Generally, cult classics take a little while to really take hold of pop culture. Director Panos Cosmatos’ film Mandy, was essentially an already established cult classic from the moment it was released thanks to its absolutely incendiary visuals, genre-soaked aesthetic, and the fact that it features one of the most phenomenal performances ever elicited from the legendary Mr. Nicolas Cage.

And somehow, the first trailer for the film got all of this exactly right. It doesn’t go too deep into the narrative of the film itself, instead focusing on Cosmatos’ otherworldly visuals and Cage’s lead performance. It also certainly doesn’t hurt that it features a healthy helping of the late, great Jóhann Jóhannsson’s indelible score, which serves to heighten the horror, insanity, and beauty in every possible way.

Overall, it’s just remarkable how well this trailer captures the spirit of the film. It feelslike the kind of pulpy novel that Mandy herself loves to read in the film, lovingly embracing the worn-and-torn nostalgia in a way that feels wholly unique.

After years of anticipation, writer/director Drew Goddard finally made his big-screen return this year with his first proper Cabin in the Woods follow-up, Bad Times at the El Royale. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a trailer this year that feels more like it has the director of the actual film’s fingerprints all over it than the first trailer for El Royale does.

From the precisely executed visuals and editing to giving audiences scrumptious little morsels of the still-unbelievable ensemble cast delivering mere portions of the feasts of dialogue in the script, this trailer has Goddard written all over it.

It’s also remarkably well structured. The first half of the trailer devotes its time to establishing the setting, environment, and ensemble cast. The latter half of the trailer then ditches the upbeat music and lushly photographed daylight shots for something much more sinister, conveying that all is very much not as it seems at the El Royale.

The use of the crescendoing percussive hits in the last minute as Cynthia Erivo’s vocal rendition of This Old Heart of Mine soars over the top of them builds tension in an unexpected yet incredibly effective fashion, all of which comes to this gorgeous culmination with the full title reveal.

Also, any trailer smart enough to give audiences a look at a shot of shirtless, dancing Chris Hemsworth deserves praise.

After its longest period ever spent lying dormant, the Halloween franchise came roaring back to life in a big way in 2018. Blumhouse’s forty-years-later sequel had one of the best marketing campaigns of the year, which helped pave the way to its record-breaking opening.

While the first trailer was well-done and gave audiences an excellent first taste, it was the second trailer for the film that really delivered the goods.

Opening with the long-take of Michael simply walking through the streets of Haddonfield, going house to house and murdering anyone he crosses paths with was an absolute masterstroke. Sure, the argument could be made that it gives away perhaps a bit too much of one of the film’s greatest sequences, but in just the first thirty seconds of the trailer, it conveys everything an audience member needs to know about the film.

Jamie Lee Curtis’ voice-over surmises how this film will ignore all of the other sequels in just a few short lines of dialogue, the use of several of Carpenter’s original themes sells it as a love-letter to the original, and most importantly of all, the shot proves that Michael Myers is about to be truly terrifying for the first time in forty years.

The latter part of the trailer hammers home the notion that this is a decades-in-the-making culmination of the conflict between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, selling it as a must-see event. Also, at the 2:12 mark, the makers of this trailer actually squeezed in a shot of a man’s decapitated head brutally mutilated and carved up ike a jack-o-lantern and somehow got it past the censors. Bravo, folks.

First and foremost, trailers are just an extension of marketing. At their worst, they’re little more than blatant attempts at a studio screaming “come pay money to see this” at an audience. However, every now and then, a trailer will come along that will remind you of just what an art form they can be at their best.

The first trailer for director Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is precisely that kind of magical trailer.

It reveals practically nothing about the narrative of the film it is advertising, instead focusing on the sensory experience of watching the film. In putting Cuarón’s absolutely breathtaking cinematography on display with only a sparse soundtrack to back it up and absolutely no dialogue, the trailer is able to sell the film based on emotionality alone.

The music itself is also wonderfully articulate, as the slow-building crescendo of the organ and strings builds to a high-impact emotional breaking point, just as the title of the film is revealed. Roma, the film itself, is a gorgeous and staggeringly impactful piece of cinema that plays like poetry in motion. It is an incredible accomplishment that this trailer feels cut from the exact same cloth.

(Excerpt) Read More at: WhatCulture.com