Movies misleadingly marketed

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"How tall is King Kong ?"
It happens quite often. A director dares making a movie that doesn't fit any of the three categories that exist in publicists or distributors's brains, so they get shoehorned in one anyway. Or maybe a movie belongs to a genre that isn't trending, so, the hell with that, we'll sell it as belonging to the trending genre. Or maybe people make trailers without watching the film, I don't know how it works.

But some official trailers (or even posters) are so out of touch with the film that they look like re-edit jokes. Somebody gave -and explained- the odd example of Blue Thunder's poster, presenting it as some horror movie about a perverse killer stalking people with a high tech spying killing machine (the movie is basically Airwolf). I mentioned elsewhere Vincenzo Natali's magnificent surreal comedy Nothing, which is presented as some horror thriller in its trailer. I'm thinking also of the excellent Baxter, a very very dark movie about a killer dog told from the killer dog's point of view, that was marketed as a family comedy at the time of release. But how many great movies would have found their public, if they had been publicized for what they were instead of what the producers wished or thought they were ?

Do you remember having been mislead by movie marketing before ? I mean genre-wise, not quality-wise ? And do you remember the opposite, having been horrified by the discovery of how misleadingly a movie you've already watched had been -or is being- publicized.

This thread could serve as a "warning : this movie isn't about what they tell you it is".
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'It Comes at Night'. Schults' really interesting psycho drama film about paranoia and isolation. Hugely erroneously marketed as a jump scare horror film which resulted in audiences slating it for not being scary enough. Very frustrating.



I thought this way about Hereditary (2018). I expected a horrifying experience similar to what Midsommar would ultimately be for me, but the paranormal beliefs and ouija boards really turned me off...



I do feel like on occasion, the marketing gets done before the film is finished, so there is a discrepancy there. Edited clips and even deleted scenes make their way into the trailer. But from the general advertising POV, I also think it’s kind of inevitable, rather than nefarious. You need to sell the thing; of course you’ll showcase the best bits in the trailer and shoehorn the whole thing into a genre that’s trending.

At the risk of being controversial yet again, people get annoyed when the homosexual element of a film gets overplayed in the marketing and turns out to be subtle in the film itself, but if I were doing the marketing, of course I’d capitalise on the trending topic/hook - why wouldn’t I?

Things that I felt were misleadingly marketed off the top of my head:

Come True - partly inevitable due to the similarity with Before I Wake, but the marketing made the film all about sleep/lack thereof/sleep paralysis, which I don’t think it is.

Stillwater - hell, yes; seems I’ve said enough about that, but it definitely used the “news peg” of the case to make the film feel like Taken when it’s more like, I don’t know, Prisoners.

But then, I admit I have a frustrating take on the topic. I honestly don’t believe audience reaction/perception can be predicted, so I think everyone markets as best they can, which will never be fully “accurate” in relation to the film itself. So many people were traumatised by Bambi as kids, and jokes aside, I just don’t think Disney execs can be expected to anticipate that.



The Pirates! Band of Misfits fits this description. The trailer marketed it as a fun, silly claymation pirate adventure for kids, but most of its footage occurred at the beginning of the movie. It made no mention of it really being a tale about Darwinism.

There's also the trailer for The Secret Life of Pets which hinted at the movie being clever, unique and mostly taking place in an apartment building instead of being a mediocre Toy Story ripoff.



The trailer for In Bruges made it look like a mostly straight-forward comedy. My sister and I went to see it in the theater and were kind of baffled and angry.

Now, I know a lot of people like/love the film. I think that it has some really strong parts. Even without the misleading expectations, I still think that I would take issue with the tonal craziness of it and some of the humor that I think just isn't funny. But my mild dislike for it is probably a little connected to the experience of showing up to a theater and getting a really different movie than the one I felt I was sold.



Black Snake Moan (Craig Brewer, 2006)

The trailer and poster make it out to be some sort of interracial S&M porn.





Yes, there's a lot of sex in it (though not between the leads), but it's actually a tale of friendship and overcoming trauma. I highly recommend it.



Victim of The Night
Sideways.
Marketing made it seem like the feel-good buddy-road-comedy of the summer.
Instead it's very sad.



I like the movie but I went to see it on a Sunday to uplift my spirits in a light and fun way before the workweek started and I went home depressed (and honestly a little bored).



I like the movie but I went to see it on a Sunday to uplift my spirits in a light and fun way before the workweek started and I went home depressed (and honestly a little bored).
When movies are marketed as fun comedies (similar to what happened with me and In Bruges) it's so frustrating.

I'm not some dumb-dumb. I will go see a film that is complex and mixes dark comedy with a thriller. But if I'm having a down day, or if I'm seeing a film with someone who doesn't want something heavy, or for whatever reason I just need something light, I get really annoyed when I'm lead to expect something upbeat and instead get something that's very different.

I think that it partly comes from the fact that the quicker editing of trailers works better with
"punchline" moments from films. Even when that means taking a snippet of dialogue out of context to make it seems like a joke.





Drive is what always comes up for me here, It was marketed as a Fast & Furious action film, I personally wasn't off put by that as I knew from articles that is was more the low key drama and honestly loved it but I certainly remember people being upset with it to the point that someone sued over the "misleading" advertising.



'It Comes at Night'. Schults' really interesting psycho drama film about paranoia and isolation. Hugely erroneously marketed as a jump scare horror film which resulted in audiences slating it for not being scary enough. Very frustrating.
Loved this film and luckily saw it just on the strength of reviews so I never saw a trailer for it to make me think it was something it wasn't.



Victim of The Night
When movies are marketed as fun comedies (similar to what happened with me and In Bruges) it's so frustrating.

I'm not some dumb-dumb. I will go see a film that is complex and mixes dark comedy with a thriller. But if I'm having a down day, or if I'm seeing a film with someone who doesn't want something heavy, or for whatever reason I just need something light, I get really annoyed when I'm lead to expect something upbeat and instead get something that's very different.

I think that it partly comes from the fact that the quicker editing of trailers works better with
"punchline" moments from films. Even when that means taking a snippet of dialogue out of context to make it seems like a joke.
I saw your post about In Bruges, I felt lucky that I only saw it when some of my quirkier movie-friends made me watch it, if I'd seen the marketing I would have been lost.

The rest of your post is exactly how I feel.



Victim of The Night
'It Comes at Night'. Schults' really interesting psycho drama film about paranoia and isolation. Hugely erroneously marketed as a jump scare horror film which resulted in audiences slating it for not being scary enough. Very frustrating.
No ****.
I feel like if I had seen that movie with different expectations I might have enjoyed it a lot more but given that it was marketed to me as straight Horror and one of the best "Horror" recent movies... I thought the movie was fine but I was left so wanting.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Severely Rape (1998) has no rapes in it.
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



Nobody "does" Dallas, let alone even goes there, in Debbie Does Dallas.



Victim of The Night
Nobody "does" Dallas, let alone even goes there, in Debbie Does Dallas.
Which is why I prefer:




I really do think that this is one of the most damaging things that can be done to a film. Package it wrong and piss off the public. It's a huge vote of no confidence on the part of the studio, apparently just hoping to sucker in people for the first weekend before the cat gets out of the bag.



I was reminded of another of misleadingly marketed film tonight, Crimson Peak. All the advertising made it out to be a typical Hollywood ghost story as opposed to the gothic romance with some ghost elements that is was. The movie itself even spelled that out for people in the beginning of the movie but if you came for jump scares I doubt that was going to placate you, I personally loved the film for what it was.