Movie Trailers Ruining the Movie Going Experience

Having seen the latest trailer for 'I am Legend' with the extremely likable Will Smith, I was disappointed to see that the film studios continually feel the need to essentially show all the films' cards ahead of time.

Let me explain. The trailer begins promisingly enough with our hero coming to terms with perhaps being the last man on the planet or at least in New York. This is followed by some ominous music; a few visually arresting sweeps of Manhattan's deserted skyline and then segues into some Wild CGI zoo animals running amok. Lions, Tigers and Eland.....oh my! I'm presuming these are escaped zoo animals as they appear to be of the African Plains variety. Our heroic 'Will' is in survival mode. Keeping himself fit, armed and with his dog in tow you certainly have a sense that it is him (& his dog) against the world. More ominous music leads to an equally foreboding image of our hero's apartment door with unsettling noises coming from beyond it and the implication that there are nastier things outside than just the Wizard of Oz menagerie lurking in the streets.

Instead of leaving us with an 'Oh, what could it be?', 'I'd like to find out!' sort of feeling, leading to our amassed butts being applied to movie theater seats across the country in breathless anticipation waiting to actually watch the movie, we are instead given quick successive glimpses of the aforementioned 'nasty things' that were only hinted at earlier. Rather than go into detail as to what these nasties are, just in case anyone reading this hasn't seen the trailer I submit that in doing this the trailer completely derails the initial enthusiasm and interest I had in the movie. You can see pinpoint crucial moments in the movie in quick succession so that when and if you do eventually affix your rear to a $12.00 Cinema seat you will likely experience little or no surprises as the movie progresses. You know 'Will' will get chased at crucial moments in the film because the trailer showed you. The Climactic and shocking chase scene is no longer a shocking climactic chase scene as it's been played out numerous times on your living room screen.

There's a lot of psychology I presume that goes into the making and editing of a movie trailer in this day and age. You want to maximize the films marketability but it could be said that it might benefit the studios that make these trailers to leave us wanting more instead of expecting less. Why am I going to see a movie that's virtually second hand after all the trailers have given away plot twists and visually impacting scenes of terror and suspense. The same goes for 'The Mist' another in a string of dodgy 'Stephen King' adaptations. Here is a perfect example when not knowing what is in the mist is in actuality the crux of the entire story and the thing that supposedly makes it exciting/thrilling. Instead (and again) we are shown exactly what is in the Mist and that intangible fear that excites us from not knowing is taken away.

I remember watching trailers for 'Alien', 'Jaws', 'The Fog' and 'Close Encounters' back in the early/late 70's. The trailers back then were much more subtle. The Monster/Alien/Cute Aliens etc. weren't shown up front and the implication was that these images would be so remarkable and exciting that you would just have to pay up and see it in the cinema.

Certainly these movies continue to make money but I can't help but feel that in some circumstances they would fare even better if they left us with a tiny sliver of unease when it comes to Horror/Thrillers. That sense of excitement that comes from the not knowing, that off-kilter sense of fear and dread that comes from experiencing new, unique and viscerally exciting cinema which is only really effective when you see it for the very first time on the big-screen.