Narrative Enigmas In Trailers

By Noor Naoum

What are the narrative conventions?

• Narrative conventions depend on whether the movie/sequence is linear or non linear. If the movie/sequence is linear then it follows a chronological order

• Looking at a horror vampire will commonly be seen as a non linear sequence due to the tension and the pace. The non linear sequence supports the editing of the trailer.

What is narrative structure?

• The movie “Dracula” comes in a non linear order due to the fact that within horror vampire movies most of the time there's intense scenes which require a flashback or even a flash-forward.

Fright night is also a movie which is in non chronological order due to the flashbacks within the movie.

What unrestricted structure is there?

• The horror vampire trailer establishes some of the characters depending on the scenes being shown but does not give away the full storyline or allow us as the audience to understand who is on the victims team and who the bad ones are. This will build on the enigma and draw the audience more into wanting to watch the rest of the film.

What are the enigmas the audiences left with?

Horror Vampire Enigmas:

• Where all the vampire story starts from

• Who is the good and the bad?

• When the vampire attack will occur?

• Who will survive the attack?

• Will the vampire stay living or banish?