Today’s Trailers of the Week entry features three aspiring editors who are clearly at the top of their games but will never receive any kind of personal recognition. Seriously, shouldn’t “Trailor Editor” be listed somewhere in the film’s credits? Who are these people? Studio hacks? The real film editor? The director? Who makes these decisions? We should be able to get excited about trailer editors the same way we do about other auteurs: “Man, have you seen Joe Johnson’s latest trailer? He made the next Ryan Reynolds movie look awesome!” Anyway, here are three strong entries for the Best Trailer EMO (for all you EMO-watchers out there).
ParaNorman
Love it. Love it love it love it. The mood created here by cutting out the audio and just going with “Season of the Witch” is perfect, exactly the tone you want to set for the Tim Burton-esque adventure that it looks like we’re going to get here. “ParaNorman” is the latest work from Laika, the studio that produced “Coraline,” a wonderful entry in the 2009 animation renaissance (see: “Up,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Ponyo,” “The Princess and the Frog,” ‘The Secret of Kells,” “9,” “Waltz with Bashir”) that proved that stop-motion can still be a wonderfully fruitful and imaginative medium. Needless to say, “ParaNorman” looks to certainly build on those technical achievements.
Difficult to say what’s going on here story-wise (zombie invasion? ghost story? drug-induced hallucination?), but I don’t much care with animation that gorgeous. Laika also has a fantastic voice cast lined up, including Anna Kendrick, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Leslie Mann, John Goodman, Casey Affleck, Chritsopher Mintz-Plasse, Jeff Garlin, Tempestt Bledsoe and Elaine Stritch.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Creeeeeeeeepy. Great use of music and the repetitive sound of the water sprinkler at the end of the teaser to end on a suitably ominous note. I am simultaneously really excited and absolutely petrified to see this movie.
Into the Abyss
You don’t need to do much to get my attention when there’s a new Werner Herzog documentary involved. But this trailer suggests that Herzog’s latest will be as haunting, ponderous and stark as any of the master director’s greatest works. Michael Perry and Jason Burkett were found guilty of triple homicide in Conroe Texas, apparently committing the murders in order to joyride a car. Burkett received a life sentence; Perry was given the death penalty. Herzog reportedly makes no attempt to judge the guilt or innocence of the two inmates, rather trying to examine the effect of both the crime and the death sentence on the families of both the perpetrators and the victims. I think that whatever your feelings are on capital punishment, this is a discussion worth having, and there’s no one like the ever-observant Herzog to take the first step.
The Best Films of Our Lives 
I’ve always wondered who makes trailers, and why they don’t get recognition. I assumed it was the director, but they’re probably far too busy to do such unimportant things, but it’s especially interesting when the trailer is better than the movie itself.
Shannon wants to see “Into the Abyss.” Oh goodness.