Personal trailer review 3: 28 Weeks Later

Name of film: 28 Weeks Later

Year released: 2007

Genre of trailer: Horror

Your mark (After viewing): 7/10

What happened in the trailer?

Six months after the rage virus was inflicted on the population of Great Britain, the US Army is brought in to help secure a small area of London for the survivors to repopulate and start again. This area is called District One and is declared completely safe. However the surrounding areas are not safe and the people are warned not to leave the safety zone. Tammy and Andy who are the children of Don are among the survivors who are sent back to London. They are curious as to what happened to their mother so sneak out of the safety zone and return to their old home which they lived in before the rage virus was first inflicted. They find their mother Alice who seems to have been bitten by the infected but has an immunity to the virus. The US Army bring Alice back into the safety zone hoping that she may be the answer to cure the rage virus. But not everything goes to plan. The rage virus quickly starts to spread within District one and the US Army try to fight it off killing all infected in sight. However they are overpowered by the infected and are ordered to kill all civilians. By the end of the trailer it seems that District One has become out of control so it is bombed killing everything that is there.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

- I liked the sound effects and bad TV editing effects used with each transistion, I think this adds excitement to the trailer, I'd like to use this in my trailer
- There is an effective use of collision cutting straight after the US sergeant orders the army to 'execute code red.' From here on the trailer is fast paced and the takes shorten in order to create a stimulating effect on the audience which would make them want to watch the full movie. I want to recreate this in my trailer as it is important to sell the movie.
- Lastly I liked the jumpy ending. This is one of the main focus points in my trailer I have worked on as I think in a horror movie trailer it is important to scare the audience and to make them shudder. I think it works most effectively at the end of the trailer especially when the audience doesn't expect it.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

- I think some people may think the trailer is a bit too long. When trailers are too long the audience doesn't take in everything as they loose interest whereas if the trailer was shorter the audience would be fully engaged throughout
- I think that the trailer definitely gives too much of the narrative away. Just from watching the trailer you know basically everything that is going to happen in the full movie. I think this spoils the surprise.

Conclusion:

Overall I think this is a good trailer which to the end is very exciting and would make you want to watch the full movie. However I didn't like the fact that there was so much given away in the trailer. An example of this is how you are shown that District One gets bombed at the end. When you go to watch the full movie you already know what is going to happen. I still think it deserves 7/10 though.