There is a clear indication that the film is of the horror genre at the beginning of the trailer, due to the nervous feeling when the man walks into the apparently abandoned house. His facial expression suggests fear and therefore there will be something scary in the house. Confirmed by the appearance of the ferel looking children, who themselves look very scary and actually quite powerful due to the way they are above the man looking down on him. The shots at the beginning of the trailer are all slow and dissolve into one another, this is a classic horror technique used by many producers to lure the viewer into the trailer and to gradually build the intensity of the trailer.
The trailer explains how the two girls had been found and had no parents for five years. This instantly makes the viewer side with the children and sympathize for them. The adults in the trailer are trying to care for and get the children back to having a normal life however there is a common theme that they are being haunted my something called "Mama". The repetition of the word Mama itself is quite important in the trailer as it shows there is a connection between the children and the thing thats haunting the "family", which eventually turns out to be the mother of the children in the trailer.
The speed of the trailer gradually increases along with the intensity and how scary it becomes. As "Mama" becomes more haunting and scary they trailer quickens. Another important element of the trailer is the music which accompanies it, at the beginning of the trailer, the music is quieter and slower however as the intensity increases, the speed of the music increases and becomes more apparent and loud, this is to build the atmosphere in the trailer and indicates important parts of it. For example when the music builds up at 2.01 and climaxes at 2.05, then suddenly stops, it makes that moment very sinister and frightening. It also allows for the dialogue "Mama stop you promised" which asks questions in the readers mind, such as; What is Mama doing? Why is she doing it? who to? and it suggests she has done this before. Which adds to the horrorific feeling of the overall trailer. This is followed by a quick shot of a scared man with some sort of demonic figure leaning over him, which is very scary for the audience.
Throughout the trailer there is little information given to the audience about Mama, there are however clues about her existance like how the girls draw pictures of the wall, some of which are quite disturbing and it looks like a man being possessed in the way he is bent over backwards. There are also clips in the trailer showing this, like the woman in the kitchen and a figure of a man under the bridge. This is scary as it shows that Mama puts others in danger and people are made vunerable because of her presence.
There is a voiceover in the trailer which tells the viewer some information, like how the girls were in the wilderness alone for 5 years and there are also short title sequences giving information about the film. These are quite scary as they are made to look like a blank wall with a growing black substance attached to it, they are very dark and look quite sadistic, meaning even when there is a break in the clips of the trailer, the horror element is still present which is important.
Finally, one important part of the trailer is the actual name of the film "MAMA", which is shown right at the end of the film, this is another typical horror technique used by horror producers to leave the audience with the name of the film stuck in their head. The name of the film is followed by the words "A MOTHERS LOVE IS FOREVER" which is very scary as it suggests Mama will haunt whoever is with her daughters forever and there is no escape from here.
Overall the trailer is very effective as it leaves the audience with questions in there mind, the main one being, will the family be able to escape MAMA and how will they do it? The speed and intensity of the trailer is very important as it raises the horror elements and makes the overall trailer very shocking and scary.
Kieran Browne
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