Representation and stereotyping in our trailer

Throughout our trailer, we followed the typical representations and stereotypes through following the conventions of a horror film/trailer. Both representation and stereotypes are effective in creating an immediate opinion and judgement against characters and this can either make the audience warm to a a character or be against them and there actions; either way, this slightly more entices the audience.

Firstly, we have incorporated the character of an innocent and vulnerable young girl who is found to be in a daunting situation in a supposedly haunted house. This is stereotypical as the audience would not necessarily expect the young girl to be there alone making the situation more intense; but essentially puts themselves into her shoes of thinking what they would do. Throughout, this would add tension as we, as the audience, would know to expect that something bad will happen and knowing its a horror... its inevitable. In our trailer, the girl is made out to be portrayed as innocent and vulnerable, however this representation is essentially just shown through her child like clothing... making her seem unsure of whats going on and how she does find herself in an unusual situation. This, however could add a twist as she could reflect on this representation later on in the film and this is how it adds tension and engagement with the audience as they would never exactly find out... unless they watch the whole film.

The second character in our trailer is an elderly women which in horror, tend to be represented as evil and quite creepy. The way we have represented this portrayal is through her presence and also the clothing she is wearing. Firstly the netted head scarf round her is partly covering her face and not revealing her whole identity which is quite creepy in the sense that we can't see who she is, also the all black clothing that she is wearing has quite negative connotations such as, evil, power and death. This creates a negative representation of her character which in our horror trailer, we wanted.
The stereotype of elderly people being quite authoritative and wise with there actions is essentially adhered to in this situation.... mainly because of her presence and the way she is appearing in the situation. The idea of the eerie presence of the old women is effective in creating a negative representation against her which we aimed to have and this makes the audience feel more tense as stereo-typically in these situations, something bad happens.

The location/setting of our trailer is in a house and we chose this as we felt like with the characters and story line we had, this was most appropriate and realistic. Also the situation that occurs in our trailer is at night (when the young girl is sleeping) and it would therefore create a more intense atmosphere. However, we have not chosen to create that tense, eerie atmosphere of a haunted/abandoned house... stereotypical of a horror. The reason for not creating this atmosphere as we want it to be more realistic and for the audience to be able to picture the situation. As a typical expectation, people feel safe in their own home; however the representations of the characters we are portraying and the situation that arises subverts to this expectations and as a result adds to the scare of our trailer.