1 Teaser Trailer Textual Analysis - BERRY ~ Prototype productions

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Teaser Trailer Textual Analysis - BERRY

Film Title: SAW 7
Director: Kevin Greutert
Year of Release: October 2010
Actors: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Sean Patrick Flanery and Cary Elwes
Distribution: Lions Gate

I am going to be analysing the teaser trailer. This teaser trailer is approximately 52 seconds. This is perhaps over the length of time teaser trailers usually are. While the Saw trailer stands at 1minute and 25 seconds.

The trailer opens with the narration of the Jigsaw himself. At this point we cannot see this and we are great it by a blank screen with the words ‘You can’t hide’ by Jigsaw. The use of the Jigsaw narration is clever and immediately provokes fear within. The words in itself are scary as from watching previous SAW films I understand that his victims can never escape and it almost seems like he’s reminding us that there is no escape with the words ‘You can’t hide’.

The trailer then begins to display captions that do not initially make sense. The first is ‘every master craftsman’ followed by ‘all true geniuses’. We as watchers are confused and have to continue to watch to try and make sense. However, this is effective as it creates a distorted view. Horror movies have a habit of deliberately making things straight forwards. I believe this is because in the movies the victims’ lives are not straight forwards and are ‘distorted’ therefore the makers want us to experience this also.

Non-diegetic sound starts to be played, the sound is quite quiet and almost sounds like a gong instrument. This creates tension as the sound slowly starts to increase we begin to release that something is about to happen. There is then a close up of a young woman struggling to break free. The close up allows us to see and understand her non-verbal communication. She is scared, worried and desperate. The narrator, Jigsaw himself confirms her emotions by saying ‘Fear’ just as we see her.

There is then a fade to the next shot, we hear Jigsaw say the word ‘suffering’ and a close up on a middle aged man in extreme pain and anguish is displayed. We then here diegetic sound as he screams in pain.  The following shot is a high angle shot of two men dangle above a pit. The high angled shot causes them to look inferior, scared and provokes empathy within us.

The majority of the 'trap' scenes all have low-key lighting. This is effective as pain and darkness link. The victims being in a place that is quite dark also adds to the pain and frustration.

The captions have no begun to make sense as they total ‘every master craftsman and all true genieuss always save their best to last’ the phrase ‘save your best till last’ is a phrase and quote that we are all familiar with and it has been used cleverly in this trailer but for horror. The captions are trying to say that this movie has the best as it’s the last. However, there is a double meaning as it could also mean the best victims are here with the most pain and suffering.  This clever technique causes us to think and wonder and more, want to watch the film and find out what ‘the best’ is.


There are then establishing shots of what looks like a city with high-key lighting. For the first time in the trailer we see something bright and not negative. After watching the trailer and then viewing the teaser trailer I noticed that this shot is used in both. However,  at different times. In the trailer it is the first shot and in the teaser it is towards the end. I believe this is because teaser trailers are not supposed to give a story away and are supposed to create a non-linear narrative.

Upbeat non-diegetic sound is then played as the beat and volume increases we saw Jigsaws victims trying to break free. We hear diegetic sound of their gasps of desperation and effort. As the upbeat sound plays we become exited, hoping for them to escape. The sound increases and so does tension.

There are then very quick paced and short cuts of victims and their traps but we do not see the ending of any so in order to find out we are forced to watch the film.

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