Deconstruction - Unfriended

Deconstruction of 'Unfriended' Trailer

As the concept for our film is based around the Internet, I have decided to deconstruct the trailer for Unfriended,  film which is centred around Skype. There are not many examples of horror films based on the Internet, but Unfriended is a recent and popular film. Another example of a similar film is 'Friend Request'. 

The trailer begins in a positive tone, explaining parts of the Internet which make it beneficial to society, which will contrast to the events later in the film. It plays happy sounding music, contrapuntal to the genre of the film while showing videos of exciting moments such as a graduation and skydiving. It has the video bar at the bottom and typical sharing options at the top to reinforce the fact it's based around the Internet.

It shows a title saying "Online, your memories last forever" before a quick montage of different videos in different windows is shown, and the music comes to an end, suggesting that the mood is about to change. Another title then shows saying "But so do your mistakes". Further titles then begin to share some background information to give the film more context, along with some glitches which are a common element of horror films. 

In the background, Skype notification noises can be heard which are very familiar to most people so may allow them to relate to the film. A lot of footage of the teenagers on video call can then be seen. The whole trailer is filmed as though a screen is being recorded, to emphasise the fact that this is taking place in the digital world. 

Throughout the trailer, various eerie sound effects and music can be heard which often grow quiet at times and the notification noises can be heard over it. If watched on a computer, viewers may mistake the noises for their own notifications. Many error sounds are also played, suggesting that something bad is going to happen. When the mysterious person says "Lights out" you can see in the video call everyone's lights turn off. This references how things that happen online can affect real life. 

Throughout, their calls are going glitchy and jumpy which may make the audience jump as anything could appear when the glitch ends. At the very end, the dead girl can be seen saying "this is going to be fun" which contrasts to what is seen in the trailer. 

I think some elements in this trailer would be useful in our own, particularly the idea of experimenting with mixing real footage and parts filmed actually online.