Warning: This Trailer Contains Massive Spoilers
The title of this post should be used as a disclaimer for some trailers these days. Film trailers are an art form. The best trailers can and should elicit feelings of need from the viewer. The NEED to see that film on the first day it’s released. Or in some cases the NEED to stay as far away from that particular film as possible. Whatever the case may be, the trailer does its job by making the viewer feel something. However, when it makes you feel like you don’t need to see the film because the trailer showed you everything, that’s a completely different story.
I’ve said it before. I do my best to remain as spoiler free as possible. Especially if it’s something I really really want to see. I’ll watch trailers, but I try to limit it to the first, maybe second trailers for any film. I stay away from clips and I never read reviews prior to seeing and reviewing a film myself. Once I view a film and write about it….only then will I read what others had to say. The reasons are quite simple. I. Don’t. Want. To. Know.
Two trailers have come out recently that have pretty much spoiled their respective films. As much as I hate basing an opinion on a trailer, I can’t help but think that’s sort of the point of trailers right? You watch them, you think one thing or another, and formulate an opinion on if it’s worthy of your $10. These two trailers don’t do much at all to hide what’s happening in their respective films.
Let’s examine them shall we? The first trailer is for The Double. This film is about a retired CIA agent who gets called back to duty to work with an up and coming FBI agent to track down a Russian assassin. Here’s the trailer:
Now do you feel like you need to see this? I’m sure the trailer doesn’t tell the entire story but it sure does seem like it does. We know Richard Gere’s character is this Russian assassin. We know that Foreman…sorry, Topher Grace’s character figures it out and there will ultimately be a showdown between the two. I have faith in writers Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, to pull off something awesome, but the people in charge of this trailer need a good lashing. What happened to mystery and intrigue? All the suspense deflates when you show it all in the two-minute trailer.
Speaking of suspense…..that brings me to my next victim. The second trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 was release last week and I really really wish I had stuck by a one trailer per film rule. The first trailer for this was pretty damned creepy. It was simple and effective, showing a tiny bit, but hinting at so much more. It helps that we have the first two films to draw from as far as possible plot goes, but seriously, it was a pretty simple, well-executed trailer.
They decided to follow that one up with a second trailer, that shows ENTIRELY too much. This one disappoints me even more than the trailer for The Double. Paranormal Activity is a horror franchise. It’s sole purpose is to scare you, make you jump, then make you all freaked out later that night when you’re laying in bed unable to sleep because you keep thinking about it. Then you just decide to get up, grab a snack, hit the couch and watch TV until you fall asleep but then just when you’re on the precipice….yes I just used the term “precipice”….of sleep, your mind inevitably makes you think you heard something coming from the basement even though you don’t have one, and you think you hear rumblings in the attic even though it’s just a small crawl space that’s on the other side of house but you’re certain that knocking noise is coming from outside. It turns out it’s just the ice maker but you’ve worked yourself up into such a frenzy that you need to call your mom at 3:19am to calm down. And mom being mom, talks you down off your horror-movie induced ledge, and tells you not to worry, that it’s just a movie. You feel better and finally go back to sleep. I’m not saying that’s happened to me, but I’m sure someone somewhere has felt that way. That right there is a sign of a good horror film.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand….the latest trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 shows so many scares, I can’t imagine what they saved for the actual film. It’s really a shame too, because I was really looking forward to this one. I have to stay away from the found-footage type films because that style of camera work gives me a terrible headache and I spend more time staring at the floor than I do looking at the screen. However, this franchise keeps me coming back so that says something. Please Paramount….don’t ruin for us by showing everything before the film is released. Check it out to see what I’m talking about.
That’s a whole lot of scares to give away in just under 120 seconds right? I remember the days where you saw a trailer at the theater, and maybe on television here and there. These days we’re saturated with teasers, trailers, teasers for trailers, clips and loads of other things. It’s next to impossible to stay spoiler free as it is, much less remaining so when the studios are cutting together trailers like these. It’s especially hard staying spoiler free when you write about films on a regular basis. But this is a goal I shall continue to work towards. I’ll try to keep this site as spoiler-free as possible and when I can’t, I’ll at least warn you beforehand. Studios should do the same.
Tags: Paramount Pictures, Paranormal Activity 3, Richard Gere, spoiler warning, spoilers, The Double, Topher Grace, trailers
