The Trailer Park: Treats or Tricks?

Tis the season for blood-curdling screams, buckets of gory guts and a thick air of spine-chilling creepiness. Well, we’re not technical there yet, but with summer quickly coming to a close, it’s time to start preparing for the spookiest time of the year with trailers for the latest horror movies.

‘Victor Frankenstein’

I’m a bit of a fanatic for anything ‘Frankenstein’ related, from Mary Shelley’s original classic and its modern interpretations to comic books and collectible figurines. Every time I hear or read about another attempt at retelling one of the most wildly imaginative stories ever told, my interest is immediately piqued and I’m compelled to watch it no matter how bad it may actually look.

With that said, the preview for this latest reimagining, told from the perspective of Daniel Radcliffle’s Igor, a character never created by Shelley, leaves me rather torn. From a script my Max Landis, director Paul McGuigan (‘Lucky Number Slevin’) seems to be imitating the style of Guy Ritchie’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies. I may not be very excited to see this, but knowing my obsession with the material, I’ll likely give it a watch in theaters anyway.

‘The Witch’

I absolutely love horror movies about frontiers-people, a very tiny subgenre including titles like ‘Eyes of Fire’ and ‘Ravenous’ but we unfortunately have very few of. The trailer for this one is utterly fantastic. My anticipation is raised all the more after reading glowing praise from this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

It looks like the sort of movie that slowly builds suspense and eeriness to the point of being nerve-wracking, which is my favorite type of horror! Hell, even the few glimpses we’re given already create a disquieting atmosphere that’s sure to make audiences scared of what’s hiding in the shadows. Robert Eggers makes his writing and directorial debut here, and if he actually delivers on what the trailer promises, he’ll be off to a great start.

‘Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension’

By this point in the franchise, I’m sure everyone will agree that the ‘Paranormal Activity’ series is more nuisance than spooky, like an uninvited guest that always shows up at your front doorstep to dull your Halloween festivities. The movies are also starting to make the found-footage gimmick seem unimaginative and trite. And yet, the filmmakers behind this surprisingly successful franchise manage to attract audiences and occasionally deliver just enough creepy scares to be passably entertaining.

This sixth installment looks to continue the tradition with a few eerie moments, but it’s not enough to raise my anticipation. I’ve never paid to see any of these movies in the theater, so I know for sure that I’ll continue my tradition of waiting until this flick arrives on Blu-ray

‘The Final Girls’

Just for fun, here’s the trailer for a horror comedy because part of the Halloween tradition is having just as many laughs as scares.

For more of the latest movie trailers, check out our trailers page.

10 comments

  1. Man, seems kinda light this year for theatrical horror releases; but at least we have straight to video releases Army of Frankenstein and Lost after dark to tide us over. Full disclosure, I have not watched either of theses but picked them up today and word of mouth has been fairly positive. Had no heard of Witch till your article and it looks very promising, great article sir! P.S. Victor Frankenstein looks like the second coming of the Raven, god help us all!

    • I haven’t had a chance to watch Army of Frankensteins or Lost, but yeah, I’ve read mostly positive comments. I’m ready to set my expectations low for the new Frankenstein flick and just hope for something decent. However, I’m really excited for Witch.

  2. Bolo

    This Halloween, I’m definitely seeing ‘Crimson Peak’, but that ‘The Witch’ one looks quite good, too. I’ll make the effort to see it.

    I’ve never seen a ‘Paranormal Activity’ movie and don’t feel I’m missing anything.

    ‘Final Girls’ looks somewhat clever, although I feel no real desire to see it.

    That bud-cop version ‘Victor Frankenstein’ looks like passably amusing fluff. If I get stuck watching it, I’ll probably have an okay time, but I won’t make any effort to see it.

  3. Csm101

    Speaking of horror comedies, has anyone seen the trailer for Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse? That looks like a trip!
    I also want to take my daughter to the Goosebumps movie.

  4. Chaz

    The Final Girls looks super great, I love meta horror like that, figured Cabin in the Woods would be the best for quite a while but that one looks to really work and make great fun of so many in movie things that happen.

    Dont forget about Deathgasm and Krampus the Christmas Devil, the latter of which is Michael Dougherty’s new movie, who did Trick r Treat 🙂

    According to IMDB, Trick r Treat 2 has been announced, but you know how that site works 😉

  5. C.C.

    -“The movies are also starting to make the found-footage gimmick seem unimaginative and trite.”
    Found footage has been trite for the last 10 years. It means “I have no money, and no ideas”.
    Paranormal Activity was one of the few that made it work (just the first one).

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