Character Analysis

The Unknown cast list:

-          Protagonist, young girl called Annie (Played by Charu Abrol) – Annie is a young and fragile girl as explained within my analysis of Todorov’s narrative theory and is the main character within the film. The audience can clearly see that Annie is the protagonist within the film as she is continuously featured within the trailer therefore connoting to the audience that Annie is of some significance within the film. Moreover due to the way in which Annie is represented within the trailer through the help of the way the mis-en-scene to convey her, shows to the audience that Annie is in a fragile and scared state. For example, upon Annie’s arrival to the haunted house, Annie is represented from low camera angles therefore making her look weak which therefore enables the audience to connote that this girl is possibly going to be in danger. Moreover, within the house, little flickers of lights seem to unsettle Annie which therefore connotes to the audience that she is fragile and possibly scared of where she might be.

-          Antagonist, haunted spirit (Played by Ashwin Salhotra)- This enigmatic figure is represented to the audience as being mysterious and of some significance to the house in which Annie has decided to move into. In relation to the trailer, there are some cutaway shots showing this dark and enigmatic figure within the house with his identity however being hidden from the camera. Moreover due to this character being represented within dark clothing and surround with low key lighting, it connotes to the audience that this mysterious figure may possibly be the antagonist within the film. We had purposely decided to keep the identity of the antagonist within this film as hidden as the audience will be left in suspense as to who is the figure behind the dark clothing. Moreover many of my analysis and research conducted on psychological/slasher horror genre films had showed me that the majority of the antagonist’s within the films have their identities hidden from the camera during and trailers for example and tend not to be revealed until during the film hence why I had decided to convey this within my trailer in order to portray the common codes and conventions within psychological/slasher horror films and to maintain realism.

Extra’s:

During the creation of my trailer, I had originally included some extra cast members in order to aid and assist with the trailer of The Unknown. However after conducting my research I had eventually concluded that any inclusion of other actor’s/actresses may have diverted attention away from my main protagonist and antagonist within the movie itself. In addition, from researching psychological/slasher horror trailers such as Paranormal Activity for example, this trailer heavily relies on just single characters with an antagonist or just a minimal number of people within a trailer. I had discovered that using the very minimum amount of people within my trailer had resulted in greater emphasis of enigma and fear being portrayed from a single character as more powerful as it doesn’t divert attention away and also using just a single character allows the audience to interact and engage with the movie itself through everyone being their own individual. I believe that this had a greater impact upon the target audience and this can be further supported from feedback which I have received as a result.