Nightmare on Elm Street Textual Analysis.
Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American Slasher film. This film was directed by Samuel Bayer and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film was produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. The production company for this film are Platinum Dunes and their budget for this film was 35 million and this film made $112,362,985. This film stars various actors such as Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallen, Rooney Mara, Kate Cassidy and many more. The origin of this film is that is precedes the hit film Jason vs. Freddy and was reborn from the 1984 version to make a more modern one.
The synopsis of this film is that a bunch of teenagers are being stalked and murdered in their dreams by a man named Freddy Krueger, this is happening because they all share the same link from childhood like a childhood fear. This is what makes them Freddy’s targets.
The Nightmare on Elm Street trailer starts off with conventional warning and production group, and then we have an establishing shot of like a waste land area because it looks very remote and crossed off. This could be one of the main areas of the film so it gives the audience the scenes of certain areas. We than have a full body shot of a man running and cuts into a mid shot of this man running so the audience do not understand why he is running creating suspense. All a sudden two cars have come into play and seem to be chasing the man who is still running in a mid shot. Another establishing shot of the man and two cars in the distance to make it open to the audience that yes he is running from the car behind him. We then have a point of view shot from the cars angle then a close up of him running into a building.
So far the producers have established who the perpetrators are and who the victim in this scene is. A long shot of the men chasing the man into the building is shown then a quick mid shot of the man locking the doors. There is then back to back mid shots of the man and the victim conversation from wall to wall. We than have an eye line match shot of the man lighting a petrol can with fires than a mid shot of him throwing the object into the building. Then a mid shot of the man removing his coat in the inferno and a quick reaction shot of a woman watching the building, this confuses the audience a bit making them think what is going on in this scene because so far all we know is he is being chased and we don’t know for what reason yet. The establishing shot of the building exploding then quick darkness.
We then come to the producers name, then a two shot of 3 girls skipping rope, a woman walking into a snow ridden room, a woman walking down a corridor, close up of a woman talking, long shot a mysterious man in the distance and a sign that reads ‘Elm St’. All these scene where shown very quick so you do not know whether the are in order or jus randomly place this makes the audience think what is going on and why would they do this, so this keeps them in suspense. A couple sots of different house are shown this could portray the scenery in which some of these scenes will take place. Then images of candles blowing, then a quick cut of a metal claw scratching a pipe line creating spark, a woman waking up, two shot of little girls in a cell of some sort, a mid shot of a semi naked man in an industrial area, point of view shot of a metal blade claw coming out of water with a woman in the bath, mid shot of a man match on action shot a woman cutting her wrist with a pocket knife and reaction shot of her face. This continues trough out the 2 minute 17 seconds trailer of the quick shots of what will happen in the film broken down into little sectors.
The sound settings for this horror film are conventional because they are sounds that you would expect to hear in a typical horror film. In the opening scene of this trailer we can hear low key music until a thrashing sound is made and the music becomes alive to portray what is going on. This was added for the audience to build the intensity of what is really happening. Non-Diegetic action pack sounding takes place throughout this trailer and the childhood song ‘ringer ringer roses’ being sung by a little girl it seems plays in a more mysterious way, this could have a direct link to what the film is about. This adds extra tension the the audience thinking what is going on? There is a lot of voice over going on in this trailer. Which gives away what is happening in the film and what it is about? Sound effects of cars, scratching, burning, breaking of windows and many more take place. This is done to creating the reality and not to be really noticed by the audience because they would expect these sounds to take place so it is compulsory and has to be done. Diegetic sound of dialect takes place also when they are actually communicating and the voice over’s.
The Mise-en-scene of this movie trailer will include lighting, non-verbal communication, setting, costumes and props. The lighting of this trailer has almost stuck to a code, everything is dim. Nothing is above certain daylight as if it was morning. It ranges from around morning dull lightning to almost darkness which explains a lot about the film. The non-verbal communication is that there are a lot of scared and frightened facial expressions peppered with the one or two demonical expressions of the killer. The setting I can see in the trailer is an industrial area, houses, a remote area so far so the trailer does not give away everything for obvious reasons. The costumes are all casual to give a more modern society. The props used are things like petrol cans, lighters, metal claw, cars and many others.
This trailer was played before the actual release of the film as propaganda because they need to distribute information about the film a get people into watching it when it comes out. The purpose of this is to claim as many people as possible to gain success financially and physically.
Trailers mostly give you a taste of the film before it comes out, these usually give u tension and keep you on your toes with eye catching scene den when u think it’s going go they will cut it off and make you want to watch the full movie. This is also great marketing techniques because it can create fan base help better the production team towards the final film.
