Identity Trailer

Identity Teaser Trailer

This Identity teaser trailer is 31 seconds long.

The teaser is made up of very short clips, flashing images, lightening and screaming. Because the clips are so short, it is easy to miss important parts, which I think is the whole point of having such short clips, because it prepared us for the rest of the film; you have to concentrate. We are introduced to most of the main characters, except for two; the killer and the schizophrenic. This is crucial because those two are the most important characters in the whole film. This is effective because we don't know to look out for them in the actual film, whereas the characters we have already seen, we will know to keep watch of. 

The trailer opens with a crash of thunder and and cutaway of the detective saying "What happened at the hotel?" Visually, the first thing we see is a long shot of a car swerving in the road, but it is so quick we only see it in the flash of the lightening. This is immediately suggesting that the film is going to be jumpy, and warning the audience that they will have to concentrate fully throughout the duration of the film otherwise they will miss key events or clues. This is followed by a medium shot of two people swerving in the car, again, lit up by the lightening. The effect of the cutaway voiceover is unsettling. It's the voice of a man, deep and sharp, and this again, immediately warns us of some sort of horror/thriller genre. 

Throughout the trailer, the Motel sign flashes twice, in the lightening and claps of thunder. From this, we know that the film is going to be set around and in the motel, suggesting a typical American teen horror. This means that the trailer attracts teenagers and adults; a typical 16-24 target audience. I think the trailer successfully attracts its target audience partly because of the cast that James Mangold has selected. For example, there is the good looking male; John Cusack, and the attractive female; Amanda Peet. Then there is the one that everyone will recognise; Ray Liota. Another actor that will draw the audience in is John McGinly, because he is from the well known series Scrubs, which is aimed at 16-24 year olds.

As with most thrillers/horrors, this trailer contains alot of screaming, and naturally, we as the audience are curious as to why they are screaming. Leaving the audience wondering draws them in, and although we know that people are dying (as we hear at the beginning) we dont know why or how. The audience know they are in for a gruesome film, but the anticipation of that leaves people wanting to see the film.