Martyrs Trailer Review

Film: Martyrs (2009)
Trailer Genre: Gory/Horror Trailer
Mark after viewing: 7/10




What happens in the trailer?
The trailer consists of various scenes from the movie and outlines the basic plot. It shows some of the more exciting scenes during the film such as a character getting shot with a shotgun, which includes some gore.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
There are several aspects that are done well within this trailer, the first I noticed is the pacing of the trailer; It is done in the classical way of a horror trailer which is a slow build-up of speed with a variety of shots that fit with the changing of pace. The shots that were shown during the trailer allowed the audience to understand the base plot without have too much spoilt and having the whole plot, either easy to guess or completely revealed. The one scene within the trailer that is the climax of the trailer is the shotgun scene as it creates the climax of pace as well as introducing the gore factor.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
There were a few aspects that noticed that were fairly unsuccessful to various degrees; First of which being that the pacing at the very start is too slow, even for the classic horror trailer – due to this the trailer didn’t quite grab you as quickly as most people would of liked, the opening 20 seconds, which determine if a trailer catches your attention or not, were fairly dull and didn’t do anything to grasp attention quickly.
Another aspect that made the trailer slightly confusing and anti-climactic afterwards, was the when a character gets shot with a shotgun, it seemed out of place and random in terms of trailer progression, this scene would have been better placed at the end of the trailer as a climax and not in the middle with still half the trailer to go so the build-up has to start again. The confusion within the trailer is continued with the presence of two or three women who all seem to have a focus, yet you cannot differentiate between them to find out who the main character really is, this unclear aspect makes the trailer more confusing.

What was the trailer’s average score in class? Why did it receive that mark?
The average mark the trailer received was around 7, this was due to the overall pacing of the trailer as well as the editing on select scene that gave you a hint to the story without having anything in particular ruined and left room for audience imagination and expectations.