Trailers for genres & analysis of Hostel.

Science-Fiction - Apollo 18.

Romantic Comedy - Just Go With It

Horror - Hostel

As soon as the trailer starts, we hear non-diegetic music, which sounds quite scary so this suggests immediately that the film may be a horror film. There is dripping water that drips fast but lands in the puddle quite slowly, this could be an indication to the passage of time, time could seem like it is going fast in this unknown place, but in actual fact time is passing slowly.


 We then cross to a long shot of a (possible) male dressed in overalls with a mask on (conventional horror villain, Texas Chainsaw Massacre), hiding his identity from his possible victim and audience. Then, there is a medium shot of a male tied to a chair half naked where a mask is pulled from his head so he can see what location he is in, then a look of horror comes to his face which then definitely shows the audience that it is a horror film. The trailer then jumps to a medium shot of a table of weapons that can cause pain and fear, which again show the audience that the genre of this film is a horror.

As the scene crosses back to the male on the chair, he has realised where he is and we hear the diegetic sound of him screaming in fear of what may happen to him next.


Alot of the film trailer is in the dark, also suggesting that it will be a dark film with dark themes, for example, torture, death and sick twists within the film. The darkness of the trailer is conventional of horror films, and immediately shows to it's audience that it is a horror. Body parts and facial expressions are evidently important as there is a lot of focus on them throughout the trailer. There is focus of the victims who are looking scared to show to the audience that they are in danger, but the audience do not know why, this creates suspense for the film and will may the audience want to watch it to find out why they are in danger.

The word “torture” then flashes up on screen finalising that the film is a horror and that torture is an important theme in the film and will be a running theme throughout the film, and something that the audience of the trailer should be made aware of as soon as they view the trailer, so that they know it is a horror and may appeal to them.

The trailer has some narrative structure, it shows the beginning, the victims about to be tortured, it does not show how they got there, which could be left up to the audience or be revealed in the actual film. The middle is them being tortured, with a finger in a spanner as it looks, and the end is the victims trying to escape, crawling across the floor at any measures just to escape. The rest will more than likely be revealed in the film.
The sound in the trailer has murmurs, moans, crying and whining, these can all show the conventional parts of a horror as these show that the film is a horror and that the film is possibly gore filled and can be seen as scary due to the crying and moans of fear. The sound is mostly natural, which can suggest that everything going on the film is completely real and it isn't an imagination.

Other films that the production companies have made are also shown on screen to perhaps show that as they have made previous successful films, this one will be just as good and successful as the other films, which again will entice the audience to see the film as previous films have been successful. Also, as Quentin Tarantino has directed it, and his previous films like Pulp Fiction, it is an indication that this film will be just as good as the others because he has directed it.

Comedy Horror - Scary Movie

Action and Adventure - Taken