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| Scene from The Witch |
Welcome to the weekly column Trailing Off in which I take a look at a trailer from the past week and analyze its potential. This will be done using an obnoxious amount of analyzing and personal thoughts on the cast and crew as well as expectations. Coming every Sunday (it's called Trailing Off for a reason), I will attempt to highlight films ranging from new blockbusters to lesser known indies and give them their due. Partially to spread awareness, I do believe that there is an art to the sell and will do my best to highlight why these trailers matter or don't with approval (trove) or disapproval (trash). So please stop by, recommend some trailers, and I will see you next time.
Trailer in Discussion
Directed By: Robert Eggers
Written By: Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie
- Preamble -
As you likely have guessed, one of the perks of Trailing Off is getting to review the trailers for all of the films that premiered at Sundance. I most recently did it with Entertainment, which looks to be pretty good. There's a ton of others that look rather promising in manners that should make for good entries. However, there's something to going into these trailers almost completely blind. Not knowing anything about them means that I can either get garbage or something far more complex and wonderful. As it stands, I don't know a whole lot about The Witch going into this and I worried about being able to make a decent-sized preamble that wouldn't just be going on about the themes of the film, which I am not entirely sure about.
The only thing that I do know is that this looks to be this year's The Babadook. For those who don't know, The Babadook was a film that premiered at 2014's Sundance and was met with acclaim. It is considered to be one of the scariest horror films of recent years. While I didn't think so, I could appreciate its craft and I do applaud the film's ability to find an audience in a grassroots way. While the acclaim around The Witch hasn't been nearly as big, I am willing to accept that maybe we're looking at something very similar happening soon. After all, this trailer has already gotten plenty of buzz online.
I don't have a strong opinion about witch culture. I don't even know if this will be a more deliberate jump scare film or something more ethereal like Under the Skin. I am going in blind. However, I am willing to accept a good horror film if the premise is right. While I am not quite on board with the recent crop of "great" ones (wasn't wild about It Follows either), I can appreciate that horror is a genre that has gotten legitimate attention recently instead of being reserved to the b-movie bin at local stores. Now it's time to see if The Witch's trailer will be any good, or just another baffling moment in this column.
- Dissection -
I will admit one bias right off of the top. I am a fan of critic David Ehrlich. So, to use a pull quote from him gives a certain lenience that I wouldn't give just any critic. It is likely why I chose this trailer because of his strong approval of it. I don't often go into these and expect to be swayed by reviews. You know why, because reviews are tertiary to what the trailer is. We're selling a film and if the imagery and sound cannot get your attention, then what exactly can? I don't put too much stock in using Ehrlich's opinion to decide if I will like this trailer, but it is hard not to because of his track record. For the sake of argument ahead, I am deciding not to recognize the quotes.
I am not entirely sure why, but this trailer reminded me of the one for The Last Exorcism. They are in very few ways similar. However, the appeal of both is that they give you shocking glimpses into the "horror" of it all. Where the other film is full of contusions and other body shifting, this is more deliberately a film about persecuting witches. We don't get too many glimpses into it, but the editing between black screens and pretty good looking cinematography creates something a little unnerving. I am able to get an idea of what's about to happen and want to see more. The music also helps to rattle this tension nicely.
The only question left is if I care about what I see. In all honesty, I was surprised about what I saw. I didn't expect this to be very specifically a period piece that drew from the Salem witch trials. Still, I am unsure if it's just the editing that is alluring or if the imagery actually hooks me. It does look good, but I don't really know if it's because of what I saw. In the end, I'm likely to give this a passing review because of the atmospheric assumption that this trailer makes because it makes me care about the film in ways that I didn't before.
- One Sentence Sell -
An ethereal horror film about witches that is full of ominous sound and beautiful cinematography that promises to scare you.
- Trove or Trash -
TROVE
It is barely a pass, but I am willing to say that this is a good selling point because the trailer stuck with me afterwards and raised curiosity on what this film could be.
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