The Lost Boys- an Action Horror Trailer Deconstructed

I have decided to concentrate on an action horror trailer to analyse within this post. The film I decided to analyse is The Lost Boys (1987) directed by Joel Schumacher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQ0_lXClxc

Opening:

The opening scene to The Lost Boys has quite an upbeat sound of diegetic music that is supposed to be coming from the band that is playing within the second shot. The first opening shot is a wide shot of a theme park ride at night and comes across as quite eerie and sets the scene that this place isn't going to be good for the characters.

 

Main Characters:

Within the first section of the trailer, the non-diegetic sound of a voice over introduces the audience to the two protagonists: Michael and Sam. "Michael and Sam have just moved to Santa Carla, California" and shows the two in a medium close up of them. The older main character, Michael, is a typical young handsome late teenager, with a rebellious style to him, e.g. the leather jacket.  This contrasts to the brother, Sam who is much younger, his style is a lot more stereotypically nerdy, and naïve to his brother's interest in women.

 

The Love Interest:

By the look on Michael's face, and the cut to a young girl, we then understand that this girl (Star) is going to be the love interest within the film, and probably a danger to Michael as well as Sam. Star is dressed in white, which is a possible ironic slant on her, because she later on leads Michael astray, but she epitomises her youthful looks.

 

The Link of the Characters: 

The close up of Michael which then cuts back to Star (both close up's) shows how the two will now be linked as love interests. The look upon both of their faces shows physical attraction and connotes to the audience that they will be romantically involved.

 

The Genre- Defined:

The voice-over then says "are about to discover it's secret" the diegetic music cuts to the sound of the roof of a car being ripped off by "something" with the characters in the scene screaming "what is it!!" The high angle of this shot is from the perspective of the "something" which connotes to the audience that the "something" plays a large part in the film.

The Sidekicks:

 The sound of the roof is cut when it changes to another scene of the sidekicks to Sam. We know that these are his side kicks because they reoccur with Sam in scenes to come within the trailer. The two (The Frog Brothers) clear up that the "something" is a vampire. As the audience from the conversation that occurs:

"Notice anything *unusual* about Santa Carla?"

"no,it's a pretty cool place- if you're a Martian."

"or a vampire."

 As the audience, the emphasis on Vampire in this scene and the scene also ending with this being the last word, you then connote that whatever is attacking the couple in the car in the last scene and next scene of the trailer is a vampire.

The scene of the girl in the car being attacked by the vampire, being accompanied by the red key lighting to show the horror of her being attack, the fear on her face, the screaming coming from her and the sound of the vampire roaring at her shows how these vampires are mean and not good.

The scene then cuts to Star on the back of a motorbike with a rebellious, ash blonde late teen. He looks quite sinister and bad and as the audience, you connote that by the way that Michael is looking at them, he wants to befriend the teen, David and Star. T

The music accompanying the trailer from now on has the lyrics of "When You're Strange" in them- as the audience you begin to connote that this group are probably the vampires that are terrorising Santa Carla.

 

The next scene then shows that this group have the characteristics of typical vampires:

Super Human strength is shown in this wide shot alongside the diegetic sound of a train passing over the top, adding the essence of danger and drama to the group.

Involving the Protagonists:

The facial expression of Michael that is shown in this big close up is the same as the vampires two shots later in the trailer- as the audience you connote that Michael must have been turned into a vampire.

(The mirrored image showing Michael's same expression on the other vampire's faces)

The family dog growling as Michael enters also emphasises how the dog (Nanook) knows that Michael is a vampire. This also adds to the tension that Michael is now possibly evil due to the influence of these vampires.

 

The Big Idea:

From now on the trailer, The main plot of the Lost Boys is being shown. This is shown in how Michael is looking for help to save him from staying a vampire. This is heard in the diegetic sound of Michael: "I'm your brother Sammy, help me!"

 

The medium close up of Sam with his fingers in a cross brings some humour to the film, showing the naivety of Sam due to his age but also brings in some typical conventions to a vampire film.

The reoccurance of the Frog Brothers telling Sam what to do in a medium close up once again brings some humour to the trailer but also shows how these two characters plan to help the younger protagonist.

This extreme close up of Star screaming "Michael they're coming!!" connotes to the audience that she is in peril and wants Michael to save her. As the audience you connote that Michael and Star team up to help defeat the vampires.

The Running:

Then comes a lot of wide shots of people running

As the audience, you connotes it's probably from vampires.

lots

and lots

of running.

With some screaming of the protagonists name, so you link this close up of the women to Sam.

Fast paced ACTION!!!

Fast paced action then comes into play, after fast paced clean cuts are throughout this running, the audience is then shocked by the diegetic noise of a vampire who's been burned in what we assume is holy water. This is accompanied by the comical faces of the frog brothers. This mixes the action horror of the film with comedy horror.

This scene also highlights the scary features of the vampires- and highlights who actually is a vampire in the trailer.

Not only does this medium close up show a vampire, but it also shows off the use of prosthetics within the film- which is pretty scary, especially for an 80's film (less is more I personally think when it comes to scare factor- and the Lost Boys definitely shows that scary, cool horror with good prosthetics rather than over the top CGI!!)

The use of big special effects to create drama is also shown throughout this fast paced editing

along side the subtly slotted in shot of the protagonists hiding their faces after the explosion, just before the scene cuts to David as a vampire, creates the illusion that those hiding in the previous scene are hiding from David's scary face.

This big close up shows the audience that David, is definitely a vampire. And a pretty scary one too. The use of key lighting from straight ahead and below really highlights his whole face and creates a rather creepy vampire, that the audience should be afraid of.

This is how the trailer footage ends too, leaving the scary vampire face of David in their head just before the title of the film is shown. This leaves the expectation that The Lost Boys will be an amalgamation of Vampire Horror with Action as well as Comedy too.

"Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire."