SPLIT
The trailer opens with shots of an man loading the boot of his car. His unsuspecting eye contact with the camera which moves towards him makes the audience unnerved and shows this shot is a point of view. Moreover, the disjointed breaking up of the shot match the eerie and increaing sound which goes to a silent black screen and the camera gets uncomfortably close to the innocent father. From this opening shot alone the tone and genre is set as the audience expects a thrilling story to be told with a uncomfortable premis.
TRAILER ANALYSIS
The audiences' expectations are nearly instantly met with a stranger getting into a car with three teenage girls. The audio is silent with just the line 'I think you're in the wrong car Mr' builds the tention which is cut by a sudden and agressive flash shot of the stranger spraying two of the girls in the face with some car. This violence is emphasised by the loud and jarring screech sound. The ident of Universal pictures follows which already leave questions of enigma in the audiences' mind: Who is the stranger? Why did he attack the girls? Are the girls okay?
The creepy music that introduces the next extract of a scene within the movie reveals to us that the stranger is having therapy. This is confirmed when we see his spam of emails to the therapist which says 'we need you'. A voice over from the therapist then explains that his name is Kevin and he is a one of a kind person as he hosts 23 identities. We wonder what corrolation this would have on the girls attack.
Suspense arrises once more with the therapist asking 'did something happen?'. With a eery scielence following. Kevin's reaction to this is a twitching smile with hard cuts matched with milisecond shots of a his different reactions in the same place. We understand that Kevin's personalities, like the shots showing him, are split.
The next shot shows a a underground corridor, guided by pipes. The dark, gloomy lighting establishes this is a sinster place. This is accompanied by the kinapped girls screaming 'let me out' which confirms the audiences' suspicions that they are being held against their will. The biggest question that is prevoked from this is what does he want with them? This grips the viewer and makes them watch on. The music intensifies as we watch the girls try to escape their room which we have previously seen be drilled shut.
This audio builds to a climax as we can see someone dressed as a woman walking towards the door. As the door opens the music stops dramaticly, and shows that it's infact Kevin, as another personality. We then see a series of hard cuts which shows a number of different of his personalities. The reaction shot of the main kidnapped girl shows the audience her fear, making the audience sympathise with her and root for her to escpae.
This is broken up by the intertitle with the mentioning of the films that have already been made by the this production company. Moreover, the font is consistent with the title as it is broken up, it is 'Split'. This entices similar audiences who like similar genre of film while attracting an established audience.
The inconsistent backing track- going from scilence to intense, sharp music- reflects Kevin's personality: constantly changing and extremely offputting. After the therapist's voice over of 'I've never seen something like him before' triggers a stead heart beat backing track which underscores one of the girls trying to bargin with one of Kevins personalities. This increase in intensity of music and the franticness in the girls voice creates anxienty for the audience as we fear what is to come at the climax of the climbing heatbeat. A series of chase scenes follow this with the girls one by one tying to escape. We fear for their safety as we see one of them being dragged into darkness with a scream silences the audio. The audience understands that these girls are not safe. The next series of shots are of conflict. We see the girls holding the door shut, one of them fireing a shot gun and finally the main girl slowly turning with tears in her eyes. The split title is then revealed in silence. Then the simple but effective line of 'He's going to do aweful things to you' is said by one of the personalities with a haunting smile- followed by a screeching string sound.
The trailer begins with an upbeat tone due to the feel good song that accompanies the first part. The teenagers introduced are stereotypical of a party loving, rebellious kids who will do anything to escape the every day and have a good time. We see their first move towards having a fun night involves getting someone to buy them alcohol. These teenagers are relatable to audiences as their parents would have had kids like this or been like this themselves. The opening of the trailer seems unusually normal with nothing out of the ordinary occurring.
ANALYSIS
As the youthful teams attempt to ask other customers to buy them alcohol the character of Ma comes into the picture. She agrees to buy them alcohol and has a kind manner along with a warm image. We assume- from what we've seen- that she is nothing but a sweet middle aged lady. However, the fun and exciting music that was previously accompanying the teenagers adventure dies out and is replaced by silence as Ma is introduced. This non-diegetic clue hints to the audience she is not as innocent as we might think
'LETS GET DRUNK' is exclaimed by one of the girls. This supposedly positive expression is juxtaposed by the the main girl (Maggie's) concerned expression. The hard cut then changes the location to the teenagers driving towards Ma's house. Visually, nothing is eluding to danger, however, the backing track becomes erey and we begin to fear for the unsuspecting group of teenagers. The group are led into a basement which she gives to them as a 'party area'. This extreme generosity is suspicious and yet ideal for the group. The line 'Welcome to Ma's!' introduces a jarring and unsettling percussion sound effect. The inter-tile of 'This Year' is shown with a font that is scratched, untidy and intimidating. This visual code contributes to the genre of Thriller and signals that our suspicions of Ma might be right.
The over the shoulder shot of the teenagers all receiving a video from Ma about a party invitation to her house. The reaction shots to the kids are all excited other than Maggie who asks the obvious yet terrifying question 'How did she get our numbers'. We begin to think Ma is laying a trap and Maggie is the only one to see it coming. We see Maggie and Ma converse with Ma paying her a compliment. This is followed by a series of mid shots showing Ma's now sinister, ominous stares as she watches the group of teenagers party. This repetitious camera work shows her obsession with the teenagers and signals to the audience that she playing a game as she provides two separate personalities.
Maggie's voice over of 'There's something off about Ma' summarises what has been depicted so far to the viewer. Her friend shuts this down with 'Seriously? She's harmless'. We see Maggie's curiosity get the best of her when she breaks Ma's one rule: Don't go upstairs. The audio follows a steady base beat- connoting a party- which is sharply cut short by a jump scare as Ma grabs Maggie by the arms. The attack is cut short by another inter title leaving the audience unresolved and now seriously fearing for the teenagers safety. The inter-tile is consistent with the previous one but promotes the production company and name drops the other films they have made which also fit with the Thriller Genre. This highlights to the audience the experience the makers of the film have and draws in a established audience.
The following series of shots are visual codes to the genre of the film as we see bloodied knees, Ma kicking a tower of cans and a bottle being smashed against the flaw. The editing is follows the steady pace of a heart beat which slowly increases until the climax which is Ma driving over one of the teenage girls. This introduces the next inter-tile of 'Octavia Spencer' is a big name drop as she is an academy award winning actor and brings a degree of credit to the quality of the film. Another series of shots is accompanied by screams of- what we assume to be- the teenagers. This shows Ma individually torturing them. This builds along with the tension which climaxes on the shot of Ma's bloodied face with the voice over 'This is the most fun I've had in a long time'. The trailer takes viewers through a range of emotions and touches on multiple visual and audio clues to the clear genre of thriller. The audience is intrigued as to who dies and who makes it out alive? Why is she doing this? And is Ma stopped?
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