Cover Work..Analysing 2 Film Trailers (Practice Med6)

Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer

Death Tunnel Trailer

Similarities
- Mainly female character(s) are involved in both trailers
- Following the generic conventions of Horror (genre)
- Events happening to kids/students, who are unmarried
- Blood is involved; props such as daggers/knives are used. Diegetic sound used: Screams. Non-Diegetic sound: Music

Differences
- ‘Death Tunnel’ has objectified women way more than in ‘Nightmare of elm Street
- ‘Death Tunnel’ has a more modern way of following the genre elements compared to ‘Nightmare of elm Street’
- ‘Death Tunnel’ narrative based around real events at ‘Waverly Hills Sanatorium’ whereas ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ is imaginary and fictionous.
- Trailer of ‘Death tunnel’ provides more text information in the trailer such as website (telling us how new/modern it is) other text which help us to understand the narrative, reviews by critics/magazines and other credits. Whereas in ‘Nightmare on Elm street’ we just see the title of the film half way through the trailer and finally at the end with the directors name and production/distribution company.
- The style of editing in Nightmare on Elm street is very plain, just straight cuts, whereas in Death tunnel editing is completely different such as having fast paced cuts, fades, blurs and other fancy/special edits.
- Music: Death Tunnel has Rock Music, Nightmare on Elm Street has more subtle eerie music, piano/keyboard based.
- From different centuries, one is new and other is old.

Issues & Debates
- Patriarchy still valid, Voice over done by a man.
- Increasing objectification of women over time.

S.H.E.P
Social: Women are sinners, and if they are they get punishments for it.
Historical: ‘Death tunnel’ based around true events, showing history of ‘Waverly Hills Sanatorium’

Other Related texts
Wes Craven Directed: ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ ‘The hills have eyes’ ‘Last house on the left’

Essay

The two texts which I comparing are ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ directed by Wes Craven, 1984 and ‘Death Tunnel’directed by Philip Adrian Booth, 2005. Both of these texts are trailers which are there to attract the targeted audiences, they aim to sell the film through these trailers, which has a great impact on the influencing the audience to go and watch the film.

The ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ trailer has a complete different style of editing. Throughout the trailer we don’t see any scenes flowing along, yet we see a narrative building up, there are only straight cuts shown which gives us a new scene; very different from the previous. comparing this to ‘Death tunnel’ we are shown many different editing techniques, such as fades, blurs, straight cuts and other fancy edits which gives the trailer a kick, it also is successful in building up a generic narrative. The type of editing which is used in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ is very plain, this does not build up any tension but some drastic emotions one after the other, however ‘Death Tunnel’ builds tension up along, we expect to see more after the first scene. This clearly shows that these films are not from the same era, it can be quite easily differentiated.

The characters that are shown in both films are victims of death, which follows the generic conventions of the genre which is horror and slasher. Both films have shown female victims of the predator(s) that is ‘Freddy Kruger’ for Nightmare on Elm Street and ‘the five ghosts’ for Death Tunnel. This can be linked to the ideology ‘patriarchy’ because the idea of the females in the trailers being controlled by the predator shows some sort of patriarchy, which is in Nightmare on Elm Street by Freddy Kruger which is a man, and in Death Tunnel by the five ghosts, which shows that women are easily victimised and so are shown being dominated under some sort of figure, foreseeing it to be man. These films also reinforce objectification, not that the trailers show or expose explicit scenes of women of any kind, yet what we see is that women are being put on screen, where we as viewers are seeing them, just like voyeurs. Linking this to audience ,we definitely know that the target audience are both male and females, because the genre aims at both genders although due to the slasher genre, we expect to see more male audiences, which tells us that there would be the ‘male gaze’ where women are objectified.

The representation of women is clearly shown through the props, acting and dialogues. In Nightmare on Elm Street, we see that the female protagonist is scantily clad on the bed yet her boyfriend out of bed, whereby guessing they just had a sexual intercourse. We assume that they are not married and that the female is a sinner for premarital sex, this is why she is getting punished through these nightmares. this follows the conventions of the typical genre. Although the idea that comes across is that both films are ostensibly promoting violence against women.

The lighting in both trailers is low-key, which supports the generic elements of the genre. Darker colours show mysteriousness, which makes the audience feel uncomfortable to see around and which finally they identify themselves with the character, as if they are in their position searching their way. The non-diegetic music played in the background of both trailers differ from each other, ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ plays rather subtle eerie, piano/keyboard based music yet it is parallel, which is very traditional for horror films. however ‘Death Tunnel’ has rock Music being played over half way of the trailer which can be contrapuntal or parallel towards the trailer, though modern films usually have adapted to this idea as it supports the intense graphic violence being shown, yet it can be argued that how rock music is relevant to horror genre in general. Referring to ’28 days later’ (2003) another horror film, also plays rock music in the background. Looking at both films the voice-over is done by a man, which shows since 1984 and till today patriarchy is still valid in society.

Both films are from the Hollywood industry, which are able to create high-budgeted films. The Hollywood industry is very big, without a doubt having mass audiences. ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ directed by Wes craven, who produced similar films such as ‘The hills have eyes’ and ‘Last house on the left’ and ‘Scream’ his films are seen by genre communities, which love the horror genre, and cultural communities who are the fans. ‘Death Tunnel’ directed by Philip Adrian Booth who is not very well known, although the film will receive viewings due to the genre communities and the truth behind the whole narrative. Overall the institution also impacts on appealing the audience to see the film.