Texas chainsaw massacre original trailer (1974) plan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed5lDfOutw4
Form-trailer
Function-persuade audiences to film
M
Voiceover of male
Camera sounds- sinister
Extreme/Close up of the corpses- scare audiences and create enigma
Girl screaming-convention
Phallic object-hook, chainsaw
Girl is lying in the fridge can connote a coffin because she resurrects from it after the camera zooms up on her face
Low key lightening
Montage editing
I
Bryanstone pictures
Independent
Low budget
G
Horror/thriller/slasher
The Swedish version removed the scene where Leatherface hangs the woman on a meathook. It has since been released fully uncensored on DVD.
R
Psycho killer-mother role picks up girl and carries her away- similar to how mothers carry disobedient children
Final girl- survivor but portrayed as helpless running away from the killer constantly and not fighting back just screaming a lot thus in a way playing the role of the damsel in distress
A disable teenage character
Teenagers- only girls are shown screaming
No adults are present apart from the corpses and psychos
Killer itself is not scary looking however wears a mask made of skin as an iconic element of the genre. Reflects the wider context as Ed Gein wore human skin
The interior of the house shown in the trailer, particularly the room filled with bones, was also based on the crime scene notes describing the inside of Gein's home
A
Mainstream audience
Teenagers
Pleasures for the audience are voyeuristic, masochistic, sadism, visceral pleasures, challenge for being scared, screaming
YUPPIES (young upwardly mobile professionals)
I
Conservative- does not challenge status quotes
Patriarchal to some extent because they use a male voiceover making it more authoritive
Film set in America challenges the American dream
N
Disequilibrium right from the start of the trailer- killer killing each teenage one by one and show the last teenage getting caught and tortured but also running so audience are unsure whether she dies or not
Report style
Non linear narrative
Wider context:
Ed Gein killings- stored organs in the fridge similar to the trailer body stored in the freezer
The house’s residents are a family of weird homicidal cannibals who also like grave robbing and constructing furniture made of bones and skulls alike. The lead bad guy is called ‘Leatherface’. Leatherface likes chasing teen’s around with his chainsaw and wearing the human face mask of his victims.
The connection is mostly with the house, graverobbery and the cannibalism.
Vietnam War
The horror experienced in that was reflected in this trailer by having people killed off
Feminism
Final girl was introduced however still tortured by the killers and not physically fighting the killer
The film was banned in 1984 during the moral panic surrounding video nasties.
Jobs becoming redundant that’s why people in the film turn to canabilism.
Texas chainsaw massacre remake (2003) trailer plan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm5iet9oHBk
M
Cinematography: fades to black which connotes evil,
Meduim close up of teenage girl’s bottom- (laura mulvey) shows she is being objectified, and gives the male viewer the pleasure of fetishisation
Montage/Fast pace editing towards the end which is an convention of modern slasher/horror film trailers and according to Eistein helps the audience relise what they are watching is not real
Enigmatic shots-makes audience in suspense to who the killer is
Only a quick glimpse of the killer is shown
Mise en scene:
sound-screaming- conventional for this genre
Sound of camera clicking- sinster and can be similar/reference to “peeping tom”
The song "Sweet Home Alabama" is played during the opening as the characters are going to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. The film takes place in 1973. The song "Sweet Home Alabama" appeared on Skynyrd's sophomore album, Second Helping, released in 1974.
heart beat-links to the viseral pleasure they want the audience to recieve
Typography: font is white and written in sans serif suggest is aimed at teenagers and to give it more of a modern feel
I
New line cinema
AOL Time Warner (largest institution in the world)-Hollywood institution-distributes, promote and show the film (vertical integration) because they control all the stages of production. This institution is American therefore US culture is likely to be forced upon the audience
G
WC: Banned in Ukraine.
Slasher/horror/thriller
Repetition of the killer but variation as they have policeman in this trailer
And a women hitchhiker
As it is a remake in METZ cycle it falls into the 5 cycle as it tries to reinvigorate the genre and can be seen as a homage as the same mask and similar storyline is used however is slightly more modernised to appeal to the new generation of audience who are a lot more desensitised.
R
Adolescents stereotypical representation as they are making out and having a laugh-promoting heterosexual relationships- conservative ideology
Authority figures to be ineffective giving them a negative representation
A
Mainstream audience
Horror/slasher fans- specifically at people who have seen lots old horror films
Audience that are desensitised to the horror films are likely to pick up a different reading to those who are not.
Use and gratification theory- Denis McQuail suggest audience would want to watch this film because for information- satisfying their curiosity and general interest, entertainment
I
Positive values: To educate and inform the audience as it is based/inspired by a true story
Patriarchy
Conservative ideology
Conventional narrative and ML maintain capitalist propaganda and ideologies
N
Uses some of Todorovs’ theory by beginning with an equilibrium where the teenagers are all smiling and making out
But then disequilibrium begins when the audience realise people are dying through the dialogue and the shots of the teenagers running away but these shots are enigmatic as the audience can not see who or what they are running away from which gives them the pleasure of suspense and makes the genre of the film trailer a thriller
Wider context:
Feminism
Similarities:
M: Same camera sounds
N: A group of teenagers getting terrorised by a psychopathic killer
I: patriarchal- because the chainsaw can be seen as a phallic object which is used to kill the victims as a result the killings can be seen as a metaphor for sex. Moreover it could suggest the killer is bisexual as it kills both men and women whereas in films like “peeping tom” the man kills mainly women. It could also bring in Freud theory on penis envy as the phallic object is his chainsaw which is a symbol that represents/connotes strength, victory and power that can defeat and uncastrate men and defeat women who are uncastrated. As it is patriarchal it is likely to reinforce conservative ideology.
Set in America so in some sense promote American ideology and American hegemony
No big stars used shows that it is aimed more at horror/slasher film fans
Differences:
They have a clip of fat women which challenges Mulvey’s theory as well as showing how the result of feminism has managed to get women from off-screen to onscreen because in the original Texas chainsaw massacre there are only two teenage girls and the dead grandmother shown in the trailer. Whereas in the new one there is at least five women alive women shown in the trailer.
More enigmatic shots as audience are desensitised to killers and violence
Hollywood institution so big budget whereas original was low budget so more effects are used in the remake due to the new technology
The old Texas chainsaw massacre foreshadows the whole narrative because at that time it would shock audience more then it would now.
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