Trailer Analysis:

The Devil Inside

The film trailer for ‘The Devil Inside’ is a supernatural horror film which features elements of Possession within the film. This particular feature is extremely common within Supernatural horror films as it reflects the fears of the audience.

The film trailer opens up with an emergency call from Maria Rossa, where in the above image displays the dialogue that takes place within the phone call to 911 allowing the audience to see what exactly is going on. The tone of the voice that Maria appears to be speaking in is extremely frightful and unnerving, immediately setting the scene even though there is no action on the screen yet for them to view, just the text alone engages the audience enough to pay more attention to the words being said on the screen.

Due to this being the only dialogue and action on the screen the use of diegetic sound is therefore strengthened, reeling in the audience into the narrative of the film.

Once the conversation quickly ends after the phone has been hung up a quick second flash pops up of a female in complete darkness wearing minimal

clothing giving off vulnerable body language with her arms across her body as if in pain. The sudden quick image of the female leaves the audience confused, wanting the trailer to go on to find out who she is or what that image might be leading too, An instant form of engaging the audience to carry on further watching the trailer.

From this image, the screen then fades into the first scene of the trailer where the mise-en-scene tells the audience that Isabella the daughter of Maria Rossa, appears to be sitting in a restaurant/bar telling a group of people about the history of her mother, revealing how she killed three people linking back to the dialogue on the screen at the opening of the trailer. Within this scene some clear uses of Iconography can be identified as there is a priest sitting with the

group, a common character within Supernatural/Possession films as a large number of horror films feature religious imagery within their narrative’s in order to terrify the audience as for a priest to be involved with an event or in particular this conversation they appear to be having the audience will automatically see that the discussion is extremely serious suggesting that an exorcism may need to be performed later in the trailer through the use of a priest.

Within the background of the conversation, there is the use of Non-Diegetic music being played on a piano creating a reflective and melancholy tone, leaving the audience on edge as to what is to come.

In this trailer of ‘The Devil Inside’ there are a variety of camera shots used such as long shots, medium shots and establishing shots as well as the extreme use of zoom-ins all done for the purpose of the audience to become fully engaged but also to understand who this supernatural horror film is based on.

A use of a camera zoom happens within the first fourty seconds of the trailer where the camera zooms into a photo of Maria and her Daughter, particularly on Maria’s face, portraying to the audience that she takes an importance within the narrative of the film. Although the pair look like an ordinary mother and daughter through their casual makeup, and style of hair the use of direct address from the two make the audience feel uncomfortable, as the audience question why their picture is popping up on the screen questioning what the mother has done as the camera zooms more and more into her face.

There are also a variety of edits used within the trailer such as an two establishing shots of the scenery, this is done deliberately to show the film is set in Rome, as Isabella’s mother is in a mental institution in Rome. The stock location of this trailer is not abandoned or isolated in any way as it primarily takes place mainly at the hospital alongside a basement or cellar in which Isabella is shown other patients at the hospital who suffer from exorcisms, where below is a character who is undertaking an exorcism.

Further along the film trailer, The audience are displayed a medium shot of Maria in her room of the institution where her face is pale, with no makeup

on with her hair down as if she is distressed displaying an appearance of being drained with no energy or life in her. She shows this portrayal to the audience through her appearance, again emphasising that this character is ill and will be a main source of evil within the narrative. Through the mise-en-scene the audience are able to

notice the minimal placement of any objects. The room is kept very plain and simple with only a table, chair and a bed where the table appears to have chalk markings or writing all over it indicating to the audience that Maria hears things in her head noting them all down with the chalk, presenting quite childlike mannerisms, leaving the audience to feel pity for this character as it is not her fault that her soul and body has been taken over as underneath she is innocent.

A horrific image is then shown to the audience as

the camera zooms in on Maria’s arm to display cuts all over her arm, suggesting to the audience that she has done that to herself. Maria keeps repeating the word ‘Connecticut’ over and over, suggesting she has no realisation as to what she is saying possibly even that her daughter is in the room with her. Also the word ‘Connecticut’ has no meaning or correlation to the trailer or what is being shown

on screen, making the audience to feel unnerving. The common colours used within horror films such as white, black and red interestingly enough do not feature as often within this particular film to create a sense of realism.

In part of the trailer where the priest is leading two of the characters down to the basement/cellar the trailer automatically becomes dark and dismal. The walls in the cellar are made of bricks exemplifying a cold mood as the audience will soon be revealed as to what is down there.

Towards the end of the trailer, a montague is used displaying a variety of snippets of footage of the film, one being a night view long shot of the scenery of Rome using ambient lighting of night-time. This displays that from now on the trailer will also be following a darker mood particularly for the worse as the setting now has

leaving the audience with suspense as they are on edge to see what happens next.

Towards the end of the montage, a camera shot of a bird’s eye view is displayed with the dialogue in the background of Maria Rossa singing a children’s rhyme in a disdainful tone, creating more fear for the audience again wanting to know what happens next. The use of featuring a children’s rhyme being sung by an evil and sinister character is a common and repeated convention used within Supernatural horror films as they all tend to use something innocent that is associated with innocent and ordinary objects or children and turn them sinister and corrupted.