Saw V (2008) Trailer Deconstruction

The green band trailer shows that this trailer is suitable for all audiences even though the actual film has an age rating of 18+. This is because the trailer does not show as much gore/violence as the producers want to keep the film enigmatic. The first image that appears in the trailer is a picture of a man. The picture starts off very small so it is not clear what the image is of.

The tag line ‘His Message Is Righteous’ then appears on the screen which has religious connotations. In addition to this the music is non- diegetic, a religious hymn called ‘Be My Thou Vision’, which is has an echo and is playing slowly in the background to increase the tension. The typography has an eerie glow which is often seen within the horror genre. The same image that was shown at the beginning of the trailer then reappears however this time it is bigger than it was at the beginning. This allows the audience to guess what the image is of but it is not very large so not all of the details can be seen clearly. 

 The image then becomes larger until all the details are visible to the audience. We can see a man in a box but we are unable to see the surroundings. This allows the trailer to create enigmas as the audience do not know where he is or why he is asleep inside a box.

Next we see more writing with the same typography and an eerie glow. The writing says ’His Love Is Everlasting’ and ‘His Gift Is Life’. This suggests that the main character is male, as each sentence begins with ‘His’, which conforms to the common conventions of males being the main character in the horror genre.  ‘His Gift Is Life’ suggests that if you get to keep your life it is a gift that he has given you. ‘His love is everlasting’ also has religious connotations to it therefore conforming to the conventions of the horror genre having religious themes.

The hymn then stops and we hear the deep voice of a man saying “hello”. The next two images are of the man waking up with his head inside the box, this image is placed in the centre of the screen. He looks directly at the camera showing fear. As his eyes suddenly jerk open there is a loud sound similar to that of a drum.  The audience is unable to see who says this which also creates an enigma and to find out who does say this they need to go and watch the full film. This then fades to black.

More writing then appears on the screen telling the audience that the film will be coming out ‘This Halloween’. Again, the same typography is used with the same yellow eerie glow to it. 

The man then reappears looking distressed. He then wraps his hands round the box as if he is about to try and take it off. The sound then increases as the speed of the film increases. The sounds are non-diegetic and are of a man screaming and glass smashing.  Once again it fades to black. The fading to black builds up the tension as the audience want to know what happens next and why he has a box around his head. As this is a sequel to the Saw films. People who have watched the previous films will have an idea of what might happens. In the previous films there are many contraptions that people get stuck in. However, people who have not seen the previous films may have no idea of what is going on.

The text ‘Belongs To’ follows on from the previous text ‘This Halloween’.

The man in the box can now be seen panicking as he becomes aware of where he is. He frantically tries to get the box off of his head but is unable to.  We then see a little bit of the background but it is still unclear where he is due to the dark lighting and the man taking up most of the screen. However, it looks as if he is underground. It also becomes visible that the box is a contraption as it has lots of tubes coming off of it. 

The speed of the trailer increases and he begins shaking his head from left to right very quickly. The brightest light we can see is coming from inside the box. The sound is parallel to the trailer at this point and there is the sound of electricity.  This trailer also has low key lighting which is a common convention of the horror genre. The screen then fades to black again.

The screen then pans out of a close up of the ‘V’ in the title to reveal the whole title ‘Saw V’.

The final bit of text then appears saying ‘Saw V’ which is the name of the film. This final piece of text follows on from what has been written previously ‘This Halloween Belongs to Saw V’ which is what the final sentence would look like. This suggests that people should cancel their plans and go and watch Saw V on Halloween. The typography is still the same. The letters are in Serif and are very sharp making them look like blades. They also look as if they are splattered with blood. The slight shine on the letters also adds to the fact that they look like blades.  Finally, the screen fades to black for the last time.