The Abrams/Spielberg project showcased a new trailer yesterday, and it seems to be sparking a different audience.
The first thing I think of when I see this new Super 8 trailer is that it’s a trailer for a horror movie, rather than a sci-fi thriller. Of course, film studios always produce multiple trailers with the purpose of appealing to multiple audiences. This one might go too far though, as it sort-of makes me not want to see the movie.
It also came with a new description of the film’s plot:
“The year is 1979. Joe Lamb, son of an Ohio sheriff’s deputy, is helping his friend Charles finish a zombie movie on a Super 8 camera when a nighttime shoot near the train tracks changes their lives forever. The train, carrying cargo from Area 51, derails in a storm of fire and shredded metal … and something escapes the wreckage. As people begin to disappear and unexplained phenomena crop up all over town, Joe’s father investigates a terrifying truth that Joe himself already understands all too well.”
Of course, there is another worry with this one: for all of its awesome looking effects and cool mystery, the idea reminds me of a Shyamalan film.
They’re really pushing the mystery here, not giving us any idea of what this thing from Area 51 might be, except of course that the name Area 51 is basically synonymous with extraterrestrials.
This is dangerous. It’s making me fear that when I get into this movie, the “thing” is going to turn out to be a really angry native America, or a mutated form of the boy’s mother, or something equally dumb.
That’s likely an unfounded fear, as Spielberg isn’t one to let us down, but this is Abrams big break in Hollywood (not his first film, but still a big deal to be working with these names and this budget). If he goes double-dumb twist on us, no one will want him in the director’s chair ever again.
As I said, I’m likely just being paranoid, but how can I not be with so much Shyamalanesque artificial mystery being generated.
Super 8 is set to hit theaters June 10.
