George Brinan A2 Media
Candidate No. 8149
The Babadook (Marcus Osinfolarin)
The trailer starts with a black screen without the green band MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating card approving of the "preview" for "appropriate audiences" as this trailer is not appropriate due to it's freightful nature and so has not been approved by the Motion Picture Association of America.
The trailer opens a black screen with a soft monotone sound to induce a calming effect on the viewer. The trailer consists of a transition of cuts and fades. The first shot that fades into from the black is an over the shoulder shot of a book 'Mister Babadook' that is the main focus of the film. With the voiceover of a mother asking her son "where'd you get this?" it is implied she knows nothing about it's appearance already instilling a sense of fear in the audience, despite her obliviousness to it's appearance, she reads the book to her child before bedtime. The colour correction of the young boy's bedroom makes the atmosphere dark and gritty; typical of a horror film. A match on action shows the page that the mother has turned to containing the pop out image of the monster villain of the film, 'The Babadook'.
To add drama to the reveal of the monster, a break is taken from the action by presenting, in the same style of writings in the book, the director of the film. The music takes a more sinister tone with a slow pulsing beat after this and a voiceover from the mother saying "Nothing bad is going to happen, Sam" informs the audience that the child was freightened by the book and its monstrous character which leads the audience to be . This voiceover is complimented with the stereotypical action of the mother checking under her son's bed and in his wardrobe. To this comes the non-diegetic reply of the son saying "Did you think that about my dad before he died" setting the scene that she is a single widowed mother vulnerable due to the lack of protection from a husband. The clip of the woman grabbing the picture of her and her husband and clutching it to her chest reinforces this idea. After this is an old woman talking to the mother about her son, giving her advice followed by another voice over from the child "I promise to protect you if you promise to protect me" complemented with the sawing of wood, hammering of nails and moving of strings to indicate the manufacturing of "protection" from the monster introduced in the book.
The scene then cuts to a man in a suit placing a dart and homemade crossbow gun on a table with the offscreen exclamation from the mother "oh my God! Did he hurt anyone?" referencing her son. The fact that the man is in a suit indicates to the audience that he is a man in power and is most likely a teacher at the boy's school. The boy is said to have "significant behavioural problems" which can be attributed to the fear of the monster due to the mother's words "this monster thing has got to stop... its just a book". The scene then shows the mother looking through the book revealing a more freightening image of the monster which she herself is visibly afraid of and so consequently throws the book into a barbeque fire. After brief shots of the dark house's living room and then stairway a shot shows a slow zoom in of the mother sitting on her bed reading after which three knocks are heard and she looks up. The shots of the living room and stairs could represent a monster hunting for the woman with the knocks referencing that which were mentioned in the book. To rebuild tension again, there is a louder knock and the scene cuts to a credit of the film stating where it premiered; 'Sundance film festival'.
The next scenes then show the woman feeing "stressed" and possibly worried about the contents of the book and the monster it featured. It can be denoted that the mother has gone to look for help from different people but is turned down and not believed; "all children see monsters" says a man in a shirt and tie sitting at a computer who could be a therapist or adviser of some kind. There is then a shot of cockroaches crawling out of a crack in a wall, judging by the wallpaper, in the woman's home and then a couple of seconds later a brief glimpse of a paper-white man in a jacket and hat resembling the monster seen in the book. The protagonist interprets this to be "someone stalking her and her child" and she "reports" this to the local police who, again, does not seem to take her seriously. After a brief shot of the mother's hands and a flash of a pop-out from the book of a woman brandishing a knife, the viewer comes to realised that she is the one that there is probably something wrong with and the entity from the book may have possessed her.
There is then a scene of a room which brightens to reveal a slowly opening door and the voice-over of the child's shaky voice saying "You can't get rid of the Babadook" whilst the mother opens her eyes seemingly waking up, and the son also turns over in his bed, fear on his face. There is then a clip of the Babadook gliding towards the camera (and towards the audience) in the darkness so only it's outline and clothing is made out. This is the second viewing of the Babadook off the pages of the book and as an imitation of real life, it is also much closer and therefore intimidates the viewer as the demonic entity becomes more prevalent. After this, 1:33 minutes into the trailer, the first intense paranormal activity affecting the mother is shown to the audience as an arial shot shows her as she begins to levitate over her bed. This is accompanied with a deep eerie demonic voice repeating "you can bring me the boy" from 1:30 to 1:37 implying that the mother will have to sacrifice her son to the 'monster' to "get rid of the Babadook" going against her motherly duty to look after and protect her son from harm. There is then the repetition of the audibly vulnerable son begging his mother "don't let him in" six times as there are rapid cuts of the woman shutting and locking doors and windows followed by putting keys away frantically.
There is then the full length shot of a door in the house followed by an extreme close up of the mother looking through the doorscope. This action of looking through a hole is common in horror trailers as it presents a fear in the person looking through the hole because they cannot bring themselves to open the door to fully present themselves to the posible danger. The doorscope is also a design that only allows one way viewing and so is meant to protect the person by allowing them to see who (or what) is there before they open the door, so this shot shows the vulnerability of the mother and her son. After this there is a figure seen moving in the darkness accompanied by an insideous sound and followed by the freightened reaction of the son. After this, is is then obvious that the woman is afraid of the monster as she speeds in her car looking up at the roof with her son in the seat behind her obviously fleeing from the monster. Even though this scene was filmed in daylight, colour correction has made it look darker that it was to fit to the style of the trailer and film.
There is then the phrase from the book as heard earlier on in the trailer "if it's in a word" rapidly rolled onto the screen, again, in the form of writing on the "Mister Babadook" book with a menacing sound followed by a moan that becomes attributableto the monster. The voice of the woman can them be heard shouting "You are tresspassing in my house" with a mash of clips to show the fearful and unstable nature of the woman and child. The flashing clip of the woman gliding towards the camera after the brief clip of the child instills fear in the audience for the safety of the child as with the brief moment beforehand where the mother is falling or disorientated this connotes that she has been possessed linking back to the cut out from the book of a woman brandishing a knife. After this is the next section of the phrase "or it's in a look" comes onto the screen in the same manner as the first section with the music remaining at the same tempo.
There is then another series of clips indocating at the mother's madness with a close up of her seemingly sweaty and bruised face as she falls to her knees, an insert shot of the young boy's reaction to his mother as she lowers them both into a bath tub which seems to have water tinged with a little bit of red , shown in a medium-long shot so as to show the whole bath and both characters. As well as the boy's reaction, the audience can tell that there is something wrong with the mother due to the voice over of her saying "I'm sick, Sam, I need help". The knowlegde of the mother's mental instability shocks the viewer and makes them worried about the vulnerable child's wellbeing, this fear is then built on with a close up of the mother lifting a sharp Chef Knife into the shot co-occuring with the soft but harsh sound of the slicing of metal. The viewer is very likely to want to see why the mother takes a knife and what she uses it on and so will have to watch the film to find out. The penultimate section of the phrase "you can't get rid of" arrives in the same way as the previous two but instead of the music there is the start of a five second long shouting. During the shouting, the most arcane clips from the film are shown to peak the audience's interest even more; the child being dragged up the stairs by an unsees force (likely to be The Babadook) as his mother helplessly outstretches her arms, then the son hugging his mother as they are bound by ropes in a dark room with some mysterious dark liquid on the floor nearby that could maybe be blood, water or oil.
The last scene links with the shouting heard for the last five seconds and is of the mother holding her son in a protective maternal way as she looks at the camera and shouts before a sharp cut to the title of the film "The Babadook" which finishes the phrase but is in a bigger size and so gives the title of the film. The shouting had stopped by this time and so adds emphasis to the revelation of the title of the film, catching the viewer's attention and making them want to remember the film's name when they go to the movie theatre or a shop. Before the very end of the trailer, the whispers of the moth er can be heard repeating "it isnt real" there is a fade in to a door from inside a room behind which a figure can be briefly seen. There is then a cut to a close up of the mother under the covers of her bed, the typical position of a child afraid at night but the character is given good reason to be afraid as the eerily inhuman voice of the Babadook is heard for the first time saying "Baba" and then whispering in the same voice "dook dook dook" becoming more scratchy and louder towards the third "dook" by which time a close up arial shot allows the audience to see the mother peeking from out of the covers. There is then a flash to white and then the credentials of the film to make a final impact on the audience causing them to want to see what happens in the movie as the trailer ends on a cliff hanger.