TRAILER COURT

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TRAILER COURT 11/23/17 - TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS (1983)

Since it’s Thanksgiving, I figured it was the perfect day for a turkey. Here, then, is the trailer for the Cannon Films 3-D extravaganza TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS...

This was the first 3-D movie I ever saw in a theater, and you can say what you want about it, but I had a blast. It’s dumb, derivative, cheap, and clunky, but it moves along at a great pace, and there are more fourth wall-shattering gimmicks here than in any ten modern “3-D” releases. The fact that I was 12-years-old when I saw it likely enhanced the experience considerably.

It’s also one of two movies I specifically remember my mom taking me to see (the other being STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK), and this being the first Thanksgiving since she passed away, it’s fitting that it’s on my mind this afternoon.

The trailer tells you pretty much everything you need to know about this over-the-top, rather incoherent action epic. A quintessential Cannon release, TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS is something for which I’m profoundly thankful.

-Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT BONUS - The “Other” Avengers, Part 3

If THE INCREDIBLE HULK proved that an Avenger could make the cut despite debuting in a lackluster solo film, and ANT-MAN proved you didn’t have to be “this tall” to ride the MCU rollercoaster, DOCTOR STRANGE demonstrated that there are no rules regarding the type of superpowers one possesses - or how imaginatively they are realized on-screen - when it comes to being one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Click on the link above for the mind-bending trailer to this most unusual MCU entry...

Doctor Strange has already popped up in one other film in the franchise (I won’t say which one, so as not to spoil it for anyone!), and he figures to play a major role in THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. With the introduction of magic and the other realities first glimpsed in this teaser, the MCU got a whole lot bigger!

-Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT BONUS - The “Other” Avengers, Part 2

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY was a massive risk that paid off for Marvel & Disney in a big way in 2014. So there wasn’t quite as much trepidation in the boardrooms of the House of Mouse when, eleven months later, they released the semi-comedic ANT-MAN. Still, an Avenger whose power is shrinking to the size of an insect could easily have become the laughingstock of the entire shared universe. Thankfully, as this trailer demonstrates, Ant-Man is a tiny hero who is more than capable of holding his own alongside the big boys - both in a fight, and at the box office. Click the link above to see the preview... ANT-MAN proved that the strategy of introducing a character in his own film and then later adding him to the Avengers roster still worked. Because of the film’s success, the silver screen’s greatest superhero team (perhaps ironically) just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

-Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT BONUS - The “Other” Avengers

In this series, I’m going to be showcasing the Marvel Cinematic Universe solo films of characters other than the “Big 3″ (Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor).

The first such film was 2008′s THE INCREDIBLE HULK, the second entry in the integrated MCU franchise. Click the link above to see the trailer...

Instead of reviewing these trailers, I’ll just let them speak for themselves. What I will say is that THE INCREDIBLE HULK is probably my least favorite MCU movie to date, but this excellent trail still makes me want to see it again.

Enjoy!

-Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT 11/15/17 - AVENGERS: INFINTY WAR (2018 - First Look)

After STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, there isn’t a more anticipated film in the world than AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, the culmination of ten years of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. With an all-star cast comprised of just about every hero introduced in the franchise since 2008′s IRON MAN (and possibly a few new ones), this figures to be the ultimate geek culture extravaganza. I’m on a bit of a Marvel kick lately, after seeing the magnificent THOR: RAGNAROK, so I thought this the perfect opportunity to look ahead to this epic release, via the “First Look” trailer.

Check it out by clicking the link above...

This kind of preview is different from the standard trailer. Assembled long before principal photography on the film is complete, most “First Look” trails focus on the behind-the-scenes aspects of the production. They show the cast & crew getting ready to begin their work, creating the sense in the viewer that just making the movie will be a monumental adventure... which, in turn, reinforces the idea that the film itself will be a spectacle beyond anything you’ve yet seen on the big screen. It’s a bit of a throwback to trailers & promotional reels of old, wherein the stars, the budget, the production time, and other behind-the-camera aspects of the enterprise take precedent over the story we will see on-screen when the film is finally finished & released.

This “First Look” is a doozy. We are told of the threat of Thanos. We’re reminded of the all-important central conflict left unresolved at the end of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. We’re given brief glimpses of what’s to come, mixed with reminders of everything that’s led to this point. We’re shown the Infinity Gauntlet. Above all, we’re given our first look at the various heroes of the MCU together on set. Seeing Robert Downey, Jr., Tom Holland, and Chris Pratt standing side-by-side and waxing enthusiastic about filming together is a treat for fans of the expansive franchise, who have been waiting for this sort of “everything but the kitchen sink” comic book movie since they picked up their first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man or The Avengers when they were kids.

As he does here, Kevin Feige is fond of reminding us that this sort of mega-franchise has never really been done before, and this advance peek at its most important chapter yet reinforces just how impressive it is that Marvel and Disney have succeeded in breaking that ground. There wasn’t much of the film yet to see when this trailer was released, but there’s enough information and enthusiasm conveyed in these 3:30 to make comic book nerds & movie lovers alike starry-eyed at the thought of the lights going down in the theater and this long-awaited epic finally getting underway. This is the sort of anticipation-stoking for which the movie trailer was invented in the first place. Excelsior, baby! Excelsior!

-Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT 11/14/17 - INVASION U.S.A. (1985)

Hate me if you like, but I’m a conservative, so I like violent right-wing fairy tales. I dig war movies, westerns, martial arts movies, and flag-waving, bare-knuckled action flicks. It’s not about racism or xenophobia, as some would have you believe, but rather simply about exaggerating real-world dangers to cartoonish levels so there is a clear cut distinction between the good guys and the bad guys. That way, the gun battles and kung fu fights provide a definitive catharsis which rarely happens in real-life conflicts. It’s not that I wish the real world was more like the movies. I simply enjoy venting those real frustrations in safe, satisfying ways that make facing the ugly world outside the theater just a little easier.

The 1980s was a decade of right-leaning comic book action at the multiplex, and no one kicked more ass or took more names for freedom & the flag than 6-time world karate champion Chuck Norris. Click the link above for the trailer to one of Chuck’s most famous, profitable movies...

I wish I could say the movie INVASION U.S.A. was as good as the trailer used to sell it. Despite having a great exploitation premise, a director known for unrepentant celluloid carnage, the incomparable Richard Lynch as the lead terrorist, and a whole bunch of Grade A Prime Chuck, the film is disjointed and uneven. We never get the sort of large-scale battle scenes we’re hoping for, and the final showdown between Lynch’s Rostov and Norris’ Matt Hunter isn’t big or bloody enough to really pay off after all the build-up. It’s a reasonably entertaining picture, but not the all-time trash classic it could - and should - have been.

The trailer, however, is magnificent. Showcasing the film’s best moments, it promises the sort of all-out anarchic spectacle that fans of RED DAWN and the DEATH WISH sequels dream about. The idea of a whole army of Russian, Cuban, and Arab fanatics intent on blowing up shopping malls & tract homes being thwarted at every turn by the blazing submachine guns & flying roundhouse kicks of a man so tough he was born in a log cabin he built with his bare hands is simply sublime. Based on the trailer, this shouldn’t have been a movie; it should have been a 19-film franchise that outgrossed every other film of the 1980s combined. If only INVASION U.S.A. could have lived up to the delicious promise of its hard-hitting preview.

But that’s often the way with movies this rich with potential for greatness. So Reagan-loving old farts like me will just have to be content with the brilliance of the trailer, and fiery, wistful daydreams of what might have been. 

-Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT 11/14/17 - BREAKIN’ (1984)

Music and dance are the two most powerful motivators of cultural change in America. Nothing moves whole generations to accept and embrace people different from them quite like the rise of a new genre of popular music & the accompanying dance styles which are born of its ascension. Rock & roll was just up-tempo rhythm & blues that that tapped into the primal urges which consume teenagers, and ultimately led white kids to question their parents’ dogged resistance to “black music.” When rock took a sharp detour in the early 70s, in large part due to the influence of drugs which began late in the decade prior, disco took over, and suddenly white people from all walks of life were embracing the fashions, rhythms, and flashy dance moves of African-Americans. Indeed, much of the vitriolic rejection of disco came from folks with the same sort of narrow-minded prejudices which fueled their parents to rage against rock & roll.

Then came rap, and the cultural wall came down once and for all. But it wasn’t the catchy rhymes of Grandmaster Flash, the hard beats of Run D.M.C., the gangsta angst of N.W.A., or the political fury of Public Enemy that really transformed the American music scene from two segregated worlds into a single, integrated one. Silly as it may sound, that achievement came as a direct result of the breakdancing fad.

I grew up in that era, and every kid - black, white, or otherwise - wanted to learn how to breakdance. In one fell swoop, with a single pop & lock, followed by a crazy head spin, white kids all across the nation suddenly, desperately wanted to emulate black dudes. Overnight, the inner city phenomenon called breakdancing was in the schoolyard, the gym, suburban streets, playgrounds, primetime TV shows, and, most important of all, the multiplex.

Click the link above to see the trailer for the definitive breakdancing film...

I won’t pretend that BREAKIN’ is a great movie, any more than any other dance movie (save, perhaps, the lavish MGM musicals of Hollywood’s golden age) is truly top-tier cinema. However, it’s an important film because it showcased this budding dance craze in a way which was inclusive, exuberant, and overwhelmingly positive. Here was a film that showed black kids and white kids dancing together without fear, a movie that debunked concerns that such unabashed cultural integration might lead to the end of the world. Indeed, here was a movie about a white girl trying to fit into a black world, but it wasn’t about sex, drugs, politics, or “wayward youth”  (the way such material would have been presented in the past); it was about artistry, free expression, and the joyful result of putting aside our cultural differences and coming together through dance.

I’m overselling it a bit, I suppose. It’s a silly little dance movie with some great moves & an uplifting tone, and it’s ultimately no masterpiece. But looking back on it now, I can’t help but acknowledge how exuberant & celebratory it is, and how that tone sent a message to young and old people alike that the world was changing for the better, via the power of dance & song.

The trailer brims with this energetic positivity. Its rapped narration and frenetic editing create the sense that the movie is a non-stop spectacle of dance moves the likes of which you’ve never seen before, while simultaneously giving you just enough of the FLASHDANCE-inspired plot to suggest it’s more than just an 85-minute music video. It’s hard to watch the trailer now and not feel compelled to revisit the film, despite the fact that I’ve seen it multiple times before and never considered it a favorite.

We’re still waiting for the next big revolution in music, in my opinion. Rap & the dance craze it spawned (then subsequently outgrew) have yet to be equaled in terms of transforming our culture. There aren’t many Cannon films you can look back on and say, “You know, that movie really played a role in shaping our world!” Great film or not, BREAKIN’ is one of those select few Golan & Globus productions, and this trailer is an effective, infectious reminder of that watershed moment in American history.

-Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT 11/5/17 - TOMB RAIDER (2018)

At the risk of alienating some readers, I’m not what most people think of today as a “feminist.” Oh, I’m a passionate advocate of equal rights, opportunity, and pay for women, and I’m very much looking forward to the day when the United States elects its first female President. I consider women not only equal to men in most ways, but superior to them in many. I’m not, however, the sort of guy who feels at all guilty for being a guy, or who thinks every movie must feature a strong, intelligent woman protagonist who routinely bests all the male characters or else it is inherently sexist. That sort of thinking is neither progressive nor pragmatic, and I’ve seen it ruin more than a few otherwise promising films.

But when comes to Lara Croft, I’m all about girl power.

With apologies to Gal Gadot and her fantastic Wonder Woman (easily the strongest character in the current DC cinematic universe), the Lady Croft is, in my humble opinion, the ultimate action heroine. Tough, resourceful, brilliant, sexy, and fiercely independent, Lara is the real deal. She is the female James Bond that filmmakers are forever expressing a desire to create. Screenwriters don’t have to “toughen” her up to even the playing field, because if they aren’t already writing her stronger and smarter than her male costars, they don’t really know the character anyway. Lara is legit.

Obviously, this point of view betrays a certain predisposition toward loving this trailer. I can’t lie and pretend that the mere thought of Lara returning to the big screen doesn’t make me a little doe-eyed and instantly smitten with the new Tomb Raider, Alicia Vikander. Feigning impartiality would be a foolish gesture here.

Still, this is a pretty damn effective preview, even if you aren’t already a card-carrying Croft fanatic - in large part because it looks very much like the 2013 video game upon which it’s directly based. That reboot worked because it dared to do something no TOMB RAIDER game had done before, which is tell the story of Lara Croft in a gritty, realistic fashion. Rendering its protagonist with greater emotional depth and a far more credible physique, it added layers to both a heroine and a mythology which were already tailor-made for the Silver Screen.

This trailer reveals that the new film, though replete with white-knuckle action, foregoes the CGI sharks and comic book cheekiness of the Angelina Jolie films, in favor of slightly more plausible set pieces, and a much more believable, fallible lead. Lara is still 100% badass (and there is still a sense of fun evident), but we also get the distinct impression that she isn’t going to come out of this adventure unscathed. A lot of it comes down to Vikander’s performance, which is well showcased throughout the 2:09 run time. She doesn’t come across as some manufactured, faux-feminist caricature, but rather as a real, flesh-and-blood young woman who also happens to be exceptionally intelligent and fully capable or taking care of herself. Or, to put it more succinctly, she is Lara Croft. And that’s really the whole point here.

At this point, audiences know what action movies look like. They’ve seen plenty of breathtaking stunts and colorful CG before. The success or failure of this particular film hinges not upon how big or visually stunning it is, but on how readily the viewer accepts Vikander in the lead role. Like casting a new 007 or Batman, casting the right Lara is 95% of making a successful TOMB RAIDER adaptation. This trailer exists primarily to dispel any and all doubts that Jolie’s replacement is up to the task, and it succeeds because Vikander quite clearly is, and then some.

- Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT Midnight Movie - MATANGO (1963) From time to time, I’ll be taking a look at trailers for cult films, schlock shows, and midnight movies here in the Court, and the first such preview is this old school trail for the 1963 Japanese shocker MATANGO. Click the link above to see how they used to do it, in the days of the drive-in...

If you’re not familiar with MATANGO, it’s Toho’s adaptation of William Hope Hodgson’s 1907 short story The Voice In The Night, about shipwreck survivors stranded on a remote island with nothing to eat but the indigenous mushrooms, which happen to be toxic. As the starving castaways succumb one by one to the overpowering urge to consume the poisonous fungi, they are driven insane and slowly transformed into fungus themselves. The studio that unleashed Godzilla and Mothra on the post-atomic world took this chilling tale and gave it a radioactive twist, making the dreaded fungi mutations born of nearby nuclear tests, and the afflicted humans’ final form stuntmen in mushroom-like rubber monster suits.

In its original Japanese form. MATANGO is actually a very creepy, atmospheric potboiler, with the solid cast going increasingly mad and turning on each other as they give in to their crippling hunger and partake of the lethal fungus. As the above trailer illustrates, however, distributors in English-speaking markets felt the whole concept of people becoming humanoid mushrooms was too silly for their audiences. So, as was the norm with Japanese monster movies in the pre-home video era, they slapped sloppy dubbed voice tracks over the original audio and sent out cheap prints to drive-ins and TV stations, with very little thought or effort (and even less money) put into marketing.

In America, the film was released as ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE. In other countries, it was called MATANGO: FUNGUS OF TERROR, or just MATANGO. In all of those places, it was treated with the same sort of contempt you see evidenced in this trailer, and largely ignored by audiences. Even today, years after the Japanese print received a quality DVD release here in the west, it remains an obscure, mostly forgotten film.

While the trailer showcased here does no justice to the genuinely chilling Japanese original, its old Hollywood histrionics, scratched celluloid, haphazard editing, and dreadful dubbing do make the bad movie lover in me want to grab some Doritos and a 2-liter of RC and watch a faded print of MUSHROOM PEOPLE on late night TV or VHS. No matter how thrifty or shifty the distributors of schlock movies were in the good old days, they knew how to pitch cinematic cheese like carny barkers peddling snake oil or tickets to see the two-headed unicorn.

Sometimes that’s how it goes with trailers. How the movie is viewed by the distributor determines what sort of promo piece you get, and that occasionally means you get a great bad movie trailer for a bad movie that, if the distributor had handled it properly, wouldn’t really be bad at all. And if that last sentence made sense to you, you’re probably in the right state of mind to check out MATANGO in its dubbed, daffy entirety.

- Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT 11/4/17 - IT (2017)

The most successful horror film of 2017 was Andrés Muschietti’s blockbuster adaptation of the beloved Stephen King novel IT. Despite a lot of lingering reverence for the rather uneven 1990 TV mini-series among genre fans, this stylish, emotionally powerful update set box office records for an R-rated fright film, and made Pennywise the Dancing Clown the most culturally pervasive horror icon of the year. That’s no small feat in a year in which Jigsaw, Chucky, Leatherface, and Annabelle all returned to the screen for more murderous mayhem. While the long-anticipated film adaptation of King’s THE DARK TOWER came and went like a wet fart no one wants to acknowledge ever happened, IT was scaring the living hell out of audiences, while simultaneously making them wax nostalgic for their adolescence. And it all began with a shudder-inducing trailer, which you can see by clicking on the link above... There’s really nothing particularly innovative about this trailer, in terms of technique or construction. Through much of its 2:33 run time, it’s the standard succession of brief shock scenes and ominous dialogue and text, broken up by quick cuts to a black screen. As the trailer progresses, the pace of the editing quickens, and the music becomes louder and more intense. In every respect, it’s a by-the-numbers modern fear flick preview.

It works, however, because the raw materials from which it’s constructed are so well conceived and executed. Muschietti’s film is beautifully photographed and rich in style, and the horror imagery on display perfectly captures the primal childhood fears which are the engine that drives King’s story. Especially smart here was the choice to open the trailer with a truncated version of the same scene which kicks off both the book and the film - little Georgie’s fateful encounter with Pennywise on a rainy afternoon. This scene is so important to the narrative that opening the trailer with it achieves the dual effect of setting the average moviegoer’s nerves on edge and reassuring fans of the book and the TV movie that this version is both competent and faithful to its source.

Also very effective here is the sparing use of Pennywise. Audiences had to see him to know how this version stacked up against Tim Curry’s (lest consumers chronically skeptical of “remakes” decide to skip it), but showing too much of him in the trailer might have diminished his impact upon viewing the film. The editor of this preview finds the perfect middle ground. This year’s model killer clown makes a few genuinely unnerving appearances in the trailer, but he isn’t so omnipresent that we’ve had time to get over that anxiety before the opening credits roll.

Created for and from a lesser film, this trailer would have been somewhat unremarkable. But drawn from this truly marvelous adaptation of one of King’s most revered tales, it’s a chilling preview that will have you turning on lights before you enter dark rooms, just in case your darkest childhood fear awaits in the shadows to devour you. This is one of those cases where the movie made the trailer great, and the trailer in turn made the movie a runaway hit.

- Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT Bonus - THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (Pt. 3)

By far, the most commonly raised complaint about modern movie trailers is that they show too much of the film, and you’d be hard-pressed to find one guiltier of this than the preview for the 2009 remake of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. This trailer shows us the entire plot of the film and bits of nearly every noteworthy scene. So complete is its sampling of the movie that it feels at times more like a complete short film than a trailer for a feature. It even climaxes with the film’s signature scene, in which father Tony Goldwyn exacts truly diabolical revenge on the murderous Garret Dillahunt. Click the link above and you’ll see what I mean...

As remakes go, this one is pretty decent. Oh, it has none of the gritty rawness or sleazy atmosphere of the original, and the crimes of this Krug and company aren’t nearly as sadistic or shocking. But the cast of the remake is rock solid from top to bottom, and the decision to emphasize the revenge elements over the horror is a wise one. It’s no classic, but it’s slick, entertaining, and respectful of the original.

The overstocked trailer would probably be the movie’s biggest liability, were it not for one totally inspired choice which renders it instantly effective - the inclusion of Taken By Trees’ cover of the Guns N’ Roses ballad Sweet Child O’ Mine. At around the 1:25 mark, the trailer shifts from the set-up to the pay-off, and the haunting track kicks in. From that point on, a rather ordinary, overly revealing trailer becomes chilling and compelling.

Music is often an integral part of a great preview. Like a catchy commercial jingle (because, let’s face it, trailers are commercials), a well-chosen pop tune in a trailer can become so closely associated with the film being promoted that the two works are forever linked in the minds of moviegoers. To this day, I can’t hear Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit In The Sky without thinking of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, despite the fact that the song isn’t even in the film. The same goes for I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and Deep Purple’s Hush. And so it is with Sweet Child O’ Mine and this perfectly serviceable update of one of the most infamous horror films ever made. Tonally, the song and the film couldn’t be farther apart. But joined seamlessly as they are in this surprisingly effective trailer, they feel like they were always meant to be together.

Undoubtedly, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT will be remade again someday, and some marketing executive will be faced with the challenge of creating a trailer as powerful and memorable as those used to sell the first two versions. I hope he or she remembers the importance of sound cues - music and narration - in undertaking that daunting task.

- Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT Bonus - THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (Pt. 2)

Click the above link to see the second, lesser known trailer for the 1972 cult classic THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT... While the infamous “13 Acres” trail reveals almost nothing about the plot or characters from this notorious film, this 2:00 preview comes dangerously close to showing too much. Not only do we see Krug and company engaging in sadistic acts of violence, but we also get glimpses of Mari’s parents discovering who their seemingly amiable houseguests really are & exacting violent revenge on them. Watching the two trailers back-to-back is a study in different approaches to marketing a movie. The first is all tease and taunt, the second a veritable highlight reel.

That said, this trailer still manages to convey plenty of guttural menace. The sinister narration isn’t on par with that in the other preview, but it’s still gravelly, intense, and exceedingly lurid. Whereas the first trailer implied horrors beyond one’s imagination, this one showcases in graphic detail the sort of real-life terrors which seemed pervasive in our society in the wake of the Manson family killings. Specifically, the narrator emphasizes in almost sarcastic fashion that Mari and her friend were “looking for a good time” when they ran into a quartet of murderous maniacs, employing the same tactics that previous generations of movie exhibitors used to scare parents about juvenile delinquency, premarital promiscuity, drug use, and rock and roll. Keep your daughters close, mom and dad, because there are predators everywhere looking to devour them!

In many ways, that makes this the more honest of the two trailers. LAST HOUSE is, after all, just a bloody rape-revenge fantasy, wherein the parents of a murdered teenage girl get to take out their rage and pain on the criminal miscreants who molested and killed her. The titular house is entirely incidental, save for the fact that it’s where most of the third act retribution takes place. Despite all the voiceover man’s tantalizing questions about what happened in the house, the clips included pretty much tell you what you’re in for if you buy a ticket.

Still, honesty isn’t always the best policy when promoting a movie. By itself, this is a very unsettling and effective preview. It’s certainly savage and salacious enough to make any red-blooded horror fan want to see the film. Compared to the other, more infamous trailer, however, it’s nowhere near as compelling. Even with the “It’s only a movie!” chant, it feels more like a re-release trailer than a first-run preview. THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was remade in 2009. In Part 3 of this Bonus feature, I’ll show you the trailer for that version of this vengeful tale. That’s coming soon to this blog! - Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT Bonus - THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT  (Pt. 1)

Take a look with me, if you dare, at the trailers for the 1972 Wes Craven-Sean Cunningham shocker THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and its 2009 remake. Before you read on, click the link above to see the first (and most influential) trailer for the original. To avoid fainting, keep repeating, “It’s only a trailer... only a trailer... only a trailer...” This seminal exploitation classic remains as divisive today as it was when it was first released, over four decades ago. To some, it’s a brilliant and brutal work of art, the ultimate in realistic screen terror. To others, it’s vile trash, so crass and unapologetic in its low-budget excesses that it borders on pornography. But horror aficionados and cinema enthusiasts in both camps tend to agree that, whatever you think of the movie itself, the trailer is an example of grindhouse marketing at its salacious best.

Of course, the film’s title really has nothing to do with its plot. The name proved fortuitous, however, in selling a film that Cunningham and Craven were having a very difficult time getting audiences to see. Previously known as SEX CRIME OF THE CENTURY, KRUG AND COMPANY, and (most bizarre of all) THE MEN’S ROOM, the raw rape-revenge chiller failed to generate any interest at all until someone came up with the final, now-legendary moniker.

Armed with this ominous-sounding new title and the “It’s only a movie...” tagline (borrowed from the ad campaign for Herschell Gordon Lewis’ COLOR ME BLOOD RED), Hallmark Releasing was able to put together one of the most chilling and unforgettable trailers in the history of cinema. The sinister narration, combined with the raw, documentary-like film footage (which shows almost nothing) and the jarring snare riff, fills the viewer with icy dread. In the best tradition of great horror trailers, this promotional short directly challenges everyone watching. Are you brave enough to see this uncensored spectacle of terror and violence? Can you handle it? And, just in case the answer is a resounding “No!”, the trailer offers you a helpful hint as to how to survive the experience, in the form of the repetitive tagline.

As brutal as the film is, and as revered as it is by some horror fans, it’s hard to argue that it truly lives up to the lurid promise of this marvelous trailer. “It rests on 13 acres of Earth, over the very center of Hell!” is a once-in-a-lifetime hook that sets the audience up for shocks even the most terrifying of movies would have trouble delivering. Despite the perfection of this preview, it would not be the only trailer used to sell THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT to moviegoers. See the second trailer for this iconic grindhouse epic in Part 2 of this bonus feature, coming soon to this blog! - Don Jeffrey Krouskop

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TRAILER COURT 11/2/17 - POLAROID (Release TBA)

The Weinstein Company’s POLAROID was originally slated for release on December 1, but was pulled this week in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. In addition to all the women Weinstein has victimized over the years, he and his idiot brother Bob continue to drag down hosts of actors, crewmembers, and other hardworking Hollywood professionals with their gross incompetence and criminal behavior. Their company has been losing money for years, but was banking on this high concept shocker to turn things around when word of Harvey’s despicable behind-the-scenes actions broke and shook the entertainment industry to its core. As things stand now, it’ s hard to say when - or even if - we’ll ever see the full film.

The trailer, however, shows a fair amount of potential. Click the link above to see for yourself...

Yes, the film is populated by pretty millennials you could swap out with the cast of any other post-2010 fright flick and not know the difference, and yes, the notion of a camera which takes lethal pictures is borrowed wholesale from a Goosebumps book (and, to a lesser degree, FINAL DESTINATION 3). But the footage seen in the trailer (directed by Norwegian up-and-comer Lars Klevberg, on whose short the movie is based) is suitably stylish and atmospheric. Cut together with the breathless machine gun pacing which characterizes most modern horror previews, these dark, well-staged scenes create a palpable - if admittedly superficial - sense of foreboding.

Making the bit where setting one of the snapshots ablaze results in the spontaneous combustion of its terrified subject the trailer’s centerpiece is pure marketing genius, as that looks to be the film’s most graphic, disturbing sequence. While cynical old farts like me might see the trailer and dismiss this as just another PG-13 programmer, it’s just the sort of slick, urban legend-centric promo piece that appeals directly to the movie’s primary target demographics - teenagers, adventurous preteens, and general audience members in search of relatively safe theatrical thrills.

Of course, thanks to that scumbag Harvey Weinstein, many of those teens may be adults before they ever get a chance to see POLAROID, and fear-philes hoping for a minor franchise to tide them over until the next big revolution in the genre occurs will have to look elsewhere. Even if the film itself never sees the light of day, at least we’ll have this promising (if not particularly innovative or groundbreaking) trailer to watch and wonder what might have been.

- Don Jeffrey Krouskop

[trailercourt-blog]

TRAILER COURT 11/2/17 - IT CAME FROM THE DESERT (2017)

Based on a popular 1989 PC game which pays homage to giant bug films of the 1950s, IT CAME FROM THE DESERT tells the story of a small southwestern town under siege by gigantic, mutant ants. Click the link above to view the trailer for yourself...

If the title wasn’t already a tip-off, the trailer’s opening riff on “Duck and Cover” safety films lets you know right up front what sort of film the producers appear to be going for here. While the original game was a more straightforward spoof of atomic age creature features, this one seems to be aiming for a blend of radioactive retro and PIRANHA 3D-style frat party hijinks. Whether writer Trent Haaga (a Troma alumnus) and director Marko Mäkilaakso (a commercial & music video helmer) can make that dicey mix palatable remains to be seen when the film is released in the US. Early word from the various film festivals and foreign markets where it’s already played is that it’s something of a mixed bag. The trailer itself is, unfortunately, a rather lackluster, by-the-numbers affair. It seems honest enough in tone, and it certainly showcases the production’s digital monstrosities and goofy humor rather liberally. Other than the aforementioned animated bits, however, there isn’t much to distinguish this from most other SyFy movie previews (save, of course, the absence of any recognizable D-list stars in the twilight of their careers). Indeed, the film’s most marketable element - the fact that it’s an adaptation of a video game - is not mentioned once. Apparently, there wasn’t time during all the dirt bike stunts and jokes about giant insects chugging whole kegs of beer to appeal directly to audience members old enough to fondly remember the game or the movies it lampooned. Even the one attempt at meta humor, wherein the lead actress talks about mindless action and a dumb plot making a perfect movie, falls flat.

On many levels, I’m the target audience for this movie. I loved the game, because I was raised on a steady diet of 50s monster-on-the-loose TV matinees. Despite my advanced age, I’m also plenty immature enough to appreciate the more salacious monsters-crash-spring-break approach to genre filmmaking, and I have no problem whatsoever with horror comedies. For all those reasons, I found this rather unremarkable trailer pretty disappointing. There are lots of giant bugs on display, but no jokes that really tickle, and no scenes of gratuitous gore or egregious T&A which indicate I’ll see anything in this film I haven’t seen done much better elsewhere.

- Don Jeffrey Krouskop

[trailercourt-blog]

TRAILER COURT 11/1/17 - JAWS (1975)

Welcome to Trailer Court, where I celebrate motion picture previews by reviewing new & classic film trailers for your enjoyment!

Movie trailers are an art form unto themselves, a separate and very different discipline from feature filmmaking. To sell audiences on an upcoming film, a trailer must convey the essence and allure of that film in a very brief span of time. Often, trailers are better than the films they advertise. So it seems a shame that we, as a culture, don’t take the time to recognize the amount of creativity and ingenuity which goes into crafting these all-important commercial mini-movies.

In this inaugural edition of Trailer Court, it’s fitting that we begin with my favorite trailer of all time, Universal’s harrowing, classic 3:20 preview for JAWS, the movie which invented the summer blockbuster.

If you’ve never seen this amazing trailer, click the link above right now, before reading any further...

JAWS is a sublime cinematic enterprise, a near-perfect melding of low-budget exploitation storytelling and big budget Hollywood production values, and this unforgettable trailer captures that combination flawlessly. The almost mythic narration is positively bone-chilling, while John Williams’ iconic score combines with rapid-fire editing and the film’s stellar performances to create the impression of a movie that, much like a Great White shark, grabs you and never lets up until the end. When the trailer concludes with the ominous urging to see the film before going swimming, you’re left feeling like you’re in immediate mortal danger, no matter how far away you might be from a large body of water.

One of the more interesting aspects of this trailer is how that iconic voiceover directly contrasts the real-world horror of a killer shark with the supernatural fright films which (beginning with ROSEMARY’S BABY) dominated the box office in the late 1960s and early 70s. The narrator speaks directly of God and the Devil, and warns that none of man’s “fantasies” of evil can compare to the reality of this bloody fish tale. In crafting this preview, Universal seemed determined to take a bite out of THE EXORCIST and the flood of imitators it spawned. Though Satan remained very bankable at the ticket window throughout the remainder of the decade, the industry-changing success of JAWS indicates they achieved that goal in no small measure.

Going forward, I will routinely examine whether or not a previewed film lived up to the promise of its trailer. In the case of JAWS, however, there’s no need for such analysis. It’s simply the greatest motion picture ever made, and that greatness is reflected quite clearly in its marvelous, terrifying preview.

- Don Jeffrey Krouskop