Research on the background of trailers

Trailer Research

Horror Genre and Conventions

-          Arose from gothic tradition in literuature dating from the 18^th and 19^th centuries: tales of terror and often repressed sexuality in historical setting of “dark, brooding menace”.

-          Described at the time as romantic literature, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula are the most enduring.

The Postmodern Horror film (1983 onwards)

-          Starting with the ‘Evil Dead’, horror films became incresingly self-referential leading to ‘Scream’. Then remakes (The haunting, Psycho, The house on haunted hill).

-          With teaser trailers there is the time limit convention of a teaser trailer normally being very short, around 30-60 seconds long. In this time it will have shown you a basic outline of what the new film is about. It may include text to ask you questions which may relate to what the film is about, or just take your thoughts away from what the film could really be about.

-          The American gothic tradition derives from the work of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. lovecraft. Roger Corman made several films in the 1960’s beased on Poe’s novels.

     I found this information on Slideshare: the horror genre an overview.
     This is the link to the page - http://www.slideshare.net/jontowlson/the-horror-genre-an-overview