Leyla's Textual Analysis of A Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer

The trailer starts with a quite derelict street full of rubbish, clutter and abandoned warehouses. There is fog and clouds so this gives the shots a very blue tint throughout, the camera cuts to different parts of the street to show broken abandoned vehicles and more clutter such as broken pipes, piles of scrap metal and planks of broken wood, this connotes that no one has lived there for a long time. A slight on going noise is heard that sound like a faint hum, then the character of Freddie Kruger emerges being chased by a number of different cars with their headlights on. As he comes forward, the sound of a car back firing or a loud booming noise is heard. NVC is used when a close up shot of Freddie Kruger shows how scared he is. Sounds of the cars engines and sounds of the wheels spinning and skidding are then heard. There is a cut that gives a POV shot from the drivers of the cars. Non- diegetic fast passed music is then heard as Freddie Kruger runs into an abandoned building. A male character then says ‘Kruger’ as Freddie locks himself into the abandoned building, the tone used in the mans voice connotes anger.

A mob of people then start moving towards the building, the man then starts ordering Freddie Kruger to open the door while Freddie himself in pushing the door to keep it closed. The mob have props such as baseball bats, this connotes that they want to physically hurt Freddie Kruger. There is then a shot where all you can see is Freddie Kruger’s hands and the bottom half of his face while he says the line ‘what do you think I did? I don’t do anything. The speed in which he says this and the pitch show he is scared and trying to explain himself. A slow motion shot of the man in the mob lighting a gasoline tank from bellow and the sound of the flame being emphasised is heard. Non diegetic music is heard as the tank is thrown to build tension and the diegetic sound of the glass window breaking is heard as the tank goes through the window also in slow motion. The main colour of the setting going from a pale blue to orange and black as the room catches on fire. There is then a shot of the people in the mob standing still outside looking towards the building as non diegetic dialog of Freddie screaming in pain is heard. The camera cuts back to Freddie while cuts of different parts of the room catch fire, then in slow motion Freddie taking off his jacket and screaming in pain once more. No diegetic symphonised sound is heard almost like a screech and the camera cuts to one woman outside with a facial expression (NVC) that shows she is upset. A final shot of Freddie is shown before the something inside the building explodes and a shot from outside of the window is shown as the fire pushes its way out of the window.

There is then a break, which is just black with no sound; this is a popular convention of horror trailers. I sweeping non diegetic sound is heard as text comes up into the screen in a red font that matches the font shown on the poster, that sound is heard again as the text disappears into black again. Three small girls are then shown skipping, wearing white clothes, that connote innocents, the same sweeping noise is heard, then its cuts to black again.
When narrative starts of a girl talking, it cuts to an older teenage girl standing in a bedroom covered in snow; through NVC you can see she is confused. It cuts back to black again then cuts to another girl walking down a hallway this time with her narrative; the camera is behind the girl as she walks. There is then a cut to a black room with pipes on the wall with orange light and the figure of Freddie Kruger standing so that his silhouette is visible. Non diegetic organ sound to build tension is heard as the light flickers and Freddie moves slightly. It cuts back to black. More organ sound is played as the street sign of ‘Elm Street’ is shown. Again it cuts to black and the voices of children are heard starting to sing a nursery rhyme, it then cuts to the street at night; this connotes how Freddie kills at night because this is when the teenagers are asleep. There is then a shot of candles which connotes the fire. Then a shot of two teenagers around some fog which connotes the fog on the day Freddie was killed. It cuts to black again. And the singing stops and a sweeping non diegetic noise is heard and it goes silent. Fast passed non diegetic music is heard then the glove of Freddie comes up with him scratching along the pipes making sparks. Lots of quick cuts and the non diegetic singing of the children follow. A shot of a funeral denotes the death of one of the teenagers. Dream sequences of the teenagers follow, many of the cuts being in slow motion, diegetic screaming being heard. The cuts get quicker and the non diegetic music gets louder. The main colours of the settings being blue, orange and black throughout all the cuts; it then cuts to the title in the same font as before in red. Then a final shot of Freddie threatening one of the teenagers before it cuts to black and the date of release.