Unfriended Trailer Analysis

This is the trailer for the horror movie "Unfriended". The Unfriended trailer has multiple genre indicators to show it is a horror film. For example in the trailer we can hear that the music suddenly changes when we see a message from an anonymous person pop up saying "Guess who?" this suggests that this will be a big turning point in the movie and shows that this is when all the mayhem starts. We can also see the stars of the movie crying and screaming, this is generally seen in horror movies to show something scary is happening to them or to show death which we also see in this trailer. The last genre indicator shows one of the stars dying from whoever is terrorizing them, we usually see one of the characters die or even all of them die in horror movies to make these movies more chilling and people like the thrill of being scared. In the trailer we see reviews popping up on screen one of them says "A new genre of Horror" This suggests that this movie is the start of a whole new scary movie and it will be something we have never seen before. Putting reviews in the trailer make the viewers want to watch this movie, this is because they will feel that if these review only companies/magazines like the movie they maybe they will enjoy it too. 

Tzvetan Todorov’s Theory of Narrative suggests that in every movie there is a equilibrium, a disruption, recognition of the disruption and finally return to the equilibrium. This trailer shows exactly this very well as at the beginning of the trailer they seem like a normal group of friends planning a trip, this is showing the equilibrium as we are seeing a normal life, but as Tzvetan Todorov’s Theory of Narrative shows there must be a disruption. In the trailer the disruption is shown well as the disruption is this evil hacker/glitch who causes mayhem to find out who posted a video. The disruption starts with a unknown person on the call but when they cannot kick the caller they start to get worried and get even more terrified when this caller starts sending messages. The recognition isn't usually needed in horror movies and this is no exception as it is obvious recognizing what is happening. We do not get too see the restoration of a equilibrium but we do not usually see this part in trailers so we can see the movie and find out if there is a restoration of an equilibrium or there isn't. 

The Unique Selling Point (USP) to this movie would be that the entirety of the movie takes place on a laptop screen. This is the first time this has happened in a movie and audiences will be interested to see what it is like. It only shows one persons computer screen the whole the time and that is the main character Blaire. The reason they do this is to try something new and that is all that viewers want as they feel that movies are repetitive. 

The target audience for this movie would be 15-30 year olds as this age group is usually the type of age group that enjoy horror movies and get a thrill from being scared. The reason a movie like this would choose this target audience is because if they went any younger it could be too scary for the younger generation and if they went any higher they might not of made as much money as they did make.