My personal favourite thing about this film is the style in which it is filmed, and the effective scripting and acting. As an audience the characters are presented as extremely like-able, and so we sympathise deeply with them.
DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg developed an interest in turning the novel into a film as he felt that very few films actually dealt with the loss of a loved one.
Though not a horror film, it does deal with very sensitive issues, and there aspects of the thriller genre to it. For example there are two notable "chase scenes" which are incredibly tense for the viewer. In the first , Susie's father chases after her murderer in a corn field, the corn is so high it is almost like a maze. We are willing him to find the murderer but the scene reaches its climax as he accidentally lashes out at the wrong person- an innocent teenage girl who's in the cornfield with her boyfriend. As a result, her boyfriend brutally beats him, not understanding that it was all a mistake. There is also chase scene towards the end of the film as Susie's sister breaks into George Harvey's house in order to find evidence against him. From downstairs, he hears her push down on a floorboard and desperately runs upstairs after her. She manages to escape with less than seconds to spare through a window. These chase scenes are so cleverly filmed that they do reflect similarities to chase scenes and violence from horror films.
Editing is an integral feature to the film. This is because special effects are used to portray the "in-between" version of Susie's heaven. Graphics show impossible scenes , such as a giant ship in a bottle crashing into the shore. Or Susie dancing on a giant music record. The vibrant colours here are also heavily reflective of the 70's time period in which the film is set. The "in-between" represents what Susie is seeing, sometimes it depicts her happy in heaven, sometimes the setting is miserable, such as when her family are arguing or upset.
The trailer itself lasts an average trailer time of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
It opens conveying the life of a typical teenage girl, lusting after a boy, reading vogue, and going to high school. This displays the normality, an equilibrium. The disruption of equilibrium occurs at around the 30 second mark with the abrupt dialogue, "I was fourteen years old when I was murdered." As an audience we are not expecting such a blunt statement, which suddenly distorts the whole tone of the trailer. Especially after such light piano music has been softly playing in the background. A camera sound shortly follows along with the shot flashing against plain black, giving the effect of a snapshot being taken in time. The following shot of the crime scene around the cornfield reinforces the tragedy and seriousness of the event. A short series of lower piano notes then follow, making the tone more solemn.
The dialogue of "she's gone", followed by "what if she isn't?" begins to clarify the supernatural element to the genre. This is closely followed by a ghostly shot of Susie running past and screaming, appearing ghostly and unreal, then fading away. The diegetic dialogue of "I wasn't gone. I was alive, in my own perfect world," makes it clear that the story features Susie living on despite her murder.
The trailer then changes tone again with the dialogue, "But I knew it wasn't perfect, my murderer still haunted me." This implies an ongoing issue with unanswered questions, and the repercussions of such a horrible act. The coming scenes of Susie's dad communicating with the police officer show that the film will focus on finding her murderer, and seeking justice. The line "you have a tomb in the middle of your house," and scenes of family conflict also show that on a more sensitive level, it will portray the difficulties of dealing with such a tragedy.
The shots of George Harvey ( the murderer) in the car late at night surrounded by darkness do resemble certain horror aspects. The image is scary as he appears to watching through the car mirror to see who is in the street behind him. The image of him stood in doorway which appears to lead down to a cellar in complete darkness is also scary, these help us to see him as a frightening character, a threat.
In terms of target audience, I think this film was originally aimed at an older audience. Older adults who have children are likely to be interested in a film which deals with such a loss, and are far more likely to be able to relate to it. Also as the film is based on a novel aimed at adults, it would make sense that the target audience would be around the age bracket of 25-45. However after doing my own research, I have since found out that the film was extremely successful when it began to instead target a 13-20 year old female audience. This is likely to be the result of the main character being a 14 year old female.
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