Opening with a MPAA-authorized 'Red Band' notice it is clear that the following trailer will be packed to the rim with over the top gore effects, if the title and its connection to the already established dark comedy splatter franchise hadn't already given that impression. The full length trailer to 2013's 'Evil Dead' opens with a short scene in which Jane Levy's character of Mia urges her brother to "...get me out of here" as a flurry of creepy sound effects, such as thunder, creaking doors and loud bams (between almost every shot) build to the trailer's first title card. Each word, 'From the producers of the horror classic', appear in quick succession accompanied by a series of heavy beats, setting a precedent for the remainder of the trailer which utilizes this technique to great effect throughout. The continuation of this statement, 'Comes a new vision', tells the audience that while this semi-reboot of the series is in familiar and capable hands there will a manner of innovation that brings the story to 21st century cinema. A rapid flash of incredibly graphic images, so quick they're pretty much indiscernible, sets the scene for the middle section of the trailer in which the plot is established through character dialogue but more clearly through the title cards that, while frequent and relatively large in number, do not feel excessive nor forced and only add to the dark atmosphere of the trailer. The tagline of sorts, 'Once you unleash evil...It will consume you', engages the audience by addressing them and treating them as if they are involved in the action of the film, as if they, themselves, are trapped in the cabin with the characters. The manner in which Mia's dialogue, in which she says "I think - it's in here - with us - now, is edited into fragmented sections with flashes of footage and sound in between, is an excellent way to build tension, with the very next shots heralding in the onslaught of bloody gore that will dominate the rest of the trailer.
Todorov's 'Theory of Narrative' can easily be applied to the structure of this trailer. The opening minute throws head first into a disrupted equilibrium, in which the Book of the Dead has been opened unleashing evil spirits upon the main characters, and only at the one minute mark have Mia's friends recognised this disruption as she goes on a full out frenzy on them, vomiting gallons of blood and one of the male characters confesses that he "...released something from that book...something evil". The attempt to repair this disruption occurs around the one minute thirty point when he resolves that they're "...going to have to kill her". The rest of the trailer, of course, does not depict the reinstatement of the equilibrium, per se, as they would just spoil the events of the ending, so instead the last forty five seconds are a non-stop barrage of clips that showcase the film's impressive practical effects from moments across he film, with Mia's evil voiced line "You are all going to die tonight" signalling the start of this sequence. What they have done interestingly with the soundtrack is that it pauses momentarily for key lines and more importantly screams and shots of limbs flying off bodies and characters driving chainsaws into other characters, showered in blood. This and the syncing of the screams to the music that gradually escalates is a powerful way to both terrify and stimulate the trailer audience.
The 'Evil Dead' trailer, in the manner of many trailers today, employs the technique of showing a short scene following the appearance of the film's title, which here is sound tracked by a series of short lyrics by Mia, in her zombie mode. The lyrics, "We're gonna get you...not another peep...time to go to sleep", while creepy enough are heightened by her playground-rhyme like way of singing, a common and familiar yet still powerful trope of many horror films. The final word "sleep" is edited slightly to give it a sudden ending, before the trailer cuts to the very final bit of footage in which Mia takes a blade to her tongue and slices it in twain before giving another female character a full on disgustingly bloody snog, with the sound of the latter's disgusted gagging in the audio, helping to repulse the audience. This last scene is a highly successful attempt to upstage all the other goriness that had come before, while also potentially drawing in the male crowd even more than it had before by depicting two girls locking lips, even as foul as the scene and Mia's face is. Following that, beneath the release date of the film are the words 'Become a Deadite' with the Facebook and Twitter logos adjacent - presumably some sort of way in which fans can be involved with the film's viral marketing campaign by sharing the trailer or something along those lines. Overall, I think this is generally a very well produced trailer for a film of any genre, though it is most admirable as being one of the horror genre due to its reluctance to simply drag out long scenes of the trailer for tension with a disappointing pay off and instead just going full out - which is what the audience wants, and fortunately, gets.