Research into Nightmare on Elm Street

Nightmare on Elm Street

Survivors of undead serial killer Freddy Krueger; who stalks his victims (children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him) in their dreams learn to take control of their own dreams in order to fight back. We believe this is an ideal film to analyse considering its themes are related to ours we can draw inspiration from the many techniques (setting, lighting, cuts, music etc.) used to make this film so successful.

The Poster

Trailer



The nightmare on Elm street trailer has many concepts that are identical to ours, although we may not have the equipment to produce a trailer of this standard we can draw inspiration from the many techniques used.

The first technique used to imply the genre is setting: here we see a desolate house in a run down area. The setting fits the horror convention of an isolated location which gives it an eerie atmospheric feeling to the scene. It seems there is a blue filter being used here which helps create a ghostly atmosphere. The fact the building is so isolated makes it seem all the more threatening and menacing. We plan to replicate aspects of this scene by having our location also isolated.

Another key aspect of both trailers is the theme of nightmares, we aim to have this implied in many ways. Alike the nightmare on elm street trailer we have a protagonist suffering from nightmares and the idea of them being so torturous they almost seem real and haunt them in day to day life. There is an extreme close up used here in both trailers to symbolise distress in this trailer, however in our trailer it is used to show curiosity that ultimately leads to danger. One of the key aspects we our drawing from this trailer is the way in which the line between reality and nightmares is blurred, we want our audience to be unaware of what is real and whats not.

Shadows is a key convention in thrillers; heavily used throughout the trailer it again creates a ghostly atmosphere as if you don't know what's lurking in the shadows (sense of mystery.) In literature shadows are metaphorically linked to death. The darkness also acts as tool to connote secrets and danger.

Another feature we intend to employ is the way in which we never see Freddie Kruger fully, showing only parts of him intensifies he scariest features e.g. the hand. Similarly in our trailer we intend to only show parts of the antagonist using close ups to focus on her prominent features for example her long creepy hair and her unnerving idiosyncrasies. 

Titles used here again connote the horror genre the red blood splatters imply images of death whilst the serif font demonstrate that this film is for an older audience. The colour red connotes images of danger, death and horror so considering all this it is likely we will incorporate red within our titles in order to have a similar effect.

Domestic Summary

Opening Weekend:	$32,902,299
% of Total Gross:	52.2%

(#1 rank, 3,332 theaters, $9,875 average)