Ouija Trailer Analysis - Horror

The opening shot shows a dialogue between two people, showing that one of them is going to be at home on their own, also, we can see that it is night time, making it seem darker and spookier. we then see a close up of the character at home with a door swinging behind her, she then turns around as if she is scared at the movement. This is reinforced by the following shots where she is walking cautiously around the house while the music builds suspense. We then get a close up of her feet as she steps on an odd shaped item. This item obviously causes something to happen as after this scene we see a series of fast cuts with screaming, ending with a shot of her hanging from the top of the stairs, which cuts to the universal animation. This tells us the main plot of the story is centered around this house and what has happened there. In the next few shots we see her friends talking about wanting to connect with the person who died, so they go back to the house. We see an over the shoulder shot focusing on the 'Ouija' board, meaning this will have a significant part in the film. The non-diegetic music contains things that are common for horror films, for example a child laughing and a deep thumping, like a heart beat. It then goes silent as we see a birds eye view of the 5 people, and we hear a diegetic sound of a ghost like sound in the house somewhere. This is the only point in the trailer when there is no music to create suspense, however the suspense is still created through the silence. There are frequent bangs throughout the trailer in the non-diegetic sound, this could signify a clock, ticking as they run out of time, it could also signify a heartbeat, adding to the suspense of the trailer. A lot of the shots are fast paced and are only on the screen for a short time, showing the paniced nature of their situation. Later on in the trailer, we are shown a shot in a bathroom, while one of the characters is flossing her teeth, we then see an extreme close up of her eyes as her mouth suddenly gets stitched together. The very fast paced shots in this scene show her sudden terror as she realises. Lastly throughout the trailer in many of the shots there is a lot of flashing, this is something that happens often in horror films, usually when a light is flickering, adding to the suspense of the trailer.