Sound in Horror Film Trailers

Abstract

In this paper I analyse the soundtracks of fifty horror film trailers, combining formal analysis of the soundtracks with quantitative methods to describe and analyse how sound creates a dominant emotional tone for audiences through the use of different types of sounds (dialogue, music, and sound effects) and the different sound envelopes of affective events. The results show that horror trailers have a three-part structure that involves establishing the narrative, emotionally engaging the audience, and communicating marketing information. The soundtrack is organised in such a way that different functions are handled by different components in different segments of the soundtrack: dialogue bears responsibility for what we know and the sound for what we feel. Music is employed in a limited number of ways that are ironic, clichéd, and rarely contribute to the dominant emotional tone. Different types of sonic affective events fulfil different roles within horror trailers in relation to narrative, emotion, and marketing. I identify two features not previously discussed in relation to quantitative analysis of film soundtracks: an affective event based on the reactions of characters in horror trailers and the presence of nonlinear features in the sound design of affective events.

Computational Analysis of a Horror Film Trailer Soundtrack

“…Brotto (2013, 155) observed that computational methods for exploring film style lacked a method for analyzing sound. Despite an abundance of freely available audio analysis tools developed in the fields of bioacoustics, soundscape ecology, and computational music analysis, few (Ma et al 2021;Moncrieff, Dorai, and Venkatesh 2002;Pfeiffer and Srinivasan 2002;Redfern 2020aRedfern , 2020bRedfern , 2021 have attempted to apply these technologies to the analysis of motion picture soundtracks.…”

We Choose What to Fear in Indonesian Horror Cinema

“…The similarities in the audio-visual part of the Indonesian horror movie trailers, at least from the ten movies whose trailers we are about to discuss here, lie in them employing a rather dark tone colour to present the visuals, as is common within the genre both in Indonesian and international horror movies and trailers. Meanwhile, the background music and sound are slowly intensifying from the introduction up to the third part of the trailers, which are also common within the genre (Redfern, 2020). Redfern (2020) pointed out that these movie producers may also go out of their way to mash-up sounds and music so that their movies can have a set of sound effects and music specially tailored to the movies themselves.…”

“…Meanwhile, the background music and sound are slowly intensifying from the introduction up to the third part of the trailers, which are also common within the genre (Redfern, 2020). Redfern (2020) pointed out that these movie producers may also go out of their way to mash-up sounds and music so that their movies can have a set of sound effects and music specially tailored to the movies themselves.…”