A Dogs Purpose: Horror Film

A Dog’s Purpose directed by Lasse Hallstrom is a fantasy/drama film that follows the story of a dog who is reincarnated several times until he ends up with his original owner. This film definitely falls under the umbrella of a feel good, family movie. We decided to recreate its trailer as if it was a horror film that could make even the strongest and fearless person scared of a chihuahua.

The first choice we made was to start the trailer in color and change to black and white when the scary and evil side of the dogs started to come out. This choice was made based on how older horror movies were made, like Psycho and Night of the Living Dead. The black and white gives the previously colorful trailer an eerie and lifeless vibe. The color change alone helped make this children's movie a lot spookier.

We used shorter shots when showing the dogs to confuse the audience. This way, there would always have something to look at but not enough time to completely react to what they just saw because the next shot would already be on the screen. By having these quicker shots, people aren’t focusing on the details in the shot as much. This gives a sense of urgency and suspense. Horror movies are known for being liked by “adrenaline junkies,” so that’s what we attempted to do with this. Some shots of the dogs were also reversed to mess with the audiences head. Even the slightest change, although not noticeable, could still catch someone's eye and be the shot that is remembered.

We also decided to keep the original song but gradually slow it down. This made it sound like the slowed down childrens lullabies used in a lot of horror movies. In general, deeper and more negative sounds increase the fear in people. The gong like sound that occurs when the audience first sees the dogs become evil is used throughout the trailer to bring the viewers back to that original fear of when they first heard it and didn’t know its meaning. We did the same thing with the line, “Maybe you should teach him some manners,” but instead made it come back in a more echoey sound so that it was like a memory. Having the change of shot on beat with this sound as well, connects what the audience is seeing and hearing. We added extra dog barks over top of the slowed down music to make the dogs seem more ferocious and gruesome because they originally were not. It makes it seem like there is more of a threat and something to look out for.