Trailer watching online has become something of a celebrity gossip sport. Will the ‘Avengers 4’ trailer arrive on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? Oops, it’s changed, sorry, it’s not arriving til Monday. First the trailer usurped the movie itself, and now the date of the trailer has usurped the trailer itself, which is of course just a commercial trying to convince you to see a movie which in some case is a piece of art and other times is a commercial for a larger film, bigger universe or next installment of what the studio really wants you to see. As you can see, we’re torn about trailers.
We digress, but to echo yesterday’s sentiment, celebrating marketing and advertising can be a tricky thing to do and perhaps a slippery slope—we already have film writers admitting that things like Comic-Con, one long commercial trade show, are more exciting than the actual movies themselves (beyond problematic in a way that speaks to the fractured-ness of movie culture).
Trailers are a hype man, the P.T. Barnum (the more sleazy real-life version, not the adorable Hugh Jackman interpretation) telling you to step right up and get ready for what you’re really about to see inside the tent. They’re commercials, but sometimes they have their own artistry to them. And or sometimes, f*ck it, they are really exciting and build the right kind of anticipation. Often times a trailer, as you’ll see below, is sometimes more successful in what it’s trying to accomplish than the product itself. And while that’s somewhat disheartening, perhaps that’s the art of the trailer.
We’ll shut up now. Sit back and enjoy the twenty Best Trailers Of 2018 as deemed by us. And don’t forget to check out the 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019 and the 20 Best Posters of 2018. Our best of 2018 year-end coverage is just beginning.
Click here for our complete coverage of the best and worst of 2018.
20. “Glass”
“It’s amazing to meet you, it’s simply extraordinary,” the trailer of “Glass,” begins with palpable emotional disbelief. We feel you. We too never thought we’d see the day when a sequel to M. Night Shyamalan “Unbreakable” would ever arrive. “This is not a cartoon. This is the real world… I have been waiting for the world to see that we exist,” Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Glass narrates setting the stage for the big showdown featuring Bruce Willis’s character from “Unbreakable” and James McAvoy’s character from “Split.” And that’s perhaps the genius of “Glass,” and its trailer; the “oh, shit!”-ness pleasure of building massive anticipation for a film we didn’t even know we were dying for all these years. Shyamalan seems to have created some kind of Justice League Dark or dark superhero universe; moody, somber, grounded explanations of each of the characters gives us just enough of a reminder of what to expect. And that’s a world without capes, a world that upends comic book universes and something that may just redefine what we think are heroes and villains. – Christopher Kevranian
19. “Beautiful Boy”
Considering the harrowing grip opioids hold on America, Amazon Studios’ “Beautiful Boy,” is a helluva timed story. The opening conversation-turned-argument begins an emotional rollercoaster; you can feel the tension, pain, and despair felt by David (Steve Carell), a father who is struggling to understand what has happened to his little boy, once, the perfect son, Nic (Timothée Chalamet), a young adult struggling with the hell of drug addiction. As the trailer spins, you see a relationship worsen, and a nightmare mushroom for parents as they go through the cycle of recovery and relapse. Mix these emotions with Felix van Groeningen’s choice of soundtrack and it’s easy to feel wrenched. Turns out “Beautiful Boy” faced mixed reviews when it came out (including our own), but nothing changes the fact the trailer perfectly distills a frighteningly real concept, regardless of whether the movie does it justice or not: you may think you know someone you’ve loved all your life, but the insidious horrors of addiction can decimate and create strangers out of all of us. -Jamie Rogers
18. “Hereditary”
Theoretically, it’s to be expected that one of the most disturbing movies in recent memory would possess an equally terrifying trailer to promote itself, but oh boy, is the trailer for Ari Aster’s directorial feature debut one unsettling piece of marketing. Major props to the team in charge of editing trailers over at A24. You all are way too good at your jobs. Jam-packed with outlandish imagery, stomach-churning match cuts, and hellish soundscapes that bring mental pictures of bloody piano wires to mind, the official trailer for “Hereditary” is a nauseating assault on the senses that barely scratches the surface of the true horrors kept locked below. While the advertisement does lure you in with the prospect of traumatizing you for the next couple months, after viewing the film, the trailer is somewhat secretive when it comes to informing the viewer of an exact plot. Nevertheless, this sense of confusion melded with morbid curiosity provides the perfect introduction into one of the best films that you should never watch with your family. – Jonathan Christian
17. “Shazam!”
It’s true, things haven’t been so hot around the D.C. campfire of late. Misguided and unearned attempts to shoehorn in one of those newfangled cinematic universes with their classic characters has backfired time and time again. But with some (well, one) standalone successes under their belt (“Wonder Woman”), DC Films appears to be learning that doing their characters right, no matter the tone, is all that matters. Take “Shazam!” for example, which zaps in a little “Big” comedy as it tells the tale of an orphaned teen that has the ability to transform into a totally tubular tight-wearing golly gee whiz hero. It was a bit jarring to watch the people who once put a “no joke” clause in its contract tease something so slapdash, but Zachary Levi seems to be having an absolute ball as the hero driven by his adolescence and the jokes here actually land solid punches. It’s refreshing to see the somewhat humorless studio finally get a little silly and that’s why this trailer works. “Shazam!” could ultimately end up as one of the silliest superhero movies of 2019, but its trailer never failed it, in fact, set up what looks like a pretty enticing comedy in its own right. – Cory Woodroof
16. “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Say what you will about “Bohemian Rhapsody” and its bland, generic and neutered look at the legendary Freddie Mercury (we certainly did), its trailer was supposed to get you pumped for the big, epic concert about to come and boy did it get the blood pumping. Mercury was one of the most sensational performers to have ever set foot on a stage and “Bohemian Rhapsody” the trailer (and brief snippets from the film), capture that electricity, the anticipation of being in the front row against the barricades, impatiently ready for the fireworks to pop off and the band to hit the stage (thank you stunning cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel). Rami Malek throws himself into the role and the trailer wisely relies on your love of Queen’s bombastic, theatrical, over-the-top music to sell you on the movie, oh my god, take my money already. “Bohemian Rhapsody” never really rocked you as promised, but man did the trailer get me off. -JR