The Descent trailer

The trailer starts off with the MPAA Green rating screen and the film company logo (Liongate). There’s a series of introduction shots that introduce the characters, the first being a medium shot of a photo being taken of the 5 main girls. There are dramatic sound effects when the shot changes, sounds like a swooping noise with dialogue in between. There’s no background music yet. A location shot shortly follows, a birdseye view of the woods and the girls driving in the car. It’s daytime, the sky is bright which sets a happy mood, the girls are all smiling also. The cuts are sharp between the different clips. The clips are a series of medium shots and close ups – they all need to be different to keep the viewer interested.

An interesting shot is of the climbing harness fastening, there’s a crash zoom and a sound effect. I feel like it represents the finality of their trip.

The captions start the first one saying ‘Claustrophobia’ in small white font. It fades in and out with the dialogue continuing in the background. The shots fade into each other very well as they’re all based in the dark and mostly ‘black’, with just a hint of light coming from the girls helmets.

The next shots are all particularly similar, they tell a story. The girls have become trapped in a cave, there’s lots of close ups so we can see their expression and read the horror on their faces. The lighting is very clever, picking out key areas - you have to concentrate watching this video. Still, the only sound is the dialogue and heavy breathing which creates the ambience of panic. The shots are extended because of the dialogue.

The next caption shot is different from the ones before. It reads ‘fear’ and shakes. An insect noise is layered over the top, it’s very eerie. We then hear a girl scream, it makes you jump as the rest of the trailer, there hasn’t been any shouting/raised voices. We know the trailer is going to turn at this point.

The trailer turns very quickly. The clips are much shorter, again still of different varieties, there’s lots of close ups and long shots each cutting quickly into one another. The sound is of things happening – torches dropping, water dripping, flares being lit etc. Each clip is around 2 seconds and then speeds up to around a second each. Black still being the main element – the dark. Not conforming to the conventions of horror film trailers, the critic reviews are not over a plain background. They are layered over trailer footage. They’re kept short and striking so they’re quick to read and the interest is not lost from the trailer.

Nearing the end, there’s a simple title screen that says the film name, ‘The Descent’. In the same font as the captions used throughout the trailer. After, there’s the most memorable shot of the trailer that occurs in most horror trailers. It’s the shot people remember and talk about as it’s the last thing you’ve seen whilst watching the trailer. The little logos and the website are right at the end on the last screen. It lasts long enough to read the website, but not too long so that it’s boring.

I think this is a very successful film trailer as the action builds up throughout – it makes me want to see the film.