Analysis of Memento Website

Link to Website [also source of images]: http://www.otnemem.com/

I really like the Memento website, I think it works well as a website for a thriller. Firstly the website is backwards for Memento, which I think is extremely clever as the whole story works backwards from the end to the beginning - just like the websites name.

The front page doesn't really give much away, there is a picture of a burning book in a fire and a few links as well as the release date of the film.


Going into the main website (the pop-up window) the sound of a Polaroid taking a picture sounds and then a man talking says - 'the world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes does it?' which causes intrigue within the person viewing the website as to who is talking and what that means. Then the sound of a cry is heard before quite eerie music is played in the background. Actually on screen is a newspaper article about photographs and documents being left at a motel whilst the person who owns them disappears - the photograph includes a picture of a dead man/murder victim. The article gives a little bit of an outline of the story and also has links on specific words to sometimes text, sometimes images from within the film. All of this is to spark intrigue within the prospective audience so that they eventually watch the film.


By clicking on certain highlighted words you get extra information in the form of articles, notes and polaroids which are often cryptic. This adds to the sense of enigma and wanted your questions answered. For example when you click on the word 'local' a picture of a woman with the name Natalie underneath comes up, followed by further notes scribbled onto paper, invitations and also scraps of pieces of documentation. This raises questions of the link between the woman and the protagonist as well as the link between her and the documentation and why it has a post-it note addressed to Leonard from her on it. These questions are likely to make the person more interested in watching the film to find out these questions.



I think the website is effective in the way that not only does it do its job of advertising the film as of the thriller genre because it shows that it contains crime and the newspaper article creates suspense and enigma. You want questions raised by the article to be answered and for this to happen you have to watch the film. So I think this is a good piece of marketing.