Dumbo
I forgot how good the casting was for this. Colin Farrell, Eva Green, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Alan Arkin? They aren’t messing around. And yet, I don’t want to find myself getting too invested in this because I’ve never really been behind this whole trend of Disney making live action version of their animated classics. I liked Cinderella, and Maleficent is certainly more interesting, if not totally functional, in retrospect, but Pete’s Dragon is so far the only great movie to come out of it, and it was because of the many significant changes made. This looks about what anyone could’ve expected.
For the record, I love the original Dumbo, though maybe not for the most common reasons. It’s a film with a cute presentation, but is in actuality a cruel and miserable film, which is somehow aimed at young children. It shouldn’t work, but it kind of does despite itself. I wonder how this will handle the crows because hoo boy, that certainly didn’t age well. And considering the writer for this movie is written by Ehren Kruger (who simply put, doesn’t have the best track record), I am mostly worried about how this will turn out. I feel like he is the one ingredient in this whole thing that could not work out, but we won’t find out for a while since this is coming next year. Though, I’ll definitely discuss the full trailer once that’s out. Though, it is nice to see a teaser actually evoke awe.
Dumbo is slated for a release on March 29, 2019.
The Nun
Weird that a 90 second trailer would literally ask you to watch to the end, though, I suppose that is better than getting those annoying 5 second mini trailers at the beginning. Anyway, this looks neat! Aside from the first Annabelle movie, the Conjuring franchise has been remarkably strong in creating mainstream spookhouse fare with likeable/compelling characters. I also quite liked the director, Corin Hardy’s first film, The Hallow, and I have no reason to think he won’t pull this off. Giving it a remote, period setting is super effective, and I it looks like they’ll have a lot of fun with the locations. It doesn’t show much else, but I like the way it looks.
The Nun will hit theaters on September 7th.
The Little Stranger
Lenny Abrahamson is a very talented filmmaker, who I first learned about from watching Frank (a great film, by the way), so he’s been one of those names I keep an eye out for. Now, he has a new film here with The Little Stranger, which looks really neat to me. I love a good, old fashioned gothic horror film, and this cast is looking really solid too. It’s based on a 2009 book, which I admittedly haven’t heard of, but it will surely make for a more fresh experience. Not a whole lot to say here, but it looks good.
The Little Stranger will be release in theaters August 31st.
Alpha
I’m honestly really rooting for this movie, but it’s kinda hard when the trailer looks like it added the cheesy voice over from one of those DisneyNature documentaries, but also the film has been delayed a whopping three times, which is generally not a good sign. However, it’s directed by Albert Hughes, of the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, Dead Presidents, The Book of Eli), and I love the idea of having a modern day silent (at least, that’s what it seems like given the lack of dialogue in all the trailers) film about the very first “boy and his dog” story, that’s a hell of a hook. So, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the movie is just experiencing some terrible luck from the Hollywood machine. I really want this to be good.
Alpha will be released in theaters on August 17th.
Unfriended: Dark Web
Yeah, OK, sure. I admire the first Unfriended more than I actually like it, and this kind of looks like more of the same to me, just with a more grounded, less supernatural approach. Maybe that could make it more engaging. It did play at a couple film festivals, and I heard some interesting things, but nothing to really catch my attention. I hope it’s good, but even if it doesn’t work, we still have another thriller coming this year done in this style with Searching.
Unfriended: Dark Web will hit theaters July 20th.
The Devil’s Doorway
I really like the look of this, but my big worry is that the throwback elements will be purely aesthetic choices, while the actual feel and construction of the film will feel like any disposable, modern horror. The overdramatic quick-cutting of the trailer really doesn’t mesh with the seemingly period-accurate look and attention to detail with the 16mm filming. It should be way more moody and atmospheric, which certain moments hint at, so I hope this is just flawed marketing. We’ve had some solid horror movies coming out this year, and if this works, it can be another name to add to that list.
The Devil’s Doorway will open in select theaters and be available on VOD July 13th.
Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to discuss in the comments!