The Ring trailer analysis

The purpose of the trailer is to advertise the horror film, 'The Ring' and entice people to come and see it in cinema when released. It normally includes what is considered the best bits of the film, selling the film to the audience. It usually last only 1 or 2 minutes, but that is long enough to make you want to know what happens, making you go and see the film. It can be seen as a marketing device for cinemas as the films poster will be printed in magazines, leaflets and advertised on your television screens at home as well as before other films in the cinema. It usually includes the film production company, in this case it is 'Dreamworks' who produce all different genres of film.


You can establish the story due to the layout style, which is jumping from scene to scene, from start to finish establishing how this effects the characters lives. It begins with a video tape being watched, which then causes you to be haunted for seven days, which you then die. We hear in the trailer at the beginning the young girl saying "Have you heard of this video tape? It starts with somebody screaming, and then when you finished watching it, your phone rings. What they say is, you die in seven days". This gives you a clue as to what is going to happen in the film and that perhaps the main characters will try to stop this curse. The characters are established by who has the most time on the camera during the trailers. It is clear the young boy and the journalist, who is investigating this tape after the death of four teenagers including her neice, are the two main characters. The main woman in the film is a journalist and the young girl who tells her about dying in seven days, has a weird, deathlike looks about her as it is. The main character, who is in the tape and who causes people to die we finally see at the end of the film. The young boy is who we have to concentrate on the most as he becomes almost possessed by this curse, telling the journalist things the person on the tape has come to him and said. It isn't clear why this happens but a voice over says 'everyone will suffer'. Throughout the trailer the only dialouge we have is the characters lines from the film, but they are all disjointed, making you want to know why they have said that and what did someone say back to them? You can tell from listening to their voices they are becoming more and more scared about this, wanting us to go and see the film as we want to know why they are so scared. Using the characters actual lines from the film helps build up suspense. Action clips gradually build up becoming more intense twoards the end of the trailer, doing this gives us an insight to how the film will actually progress. However these actions scenes signify a change in the horror genre as the woman is the victim, but she's also being the hero at the same time. At the start of the film the music is very slow and sounds very haunted house style, it picks up pace throughout the trailer, again, giving an insight to the film and how it will progress. It cuts from scene to scene very quickly, giving the audience as much insight to the story they would need to want to go and see the film, and it fits in as much as they can in the short time given. The visual of this film is very dark, but this fits in well with the story, and its theme. We can tell it is done by a proffessional camera and industry because of the production company 'Dreamworks'. The genre is signified to the audience as it starts off explaining what the story will be, and the creepy music being played throughout. The scenes shown to us in the trailer also signify the genre as they all talk about dying and death of others inflicted by this video tape. The main graphic is at the end of the film where we see the film title, 'The Ring' which is also has the image which all the people who the tape see, making us feel as though we are watching this video tape aswell. The trailer appeals to any horror fanatics as you are kept on the edge of your seat throughout the trailer, wanting to know what happens to the people who have watched it and how it's stopped, or if it even is stopped. The pace of the trailer would entice people to come and watch it, as it would give an idea as to how the film progresses and no body likes a slow starting film. The film would also appeal to audiences as because of the way the characters talk about this video tape and what happens, it feels as thought it could be true. This film challenges typical horror movie conventions as the villain is not present throughout the film, unlike most horror films where we see the murderer. However the fast pace of the trailer clips is typical of a horror film as it has to fit in as much as possible to entice the audience to come and watch their film.