Sorority Row 2009
Director: Stewart Hendler
Producer: Summit Entertainment
Actors: Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, Jamie Chung, Margo Harshman, Audrina Patridge and Carrie Fisher
Films Origin: The film is a re-imagining of the 1983 slasher film The House on Sorority Row
Synopsis:
A prank goes wrong and leads to a bloody murder spree. It was supposed to be a practical joke, but when their friend was accidentally murdered no one was laughing. Desperate to go on with their lives and avoid taking responsibility for their actions, the surviving sisters and their male accomplice agree to dump the body and never speak of the incident again. Just after graduation, however, a mysterious killer begins stalking everyone who harbours the bloody secret, leading the survivors to fight for their lives against a masked maniac.
The genre of this film trailer is Horror, but at the beginning of the film it is does not start of like the typical horror film. Stereotypically, a horror would start of with very dreary music followed by harsh scenes but this movie started with very upbeat music followed by much livened scenes with teenagers partying and having an overall good experience. Breaking this barrier connotes that the movie will not follow any other mainstream typicality’s of a horror trailer. The first scene in which the film relates to an actual horror is in the 30th second when one character stabs another and from then onwards the film continues as a horror.
There is no narration to the film for the first 38 seconds; the characters are just acting normally whilst the story is slowly unfolding whilst we are getting to understand the storyline. Then a few seconds after the first horrific scene is shown, the film cuts to a blank screen with the words ‘A SECRET’ on them. Throughout the movie there are 6 black screens all with very fast cuts into and out of them. They all reveal crucial information and add to the dramatic horror effect and they connote that the following scenes will be even darker and bleaker than the previous. The adding of black screens with bright white writing on them entices the viewer to see even more as they feel as if they have missed out on crucial scenes of the movie.
The first scene gives us a huge hint that the location is on a College/University campus as wild scenes of partying are going on and some of the girls are wearing pyjamas suggesting that they all live there. This is later confirmed when they are seen graduating towards the end. Then whilst they are in the car, there is no obvious sign of location apart from a scene which shows them entering some sort of forbidden entry with a sign at the entrance of it. The location of where the murder happens is very unclear as there are a lot of quick changes in the scene. However we are able to tell that the area is very enclosed and very spacious which connotes that is it far from normal society.
In this trailer, the girls are portrayed as the typical popular American girls-party animals who love to play with boy’s minds, however when the tragedy happens that is when we see their different personalities come to the surface. As soon as the tragedy happens, all of them start to cry except for the blonde girl who is the one who has the idea of covering it all up. In horrors there is normally a brave one, however they are mainly male and so this breaks this convention and represents her in a strong manor. When the murders begin, the girls are portrayed as weak and scarred as there is a lot of screaming involved and the facial expressions which are shown reiterate this, at the end however the last scene shows their head ‘mother’ trying to challenge the killer which is unusual for a woman to do so it breaks that convention.
At the beginning of the film, the pace is very fast with various partying scenes being shown and very upbeat music being played in the background. This really gets the viewers attention because you are lead on to believe that the film will be fun. The pace then dramatically changes to a medium one and as the music drowns out the impact this has is that we listen carefully to what is being said and we are fully focused. Then as they get to their destination the pace is very slow which makes us anxious as to what follows and as soon as the girl is murdered the pace turns fast with fast changing scenes which suddenly changes to a slow one as they come to terms with what has just happened. The impact this has is that it leaves the audience anticipating what is going to happen next. The following scenes have a slow pace up until the first of the girls is killed whilst lying down. After this, the pace rapidly increases with melodramatic music being played in the background and simultaneous ghastly scenes being shown. The impact of all of this is that the mood becomes more intensive and keeps the viewers full attention whilst leading them on to a black screen as the pace slows right down to a halt.
There is no narration in this film, however there is on-screen captions which are shown on a pitch black screen. The writing is bright white which really stands out on the black background and the writing is in serif text which connotes a sense of seriousness. The information revealed is kept to a minimal and altogether there are 7 with the sixth one showing the name of the film and the last one showing the date of the film release. Altogether it says “A DEADLY PRANK, NO ONE WOULD EVER FORGET, A SECRET, THAT NEEDS TO STAY BURIED, SISTERS FOR LIFE, AND DEATH”. The first two captions are shown whilst the music playing is very relaxed and so the viewer is alert and waiting for something dramatic to happen. This happens and is followed by scenes which show the next two captions -the use of the words “deadly” followed by “buried” connotes that the language used will tie in with the theme of the film-this happens as a killer sets out to kill the rest of the girls involved.
This film includes a lot of fast cuts to give different affects at different points of the story. At the beginning there are eight fast cuts which grab the reader’s attention immediately and you expect it to continue with the fast pace but it drastically slows down which enables the viewer to concentrate on the storyline better. Fast cuts are then used again whilst the boy is panicking and this evokes a sense of panic within the viewer this is very effective as the viewer gets very involved with the film. Fast cuts are then used to show the killings happen and we get to see the reaction of the girls after which is very alerting for the viewer. Throughout the film fast cuts are used the most which leaves the viewer wanting to see more and connotes a sense of anticipation as we do not know what is to happen next.
At the beginning of the movie, there is fast paced music being played in the background which coincides with the party activities going on in the film –it then continues in the background which gives the girls a sense of power. As the next scene is played, the music changes to a mischievous tone which is effective because the following scenes show the actresses up to no good. As the murder happens and he plunges into her chest, there is a sound effect in the background which connotes a real sense of horror as the scenes that follow are very graphic. After this, the following two on-screen captions both have very climatic sound effects played before them which gives a feel as to how deep the problem is. Then as the run-up to the weapon is thrown down the well this intensifies and finally reaches a climax once it is finally dropped. After the first blonde girl is killed whilst lying down, different sound effects are used in sync with the change of a scene. The last music clip played is used after one of the girl’s screams and this sets of a series of different screams from different parts in the film. The effect this has is that the screams are stressed even more because they drown out the music clip in the background and this connotes a sense of realism as the screams are really alarming.
When I consider all of these points I would say that the target audience for this film would be predominantly females aged 16-24, however it also has an appeal to males as the female cast would also generate male viewers. They would have to have an interest in horror but also be entertained by an American storyline with its culture being inherited into the film.
By Beatrice Adong-Otim
By Beatrice Adong-Otim
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