Trailer Analysis - One Missed Call

One Missed Call.
What will it sound like when you die?

One Missed Call was directed by Eric Vallete and released on April 4th 2008. It is based on the Japanese thriller Chakushin ari and follows a series of people receiving answer phone messages of themselves dying.
A defining convention used in this trailer, is that of a repeating tune, which has become the signature of the movie. The sound resembles a monophonic ringtone, and the constant repetition is called a sound motif and it creates an eerie effect, alerting the audience as they develop their own reaction to the visual aspect of the trailer. This is very clever technique which again sets the music of this trailer apart from others I have watched; the tune used in itself is not scary nor typical of a horror movie, instead it is about a much broader picture and the theme of the movie, and the audience is not told how to react to the music.
The movie’s main star is a woman, stereotypically making her more vulnerable and weak. This is a key technique of many horror movies, who portray young, good-looking females as the main victims, maybe to gain more sympathy or place emphasis on her inferiority.
To add a glimpse of typical horror conventions, some of the faces of characters have been edited, making them more scary and chilling. This occurs at 0.45, 1.26 and 1.54.

0.14 - 0.20 seconds

This is the first main event of the trailer, as it features the initial playing of the repeated ringtone and the dialogue ' thats not my ringtone...' This opens up a variety of questions in the audiences mind and reels them into the plot of the movie. The main question the audience will have at this stage is what does the strange ringtone mean, and what will happen to that characted next? This part of the trailer is key to the whole plot of the movie, and although this trailer doesn't give much of the details of the story away, this first line of dialogue is important and gives the audience a flavour of what is to come in the movie. Combined with the title, and tagline 'What will it sound like when you die?' the audience can begin to picture what the movie may be about.

0.28 - 0.30 seconds

This is also an important part of the trailer, as the characters and audience get to hear the first missed call message. It is a very loud scream, from a female voice, which again narrows down the plotline and unfolds a bit more of the story for the audience; keeping their attention and further drawing them in.

0.33 - 0.37 seconds

'It's your voice. That's you, dying.' This line is chilling and shows the characters developing an understanding of what is happening to them. It is also key to the audience, as again it gives away a main idea of the story. Up until now, the trailer has been trying to capture and keep its target audience glued to find out what the film is about. This line acts as a climax and gives the audience what they want, hopefully having now fully reeled in a large audience.

1.03 - 1.10 seconds

This is again a key event in the trailer, as the understanding of events widens. 'It's like you get a voicemail...you hear your death...and then you die'. This raises the questions, why? and what is causing it?