Typical Mise-en-scene of horror film trailers

Lighting

The lighting scenes in horror film trailers are usually all low lighting scenes with one character in the setting, having dark scenes makes the film more scary as the audience know something's going to happen and makes them have fear for the characters, dark scenes are usually more frightening as it’s the fear of the unknown, in the trailers above there is one main light which just shows the character face and not the surroundings which makes the audience focus on their facial expressions to try and see how the character feels, the darkness adds power to the antagonist as they can see the character but they cant see them which makes the character vulnerable as the antagonist can have power over them.

There is usually a prop in each horror film which leads to something happening, the screenshot on the top left is a chandelier which just suddenly drops in front of one of the characters randomly, this scares the audience as you think you'll see someone but instead the object drops nearly killing the character which adds tension as the audience realise how powerful the antagonist is and what they are capable of doing, the object in the right hand corner is an old object the lady found in the house from who previous lived there and as she looks in the mirror part a figure appears in the reflection, the prop is usually used to start the horror film so the reflection of the figure shows the audience that there is something daunting in the house, again with the video camera when you watch old clips you could see people/figures lingering in the background which made the character and the audience aware of the antagonist just by using the film camera. Props used as a start to introduce the antagonist in the film or for the character to become mindful of them

costume

Most of the costumes characters wear are simple and day to day clothes because the characters are normally family members in their house not expecting anything to happen, they are dressed in normal clothes, the antagonist is like a black shadow which hides their identity, in some horror films you never see the antagonist as they are a ghost or spirit.

setting

The settings used in horror trailers are all similar and are mainly all set in houses, the reason most settings are set in houses is because its where you are meant to feel most safe and it creates more of a daunting atmosphere for the viewers as it makes it more realistic, most of the trailers showed a long shot of the house where typically a family would be staying which made it obvious to the viewers this is where most of the film would be taking place. Typically there is something in the house and when a family moves in is when something happens. Most of the houses used in the trailers are old fashioned, these type of houses are normally excluded and alone and old fashion houses don’t have up to date security and normally they have hidden pathways or doors which adds to the suspense of the horror films when the family finds these hidden parts of the house.

Body language + facial expression

All of the facial expressions from the trailers either have a frightened look or a concerned look on their face, this is typical in a horror trailer as the characters know something evil is going to happen and cant do anything about it, most of the images are close ups or big close ups to show the audience how the character feels and shows how terrifying the situation they are is in which makes the audience scared for the characters, having these facial expressions make the audience more intrigued in what's happening in the film and makes them feel more scared as they know something is going to happen just by the characters facial expression