Back within the mass celebrations of 4th of July weekend, I went to see The Purge : Election Year. As I settled within my seat, popcorn in hand, I awaited the upcoming trailers. See, I'm a huge horror movie fan and this is time where most of the September/October movie trailers bless us with their presence. Within it was two minute and thirty three minute coming attraction for Ouija: Origin of Evil. (I may have lost you there because the first one left much to be desired).
Everything was going well - it gave us a loose basis of the overall story which is set years before the original movie, but then around the minute mark, we get scary images galore. Something is very wrong with Doris, the little girl who will be the medium in this movie, but it looks as though all of the "jump scares" were shown within a minute. Even an small scene that shows a stair crawl that we've seen in horror movies over and over again.
Now, let's look at the recently released trailer for "Rings" which is a prequel to the two prior American adapted movies. It counts down the entire seven day curse and what happens to Matilda Lutz's character within that time frame. What intrigue do we have about this movie? As an avid horror movie fan and a person who has invested in The Rings franchise (both American and Japanese counterparts), I will go see it, but my expectations are a little lower.
With movies today, for some studios, the trailers are made by a completely separate company. In retrospect, trailers have become mini-movies of some sort. Are these doing more harm than good? There's a tightrope like balance that you have to consider when you make a preview about your upcoming film. With horror, especially in an age where if one thing works (found footage movies, I'm looking at you) studios are inclined to repeat the same formula over and over again. These movies usually have a small budget and can make their money back easily.
As seen with earlier horror films like The Conjuring 2 and Lights Out, we got a sense about the movie, but there was still room to be surprised and in some cases, frightened. If a magician tells me how a trick is done before they do it, yea, it may look cool, but the mystique is gone. It's the same mystique that modern day horror films are having a constant tug-of-war with. My suggestion is to give us a tiny morsel of what's to come and let our imagination do the rest. The more we wonder about the possibilities on how we can be scared, the better reception to the upcoming movie.
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