Deconstruction of 'Sinister' trailer:

Deconstruction of the trailer for Sinister, how is it appropriate to the genre? 

~ Although Sinister is considered a horror film, I thought that a lot of aspects in the trailer were similar to those seen in slasher films. 

~ The trailer opens with a flashback from nine months earlier, with a montage of pictures with a news report playing over the top, describing the murder of a family. So within the first few seconds you know it’s going to be a horror movie and that the deaths will be described and explained in some detail. 

~ Another aspect is the mysterious character who appears to be connected to the murders as he is seen in the film footage of them but is never seen actually killing them. There are a few moments where the noise level goes from extremely quiet to a sudden bang or scream which is intended to make the audience jump and feel scared. This is a main trait of horror films, to scare the audience, make them jump and almost get inside their head so they imagine it’s real. 

~ The trailer uses a lot of flickering imagery as most shots are a lot scarier when only seen for a millisecond, especially when it’s a gruesome bloody image of a death or a shrill loud scream after silence. It also mentions that “children exposed to the images were especially vulnerable” which makes it even more frightening as children are seen as innocent and it seems worse when it’s happening to children. 

~ During the credits, it mentions that the film has been produced by the same people who made “Paranormal Activity” and “Insidious”, which are well known, successful horror films, to raise the expectations of the people going to watch it, so they know it should be as good as the other films.  Towards the end, there is a shot of an axe being dragged across the floor to show the deaths are going to be slow, painful and very bloody, confirming the horror genre. 

An alternative movie poster for Sinister.