10 Ways Trailers Let You Know A Movie Is Secretly Awful

2. The Use Of Audience Reactions

Paranormal 4 Alex
Paramount

Notable offenders: Paranormal Activity 4, The Green Inferno, The Gallows

A good movie trailer should be edited to capture the essence of the movie it is trying to promote using footage from the film, without giving too much away. The last thing you want to see is shots of people watching the film (who goes to the cinema and sits watching the people around them?) that hasn't stopped a few horror movies using audience footage for their trailer, as if watching people reacting to that tired old genre trope the jump scare is going to entice people into the cinema.

Believe it or not there are even academic papers out there discussing the technique, with one describing them as "manipulative" and "gimmickry". Still, if there's one thing worse in a trailer than audience reaction shots, it's the post-screening reaction with viewers as they leave the auditorium. Anyone who sincerely believes these soundbites weren't carefully selected to omit anything other than glowing praise should consider looking up the word "naive" in the dictionary.

The trailer editor is counting on the audience taking these reaction shots at face value and assuming the film guarantees a primal reaction - most likely, however, these reaction shots derive from cheap and predictable jump scares, which are hardly a sign of a great movie. If actual footage from the movie isn't good enough to sell a film it's probably not worth paying out the cash to watch in the first place.

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Andrew Dilks hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.