Year released : 1985
Genre of trailer : Gory Horror
Your mark (after viewing) : 2/10
What happened in the trailer?
The trailer begins with an audience sitting in a cinema watching Day Of The Dead (1985) on the screen. A descriptive voice over starts to play as we are launched straight into the movie by showing a deserted town with zombies aimlessly walking through. It shows characters in what looks to be an underground setting where they are saying that they are the minority and some of the very few survivors. It cuts back to the audience in the cinema and then back again to the trailer showing them trying to trick the zombies so the survivors could get away. It then cuts to the cinema again where we pan across the isle to see a zombie sitting watching the film eating popcorn. The rest of the audience are not phased at all by him whilst it cuts to the trailer showing a presumed scientist talking. As it cuts back to the cinema, it shows that all the audience had gone and the room is completely empty except for the zombie figure still sitting there. He looks around as the voice over says "the dead shall have their day, day of the dead" and the film title appears on the screen to finish the trailer.
Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
I did not mark the trailer very highly, however it does set the narrative well and makes sure the viewing audience know exactly what to expect from the film. It accomplishes this by having a good continuity rate and also a descriptive voice over. Another good point is that it sells it well as a sequel to Dawn Of The Dead (1978). It mentions this and Night Of The Living Dead (1968) along with George A. Romero's name promoting the film further.
Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
I unfortunately found many aspects of this trailer to be unsuccessful and off-putting. For example, it doesn't include enough gore in the trailer. Day Of The Dead is a gory horror film but you would not be able to establish this from this trailer. It portrays it to be more of a comedy horror, especially when the zombie is sitting in the cinema. There could have been some added gore when they are tricking the zombies and we see a number of zombie hands reaching towards a male character who turns and runs. Instead of him running we could see the zombies catch him and show some body horror of him being eaten for instance. This would then express the fact that it is a gory horror film and not for the faint hearted. The voice over is also very disappointing, it sounds cheesy and is used to describe too much of the film where images are perfectly capable. There is also no suspense throughout the whole trailer. We are shown the narrative from the beginning and are not led up to anything dramatic or suspenseful by the end. Alternatively, it is a steady journey through the film leading us gently through each piece of action with no jumps or unsuspected shots.
What was the trailer's average score? Why did it receive that mark?
The Day Of The Dead (1985) trailer received an average score of 2.5 from the class. This is because it simply didn't contain enough gore, lessening it's ability to actually sell it as a gory horror film. Even though it is only 1minute 56seconds long, I found it nearly boring. There were too many irrelevant shots that gave no advantage to the trailer and didn't help in promoting the film. Despite this, if you relate it to the historical context of the time, this would have probably been a good trailer as audience's were not hardened to blood and gore and horror in general like they are today so would enjoy it and find it scary and shocking.
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