'The Others' Trailer Analysis

The audience is shown the title of the film at the end of the trailer, but uses its name at the beginning from one of the characters: "the others said they wouldn't leave us... but they did." Showing the title at the end fits in with the trailer's strong themes of mystery and suspense, and keeps the audience on edge for what the film is called. Suprisingly, the trailer doesn't say who is starring in the film, although the audience may recognise the central character, Nicole Kidman, who had past success in Bazz Luhrmann's 'Moulin Rouge!' and Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' before 'The Others'.

The audience is shown a great deal of action mainly towards the end of the trailer, using a combination of fast-motion shots and cut shots to create a rushed, frantic tone of the characters appearing to be haunted by ghosts. Some of these clips include Nicole Kidman running up the stairs, screaming through the banisters, the little girl showing her mother pictures she drew of the ghosts, the maid telling the children that she see's the ghosts too. The music used in the beginning of the trailer is quite simple and eeire, with no powerful instruments used. This carries on throughout the whole sequence, interupted by several bounds of a drum any time the trailer shows a shot that makes the audience jump. Because it is simple, the music doesn't really create a large impact on the trailer, but instead relates with the ghostly theme as the feel of the music is quite haunting and subtle.

The trailer does not come with a voice-over, and instead tells the story through the different shots of the characters and what they say and do. Towards the end of the trailer, several of the shots are played in fast movement, such as the shot of a nursery, which symbolises the fear of the characters and how their lives have become distorted since the ghosts have haunted their lives. Until the end, however, the general speed of the trailer is quite paced, with the effect of fading between each shot to signify the movement and precense of the ghosts.

The information we are given about the film starts with Kidman introducing three housekeepers to her house- and at the same time, introducing the audience to their homelife and background. The audience learns how the previous housekeepers "vanished... into thin air" and Kidman informs them not to listen to what her children might tell them, "my children sometimes have strange ideas, but you musn't pay any attention. Children will be children." The story begins to unfold with the children seeing and sensing mysterious things, such as a touch on the shoulder, or the curtains suddenly opening. When they confide in their nanny, she tells them that she sees the ghosts too and so will their mother soon. As Kidman rejects her children's stories, she starts to experience similar episodes: the chandalear rattling, walking into a room and frantically pulling off sheets of furniture as she might have 'seen' something, walking through a misty field with her voice-over: "there were voices, a boy and two women, and they were talking together."

The trailer moves on to the family becoming more involved with the ghosts, and trying to find a way of escaping them. One of the ghosts, an elderly woman, is even briefly revealed, and the trailer ends with the title 'The Others' crackling onto the screen with the voice-over the old maid: "sooner or later, they will find you", before ending with Kidman moving towards what appears to be her daughter playing with a toy covered in a large sheet. The audience can make out it is actually an elderly women underneath the sheet, and when Kidman demands to know where her daughter is, the woman replies in her daughters voice: "are you mad? I am your daughter!"

The trailer could be aimed at a wide rannge of audiences as it does not feature any gory or indecent scenes. There is a great use of suspense and making the audience jump, but the fear does come from the viewer's own imagination and interpretation of what the ghosts are going to do to the family. Also, the trailer doesn't reveal what's about to happen, and nor does it show them being physically harmed by them, so the trailer may appeal to viewers who enjoy a physcological horror where the storyline is more realistic and believeable for them.