The Shining Genre Analysis

In class we have watched The Shining original trailer, and then a recut in which the genre has changed completely. It goes from a horror film featuring music to build tension and the main character manically laughing and running around with weapons to a romantic comedy style film with the main character fostering a child and writing a book. This huge change in genre is does purely through editing.

Both clips begin with lots of short clips from the film which are played one after another, but not to quickly as the audience will be able to clearly understand what has happened in that clip. This could be done to set the story for the people watching and give them a sense of the type of film this will be. This is done with the music heard in both trailers, as in the original trailer the music is incidental and eerie, creating an ominous feeling to the dialogue the audience hears. The recut, on the other hand, has upbeat and almost comical music behind the commentary.  The voice in the original trailer is that of one of the characters, and while the parts of the film that we see on screen changes this voiceover continues over the top of it. This helps confirm to the viewer that this is a horror film, as it is a scary story and the viewer sees the main character with an axe, which mirrors what the commentary is saying. This tells the viewer something is going to go dramatically wrong, and that something is not quite right about this character. In the recut, the person changing the trailer has created his or her own voiceover to aid the storyline he has created. This voiceover is cheery, and introduces both the main characters. This straight away removes any mystery surrounding the character, which is created in the original trailer, and therefore makes it clear this genre is less dark.

In the recut, there is then even more upbeat music and it gets louder as clips of the father and son together are played. This created a feel-good feeling to the trailer and shows that this film will be based on these two characters and their relationship. In the original trailer, the cuts begin to get shorter and introduces other characters, the main characters family, which creates alarm for the reader who has just heard that the last man who lived there killed his family. This implies where the story is going to go and what is going to happen. The music also increases in volume as this happens, which creates more tension and fear for the reader.  

The selection of clips shown is also a huge factor in how genre is created as the original trailer shows blood and weapons in a quick montage at the end of the trailer, creating fear in the viewer as they hardly have time to process what they are seeing as the quick cuts almost mirror their increasing heart beat as the fear and excitement grows. In the recut, the speed doesn’t necessarily increase, rather a montage of clips showing humorous situations and the characters being happy together are shown, which furthers the idea that this is a romantic comedy style film and will end happily. In both trailers, the name of the film then appears on screen, however in the recut there is happy pop music in the background, while in the original trailer there is a sting of music as the climatic sequence of scary scenes ends. This if followed by the main character hysterically laughing to the camera, breaking the forth wall and making the reader feel involved in the film, which heightens the fear they feel, and then there is a short shot of him putting an axe through the door.  In comparison, the recut simply ends as it does not aim to shock or scare the viewer.