Representation is one of the key elements that make a great at film successful and original. We have taken into consideration that our target audience have expectations to the codes and conventions of a horror film. We have therefore applied all the necessary iconography and semiotics to produce a meaningful trailer with correspondence to mise en scene.
In slasher films, or any horror films, there is always some sort of monster who comes to disrupt a normal routine for a group of people or person. This is evident in horror films such as ‘Drag me to hell’ as the young lady has a routine of going to work, meeting her boyfriend and attending family matters. However during one of her normal days terrible things began to happen to her. This sense of equilibrium is seen in all types of horror films. The monster in our trailer is a school girl. We have broken the codes and conventions to make the film more exciting and unpredictable for our viewers as it is common to always have the monster being played by a male role. This is seen in films such as ‘Halloween’ and ‘Prom Night’. Monsters are usually played by the male role because the monster is usually sexually deprived, trying to take the virginity off the final girl who is sensible and mousy by trying to kill her. The final girl is usually masculine structured so that the male audience could identify with her. The monster in our trailer is called Holly. She is presented as the final girl on a quest to take revenge for all the hurt she has been caused by the popular and loud kids in school. Formulaic is presented as Holly is mousy and sensible setting the codes and conventions of a slasher film. However there is a sense of subversion as the final girl becomes the monster.
Her characteristics can be identified by the theory of Femme Fatale (Deadly Woman). This theory came about the 1930s when women began to demand equal rights in society and homes. Femme fatale was women who dressed and looked beautiful and pleasing to the male’s eyes. She was seductive, mysterious and dangerous. However she was the reason why so many men would leave their marriage behind. She was the reason why so many men would fall into debt s; throughout all the down falls femme fatale always left the scene uncaught. This is evident to ‘A Kiss of Death’ as Holly begins to grow up looking beautiful and sexually deprived. When she gets hurt by her boyfriend, that almost seems like it is the last straw and she strikes losing her mind and killing everyone who have affected her in a terrible way. In our synopsis Holly does not get caught. At the end of the storyline she escapes from the mental institution. This is also evident in the film Halloween when the ‘boggey man’ escapes from where he landed falling from a bedroom window. Moreover theories suggest women are as bad as monsters we see on screen, this is apparent in the film Alien when the monster comes close to the woman terrifying her and the camera shots them in the same angle suggesting they are equal. Freudian Psycho analysis brings forward the theory of pre-oedipal space. The transition from the pre-oedipal space to the ‘symbolic’ is a Freudian concept. It forms the ideas of mulvey’s Male Gaze and Barbara Creed’s monstrous feminine. Creed suggests “the female as castrated male becomes the female as castrator, period. Although psychoanalysis never really gives full justice to the social, political and artistic subtleties of any film, it does seem best served by the horror film.” This theory connects with our trailer as Holly is literally the final girl who has emerged into a monster.
In her essay ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ Laura Mulvey argued that the spectator (and therefore the cinema) is male and drives visual pleasures from a dominant, voyeuristic perspective. She named this, ‘The Male Grace’. She argued that cinema inevitably puts the viewer in a masculine position, with the figure of the woman on a screen as the object of desire. We have taken this theory and applied it to our trailer by the way Holly is dressed. We are not supporting the vulnerability of women in the media but understand that the way anyone is dressed can create a stereotype immediately. As Holly is female monster rather than a sexual deprived male monster, she is dressed in a small and short black dress with torn tights, red lipstick and school uniform to represent her sexual deprivation nature. There is a sense of sexual perversion as her school uniform is tight and revealing drawing in the older generation into the film as some adults find it pleasurable to dress in school uniform and kinky nurse outfits etc at dress up parties. Not only does she have the power in the film, she also has the power when she draws the audience in by her attire. She is masculine so the male audience can identify with her. She is not wearing heals or dolly shoes as they are feminine footwear. However she is wearing military boots giving her a sense of masculinity.
Ethnicity within the character role was not considered as an issue. We just used whatever character we could find to help us with our trailer. However seeing the final girl’s image was very important, we had to put into consideration that as much as she is a killer, she had to have the body structure of a final girl, being a bit masculine with dark hair. Furthermore, as I have watched a number of horror films, I have noticed that the final girl is of the White race, so as a group with thought it would be appropriate to stick to the codes and conventions in that area. The victim’s race was not an issue. We had a white boy in a hoodie. In addition the conspiracy was brought up that if we had a black boy in a hoodie, stereotypes would rise in what society already think about black boys in hoodies suggesting is into crimes etc compared to a white boy in a hoodie.
Montage editing is the meaning created between the juxtaposition. This is apparent when the face of Holly is seen in one shot and a flash of light coming on bringing us to the next shot of a victim running for their lives. Although the audience does not see Holly chasing the victim, it is obvious her emotionless face is demonstrated towards the victim.
Sound is important in any trailer as it brings the trailer to life. In our trailer we do not have any dialogue, just music and voice over. The voice over would be of a man with a deep voice to create dramatic tension for the audience. The shots will be in pace with the music. At the beginning the shots will come in slowly along with the music, and the pace will increase throughout the whole of the trailer. The music will be inspiring and emphasis of horror to inspire and encourage the audience to watch the whole film.
Camera work is very important in the trailer; most of the time the camera will be firm on the tripod. However handheld camera will be in motion when the victim is being chased by Holly positioning the spectator in active monster role e.g. when the victim is being chased the camera places the audience in a complicit way. 
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