Film Trailer Analysis

The Girl on the Train - Film Trailer

This movie is about a Commuter named Rachel Watson who catches daily glimpses of a seemingly perfect couple, Scott and Megan, from the window of her train. One day, Watson witnesses something shocking unfold in the backyard of the strangers' home. Rachel tells the authorities what she thinks she saw after learning that Megan is now missing and feared dead. Unable to trust her own memory, the troubled woman begins her own investigation, while police suspect that Rachel may have crossed a dangerous line

The opening scene in this trailer starts off with dialogue with one of the characters, she only says a one-line sentence, without us knowing who she is addressing and not giving away too much. From the beginning we learn that this character is quite promiscuous as the trailer shows her in many sexual scenes. The trailer then shows an Establishing shot of one of the character’s house letting the audience know where the action is being set so already the audience gets a sense of the characters surrounding making us think the film may be based around a family. The main characters are introduced at the beginning of the trailer and we get a sense of what roles they play, who they are and how they relate to the story being told.


This trailer uses Intertitles throughout in an effective way as it tells a brief story of what the film will be about/ what it will consist off. Alongside showing shots/scenes of the action taking place to match the intertitles. For example, one Intertitle says “At 4:36 PM” and other says “A woman disappeared” showing scenes of those particular moments in the film. The music being played at the beginning is quite subtle, it has a soft tempo feel to it as it plays in the background which sets the mood for the audience. The music matched the different scenes being shown in trailer at the beginning. Though towards the middle of the trailer the music starts to build up, building a climax which captivates the audiences interest making us want to know what's going to happen next. Towards the end the music is quite fast paced and a bit more upbeat, building a crescendo effect. The use of the montage effect in a non-linear order towards the end of the trailer is very effective as it draws the audience in. The shots/action are fast paced which emphasises the genre of the trailer – Thriller, it keeps the audience on their toes, ready for what information they might be given next or whether they will be left with a cliff-hanger.

The trailer ends on a cliff hanger with one of the main characters being questioned by someone the audience cannot see.  "Why are you here?" They ask her and see responds saying "Because I’m afraid of myself" this automatically makes the audience think and question what exactly is it that she could be afraid of. The shot used in this scene is a close up shot, we can only see the character’s head - to her shoulders meaning that the audience is unable to see her surroundings. This will make the audience want to know where she is, what’s her reason for being there and who is she talking to? The audience is cut off from everything else in this scene which indicates that our full attention should be on her.

At the ending of the trailer the music stops suddenly to hear the dialogue from the main character clearly suggesting that this could be an important scene in the film. The sounds of the characters surrounding are then amplified, they have used naturalistic sounds e.g. the sound of the trains passing and the sound of birds flying in the sky. This allows the audience to step into the world of that character’s reality. The music then continues and goes back to the same tempo that it started off with in the beginning. Which again sets the atmosphere for audience.
The production company of the film is displayed right at the beginning before we can see any action. This film was produced by Universal and DreamWorks.  The Directors name and a quote about the film - “Based on the Thriller that shocked the world” is also displayed in the trailer. This is good because it shows the audience who has produced the film and if they have liked previous movies that have been produced by that company house or director before then it is most likely that they will be interested in this movie also.


The transitions used to jump to one scene to another were effective in this trailer. They were either straight cuts or blackouts, they helped build up the tension and suspense in the trailer. The movements/gestures of the characters did the same also as they were quite subtle to start off with e.g. the woman rocking the baby back and forth in her arms but then as the trailer progresses the movements got bigger, along with the sound. E.g. the woman running and the scene where the man pulls the hair of a lady from behind.