When it comes to marketing movies, trailers make a break a film. They are essential to allow an audience to understand the film’s storyline, characters, and tone. Unfortunately, this feat can be somewhat hard to accomplish with teaser trailers, as they can only reveal so much about the film without giving the whole thing away.

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But sometimes, there comes a teaser trailer that does that job perfectly without even revealing anything about the movie at all. They range from only showing a few snippets of the film’s tone, intentionally misleading the viewer on the film’s storyline, or outright shooting new footage that doesn’t feature in the movie. Regardless, they are unique and fun cinematic experiences in themselves.

‘Halloween III: Season of the Witch’ (1982)

Halloween III Trailer

The third film in this long-running franchise attempted to do something different from the Michael Myers storyline, and that was made clear from the very first teaser. As the preview begins on a black screen, children’s voices can be heard laughing and singing nursery rhymes while the seemingly empty mask of a witch swirls into view.

As the camera zooms closer onto the mask’s face, a spider crawls out of its mouth. Then, as the music intensifies, the witch’s hollow eyes open to stare at the viewer before the title is displayed. The narrator then concludes with the tagline, “the night no one comes home.”

‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)

Iron Man's helmet in Avengers: Endgame.
Image via Marvel Studios

Marvel is no stranger to making trailers that intentionally mislead its audience. But no film they’ve made has called for that approach more than Avengers: Endgame. Most of the film’s plot was shrouded in mystery before its official release. All the teasers promised that the Avengers were getting ready to travel to space, rescue Tony Stark, and defeat Thanos to avenge those wiped out in the snap.

While all that is included in the film, they also don’t reveal the fact that they find Tony and kill Thanos in the first ten minutes, and the rest of the film is a time travel plot to gather Infinity Stones.

‘The Shining’ (1980)

The Shining Elevators

Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel had a somewhat minimalist approach to revealing the film’s content. The film’s only trailer is mostly one static shot of the Overlook hotel’s elevator doors and hallway as the directing and starring credits slide up the screen.

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Then as they stop and the dissonant, uncomfortable music intensifies, blood comes pouring out of the elevator, flooding the hallway and covering the camera lens in a red tint. The film’s title comes on again, leading viewers to wonder what horrors await them.

'The Ref' (1994)

The Ref Trailer

This black comedy set at Christmas involves a criminal named Gus (Dennis Leary) holding a dysfunctional family hostage and the hijinks that ensue. But the film’s teaser trailer opted for a fascinating approach to establishing the film’s tone. It opens with a choir of children singing Christmas carols, with Gus’ voice narrating a letter to Santa, almost like the beginning of a classic holiday movie.

But once Gus reveals himself onscreen, the kids quickly shut up before he begins a rambling, fast-paced demand to Santa for what he wants for Christmas. Then, he tells his plan to take a hostage before cutting to a title card.

‘Psycho’ (1960)

Psycho Trailer

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic slasher has been well-discussed and analyzed by many, but when it first premiered, he went to great lengths to keep the plot a secret from his audience. To that end, the original trailer is a six-minute featurette of Hitchcock himself walking around the set of the Bates Motel alone, discussing the crimes the film would display.

A mixture of unsettling and oddly jovial music plays throughout. Unfortunately, Hitchcock doesn’t reveal the motivation or reasoning behind the crimes or refer to the film’s characters by name; not a single clip from the film is shown. But it ended in a final jump scare that left audiences clamoring for more.

‘Citizen Kane’ (1941)

Citizen Kane Trailer

Much like Psycho, this trailer used the film’s director to market the movie without showing footage from the film itself, albeit to a more comedic and intentionally misleading effect. Orson Welles never even shows up onscreen, merely as a voice represented by a soundstage microphone.

He introduces the film’s cast one by one, a few through gags out of a Laurel and Hardy sketch. Then he briefly describes Charles Foster Kane, with the cast re-appearing in character to describe their impressions of him. The actual film’s somber tone is not reflective in the trailer, only Welles enticing the viewers to decide the truth about the man themselves.

‘Cloverfield’ (2008)

Cloverfield Trailer

The infamous teaser for the modern monster classic revealed everything and nothing about the film simultaneously. First, the viewer sees footage of a farewell party held by a group of friends in New York. But the lights go out, an earthquake happens, and a massive explosion in the center of Manhattan causes debris to soar into the sky.

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While the party evacuates, a massive roar is heard as one debris piece, in particular, smashes onto the pavement—the head of the Statue of Liberty. The trailer ends with the release date, with no title or real explanation as to what happened.

‘The Matrix’ (1999)

The Matrix

More often than not, trailers for action movies provide a mixture of action and a heavy dose of the story to draw the viewer’s investment in the characters. But sometimes, all an action trailer has to do is showcase the action itself and practically nothing else.

The trailer contains no introduction to the characters, the storyline, or even what the action is for. Furthermore, it doesn’t explain the titular Matrix or includes dialogue to entice the viewer further. Instead, the viewer gets stunts, breathtaking visuals, special effects, a tagline promising the Matrix’s hold on the viewer, and a website link called “whatisthematrix.com.”

‘Back to the Future’ (1985)

Back to the Future Trailer

It opens on a lone figure walking in the middle of a desert road before coming across a particular car. He opens the door, and inside is gadgets, wires, buttons, and all sorts of unique tech. He starts the car and then rolls down the window, revealing himself to be Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox).

He’s asked in an off-camera voice, “how far you going?”. He lifts his sunglasses and replies with a smirk, “about thirty years.” Then, with a puff of smoke, the DeLorean is gone as Huey Lewis’ "Back in Time" begins to play. And one of the defining films of the '80s has taken off.

‘WALL-E’ (2008)

WALL-E gazing at the stars
Image via Pixar

Pixar's movies make it a tradition to have teaser trailers that often contain no footage from their films but ideally establish the film’s tone and mood. WALL-E’s teaser begins with live-action footage of director Andrew Stanton discussing a fated lunch among the Pixar team wherein they discussed ideas for future movies after Toy Story.

The final one they discussed was a film about a specific trash-compacting robot who promptly appears when the trailer has less than a minute left. Music plays as the little robot does his duties before gazing wistfully at the stars.

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