Review of Eden Lake Trailer

The first shot of the trailer is of a close up of a man and a woman kissing, this immediately lulls the audience into a false sense of security, as if this film could even be a Rom Com or another genre than Horror. These two characters are mid twenties - early thirties, possibly the audience who they are trying to aim at. But there are younger characters in this film, teenagers, so I believe the audience that they are aiming at are 18 - early thirties. There is a non diagetic sound, the main character, Jenny, talking about how her friend is being taken to Paris for the weekend, yet HER boyfriend is taking her to ''a disused quarry'', these final words may begin to create a sense of doubt in the audience's mind.. a disused quarry not being an ideal setting for a Rom Com but a typical Horror movie setting.

The word that sticks out for me is 'disused', this to me suggests that the couple is going to be isolated from the rest of the world, this is a typical theme thats runs throughout many Horror films. There is a quick shot of a town, then of a car driving towards a bridge.. I noticed that this image had more foliage and made it clear that the characters were 'going away' from normality, to somewhere in the country.. somewhere isolated. We then see several nature shots, of trees and their car driving through a forest. This now makes the audience feel more isolated and vulnerable. But shots of the two main characters smiling creates a contrasting image. It leaves the audience unsure of how to feel. We then see thick, white writing appear on a black screen reading 'OUT OF THE CITY', followed by another image of the car driving away from the audience, followed immediately by a shot of their sat nav telling them to 'turn around', this makes the audience feel on edge.. wanting to tell them to in fact 'turn around', but we then see them giggling. This tells me that they aren't going to do so.

Another piece of writing on a black screen reads 'OFF THE MAP'. The sense of dread and danger is thickening. This is followed by a shot of the characters kissing in the water.. telling us that they are blissfully unaware of the danger they are about to face. This is follwed by a close up of the leading lady asleep, but there is a flash on the screen with a non diagetic, unnatural sound attached to it, this could either make the audience jump, or merely break the (brief) illusion of peace and quiet. We then see a close up of a large Rottweiller barking. Rottweillers aren't usually considered friendly animals and often receive bad press, and are often used as guard dogs. This adds to the sense of dread that has been building throughout the trailer so far...