Admittedly, some of the trailers I’ve been posting, I’ve posted because I like the movies. And I will admit to having an inordinate love of the thorough goofiness of the work of Australian filmmaker Phillipe Mora (Ever wanted to see Christopher Lee sing a song about booze written by Richard O’Brien? Or a woman give birth to a baby marsupial, which then nestles in her pouch? Or Dame Edna give an Oscar to a werewolf? You will...). But I’m posting this trailer for one reason: it’s a great example of something trailers don’t do anymore, the ‘Warning Crawl.’Horror movies used to do this a lot--start their trailers off with a narrator reading off a prepared statement telling you how horrifying what you are about to see will be, and that maybe if you’re too weak-hearted/old/non-manly you shouldn’t come to the theater next week. What followed usually didn’t matter. The message was ‘You wanna come back, ‘cause we’ve got some Serious Hardcore Shit for you.’ This one is a little more creative than many of these Warning Crawl Trailers, with its recurring minimized picture/beating heart motif but the message the filmmakers wanted to give you has already been sent...and just to be sure, they repeat the message at the end. It’s a highly efficient minute and a half carny speech.
Of course, if you’ve ever seen this, you know the movie kind of does make good on its threat.
Don’t worry; there’ll be more Mora in the coming weeks, and more ‘Warning Crawls.’
Trailer courtesy of Movie Clips Classic Trailers.
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