Analysis of 'The Hills Have Eyes'

The trailer for this horror film has many traits in it that coincide with the conventions of a horror genre. Immediately we see this as the beginning of the trailer informs the audience of nuclear tests in the deserts of New Mexico in 1945-1992. Straight away we can connote the beginning of a creepy nature to the film. The use of setting, being a desert. This is conventional as it is somewhere isolated and enables a community, if present at all, to be cut off from the rest of society. Not only does this allow an opportunity for anti-social behavior, but the fact that the the setting has a 'past' allows it to return. This can be in the form of a threat that was once removed returning, or in this case, having the past revisited by outsiders of the setting.
A main theme that is conventional in other horrors, is the idea of 'science being out of control', or 'playing God'. The use of nuclear testing has mutated lifeforms in that area, including humans, causing a hoard of demented killers, who seem to know no other way of life. This first became a theme in the horror genre through the film adaptations of Mary Shelleys' Frankenstein, the most famous being James Whales' adaptation, with Boris Karloff starring as the monster. The idea of a failed artificial life experiment that produced a monster became a major theme in the horror genre, and many films have been produced based on that idea, such as 'Flatliners' and 'Jurassic Park'.
The conventional character types are evident in this trailer include the 'monsters' with a hidden secret, or that have been made psychotic by an earlier event, in this case being the nuclear testing. Reasons for this kind of character type is that the monster seems to be completely deranged beyond repair, so much so that they almost lose any kind of identification from the audience, and are a mere representation of evil, rather than a character that can be related to. By doing this, it becomes a lot scarier, as the boundaries of their malevolence are non-existent. Also necessary and conventional of a horror genre, is the character of a 'final girl', the main protagonist thats a victim as well as a hero, made famous through the slasher films, such as Halloween.
The main theme that is presented through this trailer is 'Science out of control', the opening credits talk about the use of nuclear bomb testing and how it's essientially mutated any life form that is born. This is a key concept in horror as the reason why it's so scary is that it doesn't necessarily seem impossible, and that it's man-made.
Technical elements that make this horror trailer scary is the use of the siren sounds at the start, this is a well known sound that is scary because it meant the beginning of an air raid, a real and horrific situation. The start has footage that is old, showing that an event happened in the past (return of the repressed), and we see that in the same place, a shot it used to turn the desert from old broken film to new modern good quality film, showing that it is being revisited. The increasing pace of the film reiterates the intensity of the horror, and the final credits 'The lucky ones die first' is blunt and shows that death is a better option than enduring this horror.