Mirrors Teaser Trailer Analysis

The trailer starts off with the companies that distributed it which are 20th Century Fox and Regency. The logos are shown and these are:









Music starts playing straight away and we can hear a little boy's voice talking. It fades to black and there is an establishing shot of a big house which is a typical convention of a horror film. The next shot is of a woman walking into the little boys bedroom and the camera follows her and we see the boy sitting on the floor looking in the mirror. This shows that the boy is talking to his reflection in the mirror, suggesting that there may be something in the mirror. Then there is an over the shoulder shot which is at a low angle looking up at the boy's mother. Next, the boy gets up, however his reflection stays the same. At this point there is a loud noise, then a close up of the mum's face to show that she is shocked. When there is a close up of the boy's reflection, there is the sound of children laughing in the background to create a creepy effect.

The next shot is a medium shot of a man turning around as he hears a scream. Then there is white writing on a black screen saying "within these walls". The writing is reflected underneath it like a mirror, which emphasises that the film is called mirrors. This is followed by the camera looking through the banisters at the woman. This could be a point of view shot from someone as she is looking at the camera in fear. There is a quick flash of black which changes to a long shot of a closed door. We can hear the woman saying "there's someone in the house" which will create a sense of mystery as it might not be human as it may be in the mirrors. Then it says "lies an evil" and there is the sound of somebody breathing.

After this, there is a close up of a door handle and the door opening. Then the camera is looking down into some water over the floor in a house and there is a reflection of a person standing up. This shot is effective as it does not show exactly what is happening, however it shows the audience that something is wrong. Following this there is a close up of the boy awakening as if he has heard something, and the voice of the mum saying "I'm so scared" which also creates terror in the audience as well. Then it says "beyond our world" showing that it is not human.




There is a close up of the man, then a shot of the woman walking through the house. After, there is a close up the man looking up at the mirror and his face looks distorted in the mirror. The music builds up suspense as the audience do not know what he will see when he puts his head up. As he does there is a bang and it flashes to black and white, making this clip stand out from the rest of the clips and making it stick in the audience's heads.

The camera is then looking through a cupboard at somebody, however we cannot see who it is creating suspense within the audience. Over the next few shots, there is a voice over of the man explaining that it may be the mirrors making people doing things, showing that it could be something supernatural. There is then a long shot of a woman in a bath, then the mirror is shown with the woman's reflection in it and she looks evil. The music then get louder as there is a close up of the side of the bath, when the woman grabs the side of it. Her hand looks like it is covered in blood and this will make the audience jump. Then the name of the main character is shown "Kiefer Sutherland", persuading the audience to see the film even more if they like this actor.

The next shot is a close up of the man shouting and he looks terrified. This is followed by two quick shots of a close up of the woman, and then an over the shoulder shot of her backing up from a steamed up window with a hand print on it. Then the title of the film is shown, with the sound of children laughing again, and the sound of a mirror breaking.




After this, there is a close up of the woman in a dark place with the sound of water running. We can hear the boy talking to her saying "don't be scared", and then we see him and his reflection in the mirror. His voice goes weird at the end of his sentence and there is twinkling music in the background. It fades to black and there is a high angle shot looking down on the boy. After, there is a low angle shot of the mum coming towards the boy. There is loud growling noise and the camera switches to a long shot of the mum touching the boy who is sitting in a puddle of water and falling forwards. This would make the audience jump as it was calm before, and then there is suddenly a loud noise. The noise stops and the date the film is released is shown and the website.

Overall this trailer is 51 seconds long and it has got roughly 34 shots in it. This trailer does not use much music in it, however it uses voices instead and children laughing to build up suspense within the audience, showing that this is just as effective.