Movie trailers are an essential part of any movie going experience. More than telling us what the film is about, the trailer gives viewers a sneak peek of the tone, pacing, and direction of the movie. For larger franchise movies and shows like in the MCU and in the Star Trek universe, dissecting trailers for hints and Easter eggs is a beloved pastime for excited fans. Some people even get to the theater early to watch the trailers, as it feels like an important part of the overall experience.
Movie trailers are meant to excite potential viewers and encourage them to watch the film. Trailers play a key role in helping audiences determine what movies they will spend their dollars on. Unfortunately, some trailers can be misleading or represent only one aspect of a complicated story. Even if the movie is good, sometimes a poor advertising campaign can stunt its progress; sometimes, movie studios believe a film might not be profitable unless they edit a trailer which makes it seem much more exciting or different from what it really is. Whather we like the film or not, here are some of the most misleading movie trailers.
10 Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
The original trailer for Sweeney Todd focused on the film's dark story about a barber out for revenge. Although this was true to the plot, the trailers largely left out one of the film's most important elements: that it was a musical. Rather than portraying the movie as the dark satire filled with Stephan Sondheim's brilliant music, the trailer made Sweeny Todd look like a serious revenge story. Some people argue that the musical is well-recognized enough that including the music in the trailer was unnecessary. To their point, the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movie did go on to earn millions of dollars, critical acclaim, and praise from audiences. The film's earnings didn't seem to suffer from its interesting marketing choices.
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9 Hook
Today, Hook is remembered as a classic family favorite, complete with Robin William's endearing performance and a touch of fairy-tale magic. Although we love Hook for its light-hearted adventure story, the original teaser kind of made it look like a slasher film. It focused on some of the more creepy and suspenseful elements, like a door slowly creaking open, a flash of green light, children screaming, and Captain Hook's most memorable feature. While these elements may frighten young children early in the film, most of the movie is heart-warming and far from the suspenseful horror film this trailer made it out to be.
8 Suicide Squad
This 2016 film changed directors so many times, the overall vision for it may have been lost along the road from trailer(s) to release. There were different trailers for Suicide Squad, containing up to three different songs ranging drastically in tone (from Bohemian Rhapsody to You Don't Own Me), and with different styles for each trailer. This made it difficult for audiences to know the film's true intentions. Unsurprisingly, the film struggled to live up to the contrasting trailers between a gritty superhero flick and an upbeat comedy. Trailers also seemed to show the Joker as having a pivotal role at the center of the film, and many viewers were disappointed when the Joker's part was so brief. Even today, many people prefer some of these misleading trailers to the actual full-length film.
7 Frozen
Early marketing for Frozen used a 90-second short of Olaf and Sven fighting over a carrot (Olaf used it for a nose, but Sven presumably wanted to eat it). While the short tells a funny story, and was generally well received, it did not show anything about the film's main characters, or give any clue that Frozen was a Disney Princess movie with catchy songs (or indicate anything, really). Thankfully, right before the movie's release, a plethora of TV spots and trailers featuring Elsa and Anna put Frozen on almost every family's must-watch list. According to Screen Rant, Frozen raked in $1.27 billion, making it the highest grossing Disney Princess film to date (with the sequel alone earning $1.21 billion).
6 After Earth
Trailers for this movie lead audiences to believe that After Earth would be an exciting sci-fi film headlined by action star Will Smith. Unfortunately, the film contained less Will Smith and more of his son, Jaden. While Jaden's performance received mixed reviews, most critics agreed that the young star struggled to fill the shoes of his father's reputation. To add insult to injury, After Earth shows a slow journey across the planet's perils and not the intense action chases that the trailer promised.
5 Bridge to Terabithia
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Trailers for this film made it look like a fantastical children's story about two kids finding magic in the nearby woods. While the children do imagine a magical world in the woods, this is not the focus of the film. Instead, Bridge to Terabithia is an emotional drama that grapples with serious themes about grief. While the movie remains a family film, it acts more as a conversation piece and a sad tragedy than a light-hearted child's fantasy.
4 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lead actor Jim Carrey is well-known for his comedies. Maybe that's why the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind trailers seemed like a wacky romantic comedy about a couple falling in love, set to snappy jazz music and the peppy upbeat sound of the song Mr. Blue Sky. Instead, the movie is about this couple erasing their memories of each other, and the pain of broken hearts and regret. Jim Carrey shows off his serious acting skills in this film rather than his unique sense of humor, as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind asks heavy questions about the value of memory and sadness. The movie is less of a comedy, and more of a brilliant but tear-jerking thought experiment that leaves audiences wanting more.
3 Drive
Trailers for Drive show Ryan Gosling taking on high speed car chases and exciting action sequences in a Fast and the Furious-like plot. However, a lot of this film actually focuses on a thought-provoking drama. The main character struggles to protect those he cares about the most and suffers from an ethical dilemma of sorts. Drive is more than the mind-numbing action films that the trailers advertised. The script contains a complex plot that viewers will want to pay close attention to, and the hyper-stylistic aesthetic of director Nicolas Winding Refn focuses much less on action and more on slow images, dreamy music, and slow-burn tension.
2 Edge of Tomorrow
Today, this film has a very loyal cult following, but its original trailers confused away many viewers. The Edge of Tomorrow trailers contained slow, weird, and dramatic music from the band Fieldwork that made the film appear as a soulful and thought-provoking experience. The trailers also focused on the romance between the two main characters; while romance plays a small part in the movie, it is not the story's main focus. The Edge of Tomorrow actually turned out to be an exciting and very funny action adventure movie about a man who travels back to the beginning of the day when he dies. Even though the film may have some deeper thought-provoking themes, it is primarily a fast-paced action-adventure flick with epic battle scenes, a surprisingly humorous Tom Cruise, and great science fiction elements.
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1 The Grey
Here is another advertising campaign that made a quiet drama look like an action adventure film. The Grey is often described as sounding like "Taken with wolves." While there are some suspenseful elements in the film, The Grey is far from the action-packed Taken and more like a slow man-versus-nature movie, akin to All is Lost. A crew on their way home for vacation crash in a storm, and must battle the cold, wolves, and injuries to make it back to civilization alive. While the intellectual questions raised in the film are still fun to watch, it is not the fast-paced action film the trailers depicted, and might actually be a haunting, meditative allegory for suicidal ideation.