The Ring (trailer)

The trailer is relatively effective in conveying the genre, as the entire trailer is set in a bluish-grey filter, this gives an extremely sinister presence to the entire trailer. It starts with an eerily quiet clip of a tape being played, this already sets up the underlying theme of the film, of a video tape that kills those who watch it.

 the scene then cuts to a hall way, as the camera is moving slowly towards the door at the end of it, while this is happening, the shot is interrupted by random periods of static, this also leads onto the theme of the horror film as this is a common occurrence for poor televisions, it also provides a very good effect, the static at random intervals sets up a slightly chaotic feel to the scene, as it ensure that the viewer is unable to relax. This is quite a large leap from Todorovs theory, as there doesn't seem to be an equilibrium to any of the trailer, all the characters shown are constantly stressed and terrified, this somewhat atypical for horror movies, as they normally start with a state of calm in order to lull the viewer into a false sense of security, however this technique is also very effective, as it gives the audience a constant, unfaltering sense of unease that only grows as the trailer progresses.

Text appears throughout the duration of the film, explaining the premise of the film. This somewhat of a tacky feature to a trailer, however in this film it is quite necessary as the nature of the film would be completely unclear without some sort of written explanation. The trailer makes this acceptable as the writing stops after the line "you die." this is a good line to stop  as it is hard hitting enough so that the viewer has to have time to digest it

The trailer mainly consists of frequent jump cuts, this also contributes to the growing sense of unease, as the viewer does not have enough time to process what they see and their confusion contributes to their discomfort, as they don't know what the scene will change to. The music of the trailer is relatively quiet, being overwhelmed by random clips of narrative, this highlights the sense of chaos, as the sound does not stick to a single piece of narrative for more than a few seconds.

By the end of the trailer the phrase "you see the ring" is repeated over and over again while the speed of the shot change increases, this is when the trailer reaches it's climax, the trailer is at complete anarchy, with almost no sense of what is happening. It ends with the title of the film within a ring, in almost child like hand writing, this is extremely eerie as children are always used in horror films (e.g Sinister, The Grudge, The Shining, The Exorcist) as a representation of tainted innocence.

In conclusion I believe that the trailer of The Ring is an extremely effective trailer. It used the conventions of its genre enough to attract fans to it, however it does not come off generic and poorly made.