10 Movies WAY Darker Than Originally Advertised

Released in 2008, Hancock was intended to be a dark comedy that saw Will Smith’s titular superman explore all the comic potential inherent in the premise of washed up alcoholic superhero.

At least, that’s the story that the film’s colourful, comical trailers implied the film would follow. And audiences were eager to see the stalwart blockbuster star take on an edgier role as a subversive, foul mouthed antihero.

However 2008 wasn’t 2016, and studios weren’t quite ready to back a dark and flippant parody of superhero movies without returning to convention at the last moment. Yes, okay, so Deadpool does have a happy ending. But unlike Hancock, it stays silly and gory all the way through.

Thus came Hancock’s heavy, self-serious second act, whose bizarre bombshell twist took things in a totally unexpected direction.

The film’s tone took a turn as Charlize Theron’s character was revealed to be an immortal Demi god like Smith’s, and what followed was a grimmer than average standard issue superhero movie which viewers understandably reviled, after being promised a raucous and ribald send up of the genre instead.