The Last Exorcism, directed by Daniel Stamm.



TRAILER.

An establishing shot of a desolate house looks daunting and a stereotypical place for a horror movie to be set, straight away revealing the genre of the movie to the audience. The narrator talks about ancient exorcisms, the devil and demons, as he talks about this the camera pans across various ancient scriptures and shot of him seemingly meditating. The text “Ivanwood, Louisiana 2009” shows up on screen, this adds a time and a place to these events making it seem more realistic for the audience. A long shot of a burnt down mobile home makes the area seem dangerous. The text “Reverend Cotton Markus has performed over 47 exorcisms”, shows the audience that he has experience and wouldn’t get scared easily. Another establishing shot shows a nice white country house with a expensive looking pick-up truck in the front garden, this shows they’re wealth and suggests happiness, also the shot reveals that they have no other house in close proximity. The text “This will be his last” come up on screen, this is a blunt statement meaning to shock the audience. A long shot of the father and daughter cuddling show how close they are. A close-up of the girl crying shows how much this has affected her making the audience sympathize for her, the camera very briefly changes to black and white which indicates evil foreshadowing the events to the audience. Text on the screen names Eli Roth as the director, he is known for making good horror films and is synonymous with the horror genre henceforth having a pre-determined audience.  A long shot of the outside of the house shows that it is dark, which is conventional for horror films. Fast cuts show the girl through a red filter, showing her to be evil. A montage of action is shown in a very short amount of time, most of it through a red filter, all of it with low key lighting, for example it shows things such as, the girl crawling on the ceiling, the reverend looking frightened, the girl pulling at her skin and the girl bending backwards in an impossible position as if she is possessed. All of these shots in a short space of time is meant to frighten and shock the audience. The title of the film The Last Exorcism shows up on the screen.


GENRE.

The genre is obviously horror; this is shown through many stereotypical and conventional themes of the horror genre.
PLOT.

Not a lot is revealed about the plot, but enough to give the audience a firm grasp on what they are going to see.