10 AWESOME Movie Trailers (Then The Film Sucked)

3. The Black Dahlia

Terminator Salvation
Universal

The Trailer

2006's neo-noir crime thriller The Black Dahlia was heavily marketed as a major comeback for director Brian De Palma, with its main trailer successfully touting it as a classy, beautifully staged slice of true crime with possible awards potential.

With its ripped-from-the-headlines murder-mystery story, hard-boiled narration from Josh Hartnett, and the extremely inspired use of Death in Vegas' haunting tune "Dirge," it suggested a powerhouse effort from De Palma to stand alongside his finer, older work.

The Film

Despite being adapted from a book written by L.A. Confidential author James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia fell massively short of the mark, turning out to be a strangely generic, even forgettable noir romp largely lacking in the full-bodied flourishes that define De Palma's best films.

Josh Hartnett is ultimately miscast as the lead, and the outcome of the mystery is a lot less interesting than that beautiful trailer suggested.

And because the $50 million thriller flopped catastrophically at the box office, De Palma's career as an A-list filmmaker effectively ended with its release.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.