, the music changes to the sound of the piercing screech of violins similar to a person’s screams. Dark figures surround the old man and encircle him there are sounds of snarls as his hood is pulled off him and everything fades to black this piece of the trailer has been edited so that there is an extremely fast paced shot were we see a short sharp glimpse of teeth sharp like an animals, again hinting that perhaps this a film from the Vampiric genre as sharp pointy fanged teeth are associated with Vampires. The following subtitle then reads “Their time has come again” revealing to the audience that this is the prime time for the vampires to hunt down their prey, the music becomes extremely violin music because extremely sharp and off key as after the build-up of the revelation of what has come to the small isolated Alaskan town and has attacked the woman within the very first films of the trailer so viciously. We see a man who is clearly not human he has scars slashed across his face his eyes are not human they are beady and narrowed like snake looking for its prey the audience may have hints that he is a vampire as he meets the character conventions and iconography associated with vampires such as pale skin and eyes full of bloodlust.

The following scene we are presented with a Land Rover roaming through the artic landscape of Alaska, the lighting is extremely dark repeating the use of the weather and the dark conditions as pathetic fallacy to emphasise that something evil and dark is going to occur. We then see a character sitting behind the wheel looking uneasy as we hear the person over the radio announce ‘We need you at the station’, another shot of his car rolling through the side of his car is branded ‘Sherriff’ we also see him reply “copy that” this  establishes to the audience who his character is. There is repetition of mysterious and eerie music there is also a hissing sound similar to a noise an animal would make in defence before they attack their prey again repeating the idea that these creatures are inhuman and out to attack the people of Alaska.

We then see a male laying down on a bench stuck within the towns prison cell he looks through the bars we can see this man is rough through the his costume and his physical appearance of a beard reflects that he is unkempt. We then see the Sherriff enter we see him through a point of view shot through the prisoners perspective, the prisoner warns “Bar the windows try to hide they’re coming” again the mysterious creatures identity is hidden as they are referred to as they, at this present moment in time the creatures are still anonymous to the audience. The audience are then introduced to another character the woman she looks at the prisoner inquisitively, the prisoner stares back at her defiantly as he makes the prophecy we see his teeth are rotten and decayed reflecting that he doesn’t care for much but he cares about these creatures that are coming, the lighting is extremely dark and grey there is no use of bright colours within the frame white grey and black are dominate reoccurring colours throughout the trailer. We can hear a bell ticking as the man announces the coming of ‘they’ this sound could reflect that alarm bells are now ringing for the characters as disaster is about to strike.

The Sherriff asks “They?” “Who are they?” a question the audience have been asking themselves and anticipating the answer as the trailer has built up. We then see a shot of a third character a young boy behind him peering through the blinds we can see the glimpse of a pale face and the sound of heavy breathing, showing that the prisoners prophecy is true and that ‘They’ have really come. The camera then cuts back to the prisoner’s face looking on in terror. The lights begin to flicker we also hear the sound of electric sparks discharging as the towns power is being shut down we see scenes of the town and the diners lights being shut down this shows the audience that modern technology cannot save them as all power and communication devices are down, the audience will be able to relate to the importance of technological devices as we are dependent on them  in our daily lives to communicate with one another many of us struggle to go without our mobile phones or social networking, this helps make the storyline relevant to the modern context it is set in. Overall it emphasises the sense of isolation and helplessness in the battle against the unknown source of evil.

A high pitch sound echoes again reflecting the idea of the alarm being rung that ‘They’ are coming. The subtitles then appear in a display font a new colour is introduced the colour red this has connotations of being linked to blood, the devil, and danger the subtitle reads “Based on a ground breaking graphic novel” this is relevant to audience members who are fans of the novel of 30 days of night novel. The camera then cuts and is shaky as we see a dark figure stumble through the snow the shakiness of the camera could reflect the mental and physical state of the figure as unstable as we see an overhead shot of someone watching her she yells ‘Somebody’ as she walks through the town alone the scene cuts to shot of the empty streets to people looking in hiding and people staring through their letter boxes showing that they are all in hiding. The next subtitle reads ‘From the producer Sam Raimi best known for his work in cult horror and comedy films he is the producer of ‘Drag me to hell’ so fans of the film and the supernatural genre may also be a valid audience for this film.

The next scene we hear a character ushering “I saw their teeth” we then see an image of a vampires jaw dripping with blood their eyes are still not shown so their identity is still partially hidden. The boy whispers that the unknown creatures attacking this town are ‘Vampires’ revealing to the audience who ‘They’ are as the trailer reaches its climax. The woman tells him that ‘Vampires don’t exist Jake’ in disbelief reflecting that in this current era people no longer believe in mythical creatures such as Vampires. However the scene is edited so the audience preview a quick flash of the mythical vampire face her whole face is revealed for the first time however she appears so quickly that audience will be reeling to see more.

The scene then cuts to inhumane fingernails dripping with blood the nails are sharp jagged and claw like an animals as though their purpose is to attack. The following subtitle reads ‘This Fall’ telling the audience when the film is going to be released. Gothic piano music begins to play linking signalling to the audience that this film is from the vampiric genre. The next scene we can see blood dripping on the surface, we then see the prisoner looking out from behind bars giving the audience an insight to what is happening in the town it’s ironic how the prisoner the person who is an outsider to the people in town is telling them what is happening, he says “That cold aint the weather, that’s death approaching” as soon as he utters the word death he fades to black and the next scene shows blood dripping down the snowy landscape reflecting that a massacre of the towns people is fast approaching. We then see a male vampire stalking through the town the colours used are predominately black and white, we then see telephone pole being torn down as it blazes with fire reflecting the anarchy and destruction that the vampires have brought with them. We see the cuts of fast rapid black making images unclear also reflecting the future for the characters are unclear. We see bodies being dragged through the snow unwillingly as by the creatures. The next subitile reads ‘How can they be stopped’ a question the audience would be asking themselves now they understand what the identity of the creatures have been revealed as vampires and their intent has been made known.

We see images of people hiding underground as a character cries “We can last a month” we see an image of an elderly man ready to defend himself with use of a shot gun. Another powerful image is used of a man standing behind a line of fire the first use to colour within the trailer apart from the red subtitles reflecting that perhaps there is hope.

The gothic piano music continues to pick up pace, the next subtitle reads ‘When daylight never comes’, this gives the audience further contextual information of the dilemmas the people are facing they will not see daylight for a month thirty as mentioned by a character previously and its common myth and convention used within the vampiric genre that vampires cannot survive within sunlight and that they are ultimately creatures of the night. We then see images of the town on fire this has connotations of hell and evil as their small Alaskan town has become a kind of hell on earth, there are also images of chains being pulled this could relate to the fact that they trapped and restrained from leaving their hiding. We then see an low angle shot looking up at a vampire launch herself of a building with monstrous cries we see people prepare to kill the vampires as we see images of a person picking up an axe. A powerful image of a vampire howling face dripping with blood in agony shows that these creatures can be killed another image of a body being thrown through the fire further shows that the towns people can kill these creatures with their strong will. We are also shown an image of a female hiding within the snow still. The scene cuts to the vampires face turned away from the audience facing the town hell bent and filled with flames, the final image shows a woman screaming in terror as a vampire launching into her neck, this is an important piece of vampire iconography as when attacked victims are often bitten in the neck.

The final subtitle the name of the film appears ’30 days of night’ in bold red writing which appears as though it has been etched in blood, the subtitles signal it is a Columbia pictures and ghost house pictures production the names of the producers are then displayed followed by the official website.