[imdb tt0080761]Despite what my friends will tell you, I was not the only person in our group to say “What are they counting to?” when we first saw the new Friday the 13th trailer.  Plus, I figured it out quickly enough, so there.  Although these trailers aren’t any longer than other theatrical trailers, for some reason, with them counting to 13, it feels like they go on forever.  I get that they are trying to be clever, and I also like the nostalgia it conjures from the original film’s trailer, but it did seem to drag a little.

The original (from 1980) Friday the 13th’s trailer has some fun with its music, to get some spines chilled in the 2.5 minute montage.  It also uses clips with some pretty heavy built-in suspense, like where we see the kid ascending into the cabin, from pretty much the killer’s perspective; as he enters the cabin, the camera pulls away, and the audience is left to wonder what’s going on. 

However, it takes away from the tension you’d get if you actually watched the movie, because it shows how each character dies.  Now, when you watch the film, you’re going to be primed for the deaths, instead of being surprised.  I don’t know, but maybe the trailer wasn’t shown as often in 1980 as trailers are shown today, so maybe people would have forgotten by the time they got around to seeing the movie, but it still seems a little anticlimactic.

[imdb tt0758746]The new film’s trailer is a little less blatant.  It uses some clever editing (i.e. fades, flashes, quick cuts) to try to detract from the fact that they are still giving away the murders…only more creatively.  We can still gleen who’s going to bite it when, but it happens in such quick sucession, we tend to doubt what our eyes just saw.  The quick cuts are slightly misleading, but essentially we’re shown the murders. 

The new film was rumored by some to be a remake of the first, but it was plainly a sequel.  So it’s interesting that the new trailer is mimicing the original.  While I dislike the original giving away climactic points, I love how it draws out the suspense.  The new trailer does not give me goosebumps until the end when it uses the creepy “kill kill kill” sound effects and has the mother talking about Jason in her eerie little voice.  I liked the original movie, despite being long and drawn out, because it seemed a study in the animalistic sort of hunting of camp counselers, and of course the baiting of the audience.

The new film’s trailer shows the audience exactly what they should expect from the film, a little sex, a little suspense and a LOT of blood and gore.  So, for present-day trailer standards, it’s a pretty decent trailer, despite practically handing us the punchlines of all the murders.  I will say, though, that having seen the movie, if you’re a fan of creative, gruesome murder scenes, this film is pretty good at that.  Not the best, but not bad. 

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