Genre Essay

Sci-fi Horror – ‘Cloverfield’ Trailer

Jonathan Taylor

Visual imagery is used cleverly in this trailer. Close-ups, zooms to long-shots, give an amateur-feel effect, for lost footage style, for realistic effect. Realism and personalisation of the ‘personal camera view’ adds to the horror genre effect, seen in many films such as ‘Blair Witch Project’ and the ‘Rec’ series.

Distorted/damaged shots are also used. Towards the end of the trailer the picture cuts out to black constantly, then back to image briefly. The shots move randomly and distort vision. This distortion creates tension and unease in a viewer, heightening the atmosphere of horror and mystery that sci-fi horror generates. This itself reflects the genre and its conventions, as the general tone is dark and eerie.

New York City, explosions/toppling buildings and general lighting is dark/shadowed. The entire idea of New York City on fire, exploding buildings, with the talk of some kind of ‘monster’ is a use of iconography, with biggest references to films such as ‘Godzilla’ and ‘King Kong’. The idea has been seen before, this is something the audience has seen before and fills the convention of the classic sci-fi / monster movies, with the horror aspect being seen as the twist.

The plot can be compressed into a more generic form, seen as a template for many sci-fi horror movies, such as ‘Alien’ too: A ‘change’ is about to happen in everyday life (in this case, a character is moving away). Mysterious, unexplainable (at first) things start to happen. City/Iconic location (spaceship maybe) turns into chaos as a Supernatural/Unnatural force is seen to be rampaging, causing mass-death, disturbance and threat to the human-race. Group of survivors fight for survival, some will probably die along the way. Unravelling as to why and who, but leaving many questions unanswered. I’ve gathered this from the various short introductions to a group of characters and the general direction in which I think the movie might take, due to the trailer. It seems to show the eerie, mysterious tension aswell as ‘survival’ aspects of the horror genre, but the grandeur special effects, dramatic landscape and concepts (such as world-wide shock, seen in the news broadcast) are in relation to sci-fi films.

All characters shown are young average/slightly privileged adults. Lead character (Rob) and ‘camera-man’ – lead and side-kick relationship could be seen here. See it in lot of sci-fi films, especially Monster-related ones, such as ‘Battle Los Angeles’ and ‘District 9’, where there a lead character and some form of less head-strong/courageous close friend. The realistic, varying personalities between the characters are shown to again, push out the realism, to create the sense of horror.

The idea of ‘just a normal day, but it all changed’ is seen in many sci-fi and horror films. Where the trailer starts in a familiar party setting, to that of a city in chaos. This sudden change lands the plot into a life/death situation seen in both horror and sci-fi movies. Also, the use of almost minimalist music, with heavy reliance on dark-sounding sound effects, aswell as discordant and chromatic instrumentation, give an idea of bare, eerie silence (but still, not quite silent).

There are no instantly recognisable actors here, no Hollywood stars to be seen. This is probably to do with the same effect as ‘The Blair itch Project’ – planting the response of ‘is it real?’, so having that seed off doubt, adds to the film’s realism approach, to really push the horror feeling in the audience.  Because you cannot recognise the actors here, a lack of ‘fantasy’ or ‘reality separation’ is created, where the audience cannot shut off and fall into the ‘safety net’ of knowing for sure that this is completely false world, that they are safe from. It challenges the very safety of us from others and indeed ourselves too, very common in horror films, aswell as reflective of the themes and emotional drives of sci-fi films, as their ideas are often complex and philosophical.  

Some binary opposition can be seen in this trailer. The idea of humans vs. the alien/unknown, is commonly seen in sci-fi. This normally correlates with the theme of ‘team-work’ and the bond between humans when working together to fight against evil, with the aliens often being seen as the evil, so also reflects good vs. evil, or even possibly innocent/defender vs. attacker.