In the darkened corridors of a ship in space, a woman runs, electrical tones scream, and lights flash and glare in an uncomfortable strobing effect that overwhelms the senses. The visions get quicker and more chaotic, to the point that you can’t see what’s happening, but you can feel something. Feel something almost primordial. Whatever is happening, it’s violent. And just when you can’t bear it anymore, the visions suddenly stop, and all you’re left looking at is a tiny ship drifting its way through space. And just as you gather your senses enough to wonder what you just witnessed, a phrase appears.
In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream.
What I’ve just described is a stunningly well-made, artfully executed short film. It’s also the trailer to the beginning of my favorite science fiction saga, Alien. The Alien trailer has a funny legacy, often recognized as one of the most, if not the most, iconic trailers ever made, and it wasn’t for an event film or a long-standing franchise. This was for something new, and it got people talking.
These days, it can be hard to find such a trailer.
Now lets be clear. There are moments of trailers and ad campaigns today that do go viral and for all the right reasons. But as a general statement, a lot of ad campaigns have come to seem far too formulaic, even dishonest about the kinds of films they are advertising. Today, trailers at times seem like an afterthought by distributors, and that’s a mistake. As seen from Alien and a great many other classic films, trailers can be just as artistic and unique as the films they are advertising. Such trailers get word of mouth going, and that’s still the most powerful advertising of all.
A good trailer should first and foremost make you want to see the movie. That is a given. But a trailer at its core should also be honest about just what kind of film it is inviting the audience to see. The best ad campaigns ultimately deliver on their promises. Alien, for instance, may not have shown its titular creature. That unanswered question was one of the things that enticed viewers into theaters. But what it did do was capture the feel of the movie with its sudden violent assault on the audience’s senses.
Compare that to the trailer for something like Halloween Ends. Halloween Ends has become an unlikely film in that it ranks as one of my favorite films released this decade, and to me ranks as one of the ways to do a legacy sequel in a fresh and interesting way. I’m aware not many share this appreciation of the film, but there is absolutely something that my detractors and I can agree on.
The trailers for Halloween Ends were not very good, and they didn’t accurately convey what the movie was about. Halloween Ends is a slow, contemplative movie about the emotional scars suffered by the lead characters. The trailers instead promised a standard slasher movie building up to an action-packed finale where Laurie and the Shape would face off in explosive fashion. The trailers showed something that the movie unquestionably was not, even going so far as to include a lot of material that was ultimately cut from the film, making for an even more confusing experience for first-time viewers.
Now, why would the trailer for Ends not be accurate? Well, some would argue the movie itself was so bad that they had to sell it with a trailer of false promises. I would argue it’s because Halloween Ends is such an unconventional movie, and the studio, rather than lean into that as part of their marketing, instead tried to hide from it. And so we were left with a slew of generic, bland trailers that seemed to be trying to check boxes rather than sell what the audience would actually get. What a lot of people forget is that trailers themselves can be creative endeavors, as creative as, say, crafting a poster or a book cover. Those are also forms of advertising, and shouldn’t advertising itself ascribe to providing a look into your own unique brand?
That’s another thing about a lot of trailers that seems to have been lost: a sense of uniqueness. The idea that they are operating with the same language as the movie they’re meant to sell you on. Instead of doing that, however, a lot of trailers instead seem to blend together, which in turn means the movies themselves also blend together.
One of the worst ever ad campaigns I’ve seen for a film comes for a little thriller called Of Unknown Origin. Take a gander at the trailer, and it will look like a standard possession thriller about a family besieged by malevolent forces from a world beyond. Another knock off of The Exorcist. But the movie is not a supernatural film at all. Of Unknown Origin is about a man trying to kill a large rat that has invaded his home. Now imagine if you saw a trailer for such an absurd premise about a man who is trying to kill a large rodent and is going through increasing extremes to get the job done, leading to a slow but very recognizable mental unravelling. I imagine that would look a lot more interesting than, say, another rip-off of The Exorcist. As a result, this hidden gem ultimately got lost in the shuffle of early 80s horror flicks.
Compare this to the trailer for Psycho. In the early 60s, audiences were treated to director Alfred Hitchcock exploring the set of his latest film, taking the audience on a tour of the crime scene. However, just as he was about to get to the most juicy parts of the story, he would get squeamish and move on to the next room. Humor like this left people curious, wondering just what could get the master of suspense so riled up. The end result was sold-out ticket sales for the movie.
Sometimes audiences will want something that is comfort food, so there is a real advantage to promising something familiar and cozy. From an advertising perspective, that absolutely makes sense. But one of the reasons a brand is able to survive is because they offer something you can’t get anywhere else. That’s what brings people back. Something they can’t get anywhere else, or at least something done in a unique enough way. The difference between on-brand and off-brand. Looking at many trailers for the last decade or so, especially major releases, it can be very hard to tell some of them apart. An action film trailer from one studio will run in a similar way to something from another. And the disadvantage becomes all the studios are advertising the same thing. And the stories themselves start to look no more unique than fast food products. The lack of effort on a trailer can make it look like an afterthought, and that lack of effort can, and often does, adversely impact how the audience will see your film.
Trailers can be, and have been so much more than just a title card, a clip show and some dates. Trailers should advertise a story, be like the poster or the cover of a book. Try to capture the essence of what you have. Tease them with what the larger story holds and leave them wanting more. Wanting to see how the story turns out. A good trailer should not try to look like everyone else on the market. Because you do that, you won’t elicit the same head turn from your audience. Show them something unusual? They’re more likely to take a look.
