Soundtrack Research- Used in films

   The Cabin in the Woods

In recent years many horror film trailers have started with some cheery music such as the film 'You're next'. This film involves happy non diegetic music while on screen people are being attacked and murder which contradicts each other. This contradiction creates an eerie unnerving atmosphere as the music implies that what is happening on screen is positive and a good thing, which it is not. This upbeat music is sometimes followed by and leads into creepy, normally slow paced and high pitched, music. In The Cabin in the Woods the trailer starts with a popular pop song, this mirrors the mood of the college students, reinforcing the realism of the scene. This has been done to emphasis the contrast in moods between the beginning and the end of the film. The rhythm and upbeat of the pop music gradually decreases and develops into dark slow paced music which has random snippets of a high pitched tones; this adds an individualistic style to the dull music. This music then progresses into the sounds of something ticking or counting down complimented with action music. The music then becomes more intense which contains loud, quick paced and low pitched sounds thus creating suspense and tension.  The music again changes to a rock/ screamo genre of music, this will attract an audience who enjoy this genre of music. Therefore through the use of pop and screamo music they would have attracted a broad audience.

The Purge
Again the purge used the new stereotype of using a piece of actual music, although classical music a lot of the time it comes across as creepy as the music they chose was calming and soothing when horrible event are occurring on screen. Later on in the trailer it becomes a bit darker however throughout the music it sounded a bit like music used in an action movie trailer due to the upbeat and heroic tune. This made it seem more sophisticated compared to most horror films. The use of sirens and digital sounding noises makes it seem more than a horror film therefore could bring a broader audience due to the mix of genres. The church choir music which is very slow paced makes the characters look like heroes due to pureness within the voices of the choir. The ambient diegetic sounds of screams and weapons contradict the calm non-diegetic music in the background and mirror the mood of America before the purge and now.

Deliver Us from Evil
for the first half of the trailer there is a very slow paced, quiet and eerie piece of music played, this builds up tension as the audience will be waiting for the scare big factor to be reveal. Whilst the slow paced music there are pauses within the music therefore breaking up the rhythm of the music, creating suspense due to the jerkiness generated. For some of the second part of the trailer there is use of a fast paced beating sound which gives the impression that something is going to happen, this is a contrast from the slow paced music from before. This use of fast paced music makes reflects the tension and the fear which would be present within the trailer. Ranging the tempo of the music keeps the audience on each throughout watching it. This could be ideal and effective to use for our trailer as it would create the same suspense technique which is very effective as it would appeal to horror fans, our target audience