What makes a horror trailer effective? - mise-en-scene

A horror trailer needs to promote the film whilst still maintaining a level of mystery, suspense and fright. The mise-en-scene needs to be convincing so that the horror trailer doesn't appear boring or cheesy. 


Mise-en-scene

Scream  - the iconic mask

Costume in the horror genre can be imaginative and often the killer (if appropriate for the narrative) will wear a mask or a certain, recognisable set of clothing. In films where the killer or villain is part of the victim's social group or a friend and they/we don't know who the killer is - they will probably wear casual everyday clothes similar to the other characters. 
Scream (1996-2011) is an example of a costume which provokes questions. The audience or the characters do not know who is underneath that mask. The mask itself is disturbing for the viewers. This is great for the murder mystery element that Scream has. 

The Ring - a zombie poltergeist 

The Ring (2002) uses makeup and hair (as well as some disturbing facial expressions) to make a girl character into something quite scary. She is zombie-like and evil looking - more of a physical monster than just a human in a costume like Scream. 


The Roommate (2011) portrays the killer as a very "normal" teenager who has simply just not been taking her medication. Her makeup and hair are standard and her clothes casual. This type of character appearance is still effective in scaring the audience as it makes us wary that anyone can be a killer and is more believable than a monster or zombie type figure. 

The Roommate - a normal girl?

Obviously certain genres within horror scare certain people and not others and the type of killer that scares them will differ. Our narrative means our character will be very much like the girl in The Roommate - a teenage girl who looks like all her friends but whose hair and makeup gradually get more messy and elements of blood and sweat appear on her face and clothes. 


One idea for our poster is to have a closeup of the killer, so we will need to do her makeup in a convincing way which fits with the narrative. We could use fake blood, scars and cuts.