Trailer analysis: 'Let me in'

Let me in is a film directed by ‘Matt Reeves’ and is produced by a British film company called ‘Hammer Film Production’, American company ‘Overture’ and many more. This film contains sub-genres of horror, fantasy and drama. This is a mainstream film as it had an estimated budget of $20 million.

As this film is not entirely focused on the genre of horror, the mise-en-scene (setting) is not located only inside a house. However, even when the scene takes place outside, it is mostly in an area with dark lighting such as the tunnel or the forest. During the first few scenes, the girl is shown to be wearing a skirt and bare foot, which is symbolic as it makes the audience feel if she is the heroine, who is shown to be vulnerable and often seeks help form the main hero. However, this is shown to be wrong as the girl is the stronger one as she expresses her power through her gesture, when she puts her hand on top of the boy’s hand. This already shows the audience the close relationship between the two protagonists. Both protagonists’ facial expression changes through the trailer. Their facial expression contrasts each other; the girl’s changes from warm and pleasant smile to dangerous and mysterious expression whereas, the boy’s changes from happy, confident (with the girl) to fearful and startled (with the girl). The girl’s father mostly wears dark clothes, foreshadowing he could be going to do something terrible. It also suggests that he could be playing the role of antagonist.

Moreover, the lighting of the trailer is dark as, mostly all the scene takes place at night time. The key light used in this trailer seems to be present in the scene such as the light from the street or the car’s light. However, filler light such as under lighting is used when the antagonist is shown to make the audience feel his evilness. High lighting and low lighting has been used in different situations. Mostly low lighting has been used when the girl is present in the scene to show that even though she one of the protagonist, she may be concealing her sins or her dark secret. On the other hand, when the male protagonist is alone in the scene, high lighting is shown to portray his fear and is defenceless without the girl.

In terms of sound, diegetic and non-diegetic sound has been used to narrate the story. Sound bridge has been used from the start of the trailer, where the principle talks about a murder and the scene shows a log shot to empathise how the school only have few amount of students to make the audience aware of the fact that, the location is of the area is isolated and probably in the outskirt. The use of a close up to a boy’s face shows how he is one of the main characters, possibly the protagonist. The sound bridge extends to another scene, where the murder took place. During the transition non-diegetic sound of a camera clicking is used to join the two scenes together, so that the scene could flow and make the audience aware that the principle was talking about that scene.