Article created by: Greta Jaruševičiūtė
When we're deciding what movie we want to go to, we look at the names behind the productions, ask our friends for their opinions, and, of course, watch the official trailers. In fact, the latter influences the decision three times more than any other source.
However, what you see is not always what you get. Recently, in a post on the subreddit r/movies, Redditor u/sonofwelk asked cinephiles to name the films that they think turned out to be completely different from their trailers, and people shared a lot of interesting examples, reminding us to stay wary of marketing when purchasing our next ticket.
Downsizing
A modern comedy take on Honey I Shrunk the Kids?
No. A confusing climate change apocalypse movie.
I’ll answer this for my late mother, who I went to see Thelma & Louise with because she thought it was a wacky female road trip adventure comedy from the commercials. Wrong.
Stranger Than Fiction. The trailer included all of the comedy scenes from the movie and made it seem like it was a wacky story because it starred Will Ferrell. The movie is actually quite serious for the premise and Will Ferrell delivered a wonderful dramatic performance.
Click, thought it was another Adam Sandler goofball comedy where he could control time…bawled my eyes out the last 20 minutes
*Hancock* isn’t a drunk superhero like it seems in the trailer he is a drunk Angel. It’s weird.
Not trailer but I remember the bus advertising for Slumdog Millionaire in the uk tagged it as “the feel good movie of the year”. Yeah that’s a no.
Fight Club comes to mind. Obviously they wouldn’t give away the twist but the trailer made it look like just a bunch of guys who organized bar fights.
The Village. The trailer made it seem like a super natural creature flick. Turned out to be a period romance/ drama.
Once I got over not getting the movie in the trailer, I grew to love it. I think it’s one of the most beautiful movies I’ve ever watched.
Ad Astra looked like an exciting Sci fi movie, instead it was a boring Sci fi movie
The trailer for Godzilla (2014) was about 50% Bryan Cranston, who was super-popular after Breaking Bad. You'd think he was actually the protagonist, but if you watch the movie, he's only got a few scenes.
‘Nope’ - in a good way as it allows you to make some assumptions about the visual cues but whips several of them away when watching the movie.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
They made it look like a really cool rootin' tootin' cowboy shootin' adventure, when in reality it was a very slow-paced drama, and a character study on depression, paranoia, and obsession.
Turns out, that was just fine by me. It's one of my all time favorite movies, and I'd even go so far as to say it's a *perfect* movie.
Everything about it is just flawless, imo.
The casting, writing, acting, cinematography, the score (omg, the score...), it's just absolutely beautifully done.
Donnie Darko’s trailer looked like a horror movie.
Antebellum
The trailer manipulated movie footage to create the illusion of supernatural or sci fi elements. There was nothing like that in the actual movie.
For example the little girl in the hotel hallway was manipulated to look like a ghost in the trailer. It was actually just a normal little girl. The glitching airplane flying over the cotton field in the trailer indicated time travel or parallel universes, but it was just a normal airplane in present day. There was no glitching in the movie. It was a deliberate deceptive tactic.
It Comes At Night is the first film that comes to mind. It was marketed as a post apocalyptic horror thriller, but it’s actually a claustrophobic character study about paranoia. Still a great film, but it got a lot of hate because the trailer made it look like a completely different film.
The Happening. Marketed as a horror/thriller, plot twist, it is a deadpan comedy hiding in plain sight.
Sucker Punch
Age of Ultron had the trailer like set in grim dark world with the heroes are getting shattered. The movies is all jokes and quips.
