Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest installment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Mege: I’ll be the first to admit that not everything in the first three seasons of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful was perfect – sometimes it got too enamoured of its own stereotypes and horror tropes, but it gave Eva Green and Simon Russell Beale moments in which they could shine. And there was that episode with Patti LuPone called “The Nightcomers” as the series’ masterpiece. So here’s to hoping that Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, the series’ new standalone season 4, will get a lot of things right for many a night of fright. Starting April 26.
Matt: Is it just me, or does this look like a 21st century retelling of Little Shop of Horrors through a Black Mirror lens? It certainly looks stylish, and while I’ve not seen Emily Beecham in much, Ben Whishaw is always a welcome sight and Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes was well worth watching. Bring on the creepy vegetation.
Julie: Although this series is based on the compelling horror-adventure graphic novel series Locke & Key, the trailer looks more like a kid’s adventure tale in the Spielbergian mode. Huh? I always want adaptations of graphic novels to succeed – we know it can be done -, and thankfully there is enough horror talent on board here to give me hope.
Eric: There’s something to be said for introducing a theme, then immediately undercutting it. For example: your trailer introducing ‘The Jejune Institute’, a name so daft it’s inspired, then explaining it’s from self-styled ‘purveyors of nonchalance’, and then the rest of the trailer featuring people being very, er, chalant. A good trailer asks a question, then invites you to think about where it’s going with the answer. This one asks several, all of them existential, then makes the act of marketing itself the text by promising the characters (not you) answers through, of all things, an Alternate Reality Game. We’re back where we began: so daft, it’s inspired. But also presented with large dollops of Paprika-era Satoshi Kon and David Lynch-inspired visuals. Count me intrigued.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 