Final Narrative Essay after 30 minutes

The Conjuring

For my advanced media project I had to analyse the codes and conventions of different trailers that could influence my personal horror trailer. The product that I will be evaluating is ‘The Conjuring’ trailer as it really influenced my ideas. The trailer shows a family who has a haunting in there house, and are helped by some type of ghost hunters/demonologist who are trying to get rid of the spirit. I believe that the theories of Todorov, Propp, Strauss and Domaille are incorporated in this trailer. This is because the trailer applies these theories to a certain extent.

Firstly, Todorov stated that all films have an: equilibrium, disequilibrium and a resolution. This is when there is a happy beginning followed by a disruption which is then solved at the end. I believe that this was applied to ‘The Conjuring’ trailer to a moderate extent. This is because it starts off with a minor disequilibrium of the ghost hunters searching for a ghost. This automatically makes the audience know something wrong is happening, but it is still a slight equilibrium; as there isn’t a happy event taking place but there isn’t a disruption either. During the equilibrium, there is a dialogue of the characters introducing themselves, this makes the audience familiar with them and feel able to confide in them throughout the trailer, alongside this there is a non-diegetic upbeat music playing in the background insinuating that everything is alright.  Subsequently, the disequilibrium takes part as the background music stops playing and there are quick cuts and close ups being used to build tension of the evil spirit haunting the house. There is also a resolution in the trailer but it is to a slight degree. This is because The Warrens are trying to help the family with the spirit but the final resolution isn’t included as it will spoil the movie for people who are excited to watch it.

Secondly, Propp believed that every film has seven archetypes originating from Russian Fairtytales. In this trailer I believe that only three of these characters are applicable, as fairy tales and horror films are made based on entirely different codes and conventions. The first character that is in the trailer is the hero. The Warrens are helping the family by battling with the spirit. Evident of this in the trailer is when there are quick cuts showing different scenes were the spirit attacks and they try to act back. In the trailer we also see another of the seven archetypes which is the villain. This is the evil spirit, we see her once in the trailer when she possesses the mother, the camera is positioned at a low angle to make her intimidate and scare the audience. Also they used dark lighting in this scene and her makeup was very bloody and her hair was roughly hanging down her face.  Apart from this, she is hardly seen, this is done to make her ambiguous, making the audience more frightened by her. This is done to juxtapose her with the other archetype characters, the victims of the trailer which is the family. The audience know each one of them by name and are familiar with them, this relationship that the audience has built makes them sympathise the family when the spirit attacks. Also the young girls tend to wear white night gowns and their hair is neatly done.

This idea of the juxtaposition between these two characters links with Strauss’s theory of binary opposites. He believed that every film has a group/ people against each other. This is applied to this trailer to a major extent as the whole trailer depicts the battle between the good and evil characters in the film. This is shown by the multiple scenes of attacks shown in the trailer. Also the proxemics used in a scene where there is a spirit in the girl’s bedroom shows the divide from both sides. The victims are on the ground below their binary opposite who is above a cupboard showing she has all the power and brings fear to the girls in the room.

Lastly, this trailer does conform to some of Domaille eight types of narrative. One in particular is the ‘Circe’ narrative. This narrative talks about a chase between a villain and a victim. This happens numerous times in the trailer. This is evident in the scene when the spirit forms some sort of bruises in the mothers arm. These bruises symbolise their battle and proof of the villain winning.

Some of the rules of narrative are used in this trailer in different ways which I have explained above. Overall, I do agree to a moderate extent that this trailer shows some of these narratives but they aren’t that severe or clear. For example a way in which they can follow the rules of narrative could be by making an obvious equilibrium; showing the family all happy together moving into the new house and very excited which is a scene in the film.