Film Title: MAMA (2013) Trailer Length: 2:28 Director: Andrés Muschietti Release Date: 22nd February 2013 Certificate: 15 Genre: Horror / Thriller Production company: Universal Distribution Company: B&H Film Distributions Budget: $20,000,000 Opening Weekend: $28,402,310 Gross: $71,588,220
At the start of the trailer, the Universal logo is sown. This is what the audience would expect to see in a film trailer, and shows the audience it is a big Hollywood film. This screen then fades to black, a common transition used at the start of the trailer. Fading to black suggests the themes of mystery, evil and darkness as the screen is repatively shown black. The repativiness could also resemble .. and fading to black creates slow transitions, in contrast to the transitions commonly used in action genres. However, the speed of transitions does later increase as violence increases, suggesting the audience that the narrative experiences a disruption, whereby panic and outbreak occurs after this, which is true when the two abandoned daughters are taken care of, symbolized by the increasing transition pace.
An establishing shot is used over a tree canopy to set the film in a forest, surrounded by thick fog, as though in isolation and almost it’s own island, separated from the mountains around. Using an isolated and decollate location is not only conventional of a horror trailer, but also suggests the sense of loneliness that is explored in the film through the two daughters who were abandoned and made feral. It also portrays a feeling of entrapment as there seems to be no escape from looking over the trees of the forest, as it is surrounded by suffocating fog. This feeling of entrapment may foreshadow something bad will occur in the narrative, developing tension and intrigues the audience. Because the establishing shot is over a canopy of trees, due to the varied tree lengths, it gives the feeling of unevenness, connoting the feeling of unstablitiy as the audience look down onto this from a height. It could also signify the motion of jolts, sharp and quick movements which reflects pain, anger and also suffering, unlike a smooth, even location / setting would suggest.
A long shot of the youngest daughter is used of her standing in a doorway, body blacked out as though a silhouette, in contrast to the white snow behind her, outside the door. Showing the young girl all black connotes evilness and subverts the age stereotype of children so young being innocent and happy. The shot is also slightly a low angled shot, showing the young girl to almost be over towering the audience and holding such power of evilness, again not only subverting stereotypes of such a young girl, but making the audience feel vulnerable as she towers over them. The white snow in the background could symbolize he young girls innocence before being abandoned, however now her darkness has overpowered tis as she stands infront of the snow, as though her innocence is a distant memory. The lighting is also low key, again adding to the common element in a horror film of eeriness and the unknown, and is common lighting used in the genre.
A medium shot is used, showing the two feral children, the younger sibling cowardly hiding behind her sister, afraid of socialisation and the real world. This shows the older sibling to be almost protecting and looking after her younger sister, possibly suggesting Propps Character type of the hero, with the younger sister needing saving. During this shot, diegetic dialogue ‘Mama’, is whispered by the younger daughter. By whispering, it adds a sense of mystery and eeriness to the innocence of the word, usually associated positively when said by a chid. However, whispering adds an element of sinisterness to the atmosphere, leaving the audience to question why the connotation of the word has been subverted from what they are familiar with, possibly creating narrative enigma. Suggesting themes of sinister and eeriness is also a code of the horror genre, and so supports the genre of the film.
Throughout the trailer, there is series of non-diegetic music used, slowly building suspense as the pitches change, particularly at the end when the music fades into a high pitched sound, again creating the sense of eeriness and fear, commonly used in horror trailers. The change in music throughout the narrative could resemble the different narrative stages, making the film more interesting for audiences rather than one static song throughout, engaging the audience.
At the end of the trailer, ‘COMING SOON’ is shown, with the Facebook logo and ‘/MAMAFILM’. This is to help promote the film and used frequently at the end of trailers, regardless of the genre. The writing is also written over what looks like spilt black ink, connoting evilness and menacing has leaked out, suggesting it is viewed as uncontrollable in the narrative, leaving the audience to question whether what binary opposite of good vs evil will win in the film, which is not revealed in the trailer.