Postmodernist theory - Funny games trailer

                                Funny games Trailer – Postmodernist theory

The postmodernist point of view would say that this trailer knowing the rules break them down and does the unexpected in an unknowing way.

Referring to the Funny Games trailer they attempt to distance themselves from structuralism as there is no form of genre. Ferdinand de Sassure says that a society must use semiotics (science of signs) to explore the structures within a culture for society to be culturally constructed.

The trailer demonstrates this in many ways such as the mise en scene, lighting, sound, setting, characters, paradigms etc.

The setting starts off with a family of three moving into a beautiful house in the day time. This is deliberately done in the day time to set a jolly setting. They also play an opera cd in the car which sets a happy setting. This is a torture, and starts the setting totally opposite to the theme.

Mid way, the music stops to create confusion and the young son says seriously ‘mom there’s someone here’. It turns out to be a kind young gentleman who one of the ‘villains’ and is shown to live next door and politely makes his way in. The music that introduces the villain, is jolly and mysterious .This is where a paradigm shift is used; the ‘kind’ villain is amazed by the golf kits and suddenly uses it to hit the father and breaks his leg, unexpectedly. This is when the pace of the music starts to get faster.

The villain makes a bet, ‘by tomorrow morning you’ll all be dead’. He then sings “inee meeni mini mo” choosing who to kill first. This again is done unexpectedly; a song is used to pick who to murder as if it’s a joke. This shows that there is no genre or structure to the trailer.

At the end of the trailer, the pace of the music increases even more. One of the villains says “you shouldn’t forget the importance of entertainment”, this plays with the ‘bricolage’ of the film. Most to the time the villains are calm and smiling/laughing, on the other hand, in other typical horror films the villain would tend to be angry, evil and mean. This trailer does the opposite which plays with the construction of the film.

There are many tone cards in this trailer and doesn’t just use words related to horror but uses positive words too. This can be referred to the postmodernist theory as there is no structure of the tone cards. 

• -        The game is simple                       -   Savage
  -        Pick a family                                   -   Extreme
  -        Pick a victim                                   -   Evil
  -        Darling                                            -   Magnificent
  -        Dangerous                                     -   Mysterious
  -        Wicked                                            -  Brutal
  -        Wild                                                 -  Brilliant
  -         Sensual

The tone cards are purposely used starting with the same letter twice which is very interesting as it shows contrast. For example darling and dangerous are completely different and shows how it can be nice and it can be horrible.