Fake Trailers
Re-imagining the classics
Some clever folks (ok, clever folks with a lot of time on their hands) have been enriching cyber space with original and funny takes on some of the most well known films. YouTube is full of fake trailers adding a healthy dose of irreverence and irony to classic movies. Many of these are commendable, but visually pretty poor, a few however are so good they leave you thinking that maybe, just maybe, they’d be better than the original. Here’s a selection of our five favourite fake trailers
C is for Cookie
The Muppets have tackled some grizzly subjects in the past, including embittered class segregation in A Christmas Carol, the politics of piracy in Treasure Island and even the difficulties of non-traditional sexuality in the ongoing relations between a pig and a frog. C is for Cookie however adds another element of darkness as we see muppet wage war on fellow muppet in a dystopian nightmare in a future recognizable as our own. What would you do if you were faced with the problem: freedom or obedience? Cookies or no cookies?
Scary Mary Poppins
To be honest it doesn’t take much to frame Mary Poppins as a horror, the elements of dark fantasy in the original are enough to give you the heebie jeebies: an omniscient disciplinarian nanny with the ability to fly, negligent parents, and worst of all, the distorted non-accent of the menacing chimney sweep Bert. Nevertheless, this trailer sees the beloved autocrat Mrs Poppins sweeping in and scaring the spoiled brats into submission. This is a story to scare the kids into eating their carrots and cleaning their rooms. ‘Oh Sally, that’s fine DON’T clean your room, but don’t blame me when Mary Poppins comes making you drink medicine and frightening the bejesus outta ya’.
Everybody Poops
Envisioning the successful and extremely bizarre childrens book Everybody Poops as a film by Spike Jonze with the rousing Wake Up by Arcade Fire adding the same pomp it did to Where the Wild Things Are. Call me crazy but this film looks great - what more do you want? There’s giant unicorns, personal journeys, Canadian power indie and poop. Lots and lots of poop. I’m sold.
Broke Trek
A powerful love story set in outer space, this is the heart wrenching tale of two people from different worlds (like, literally) falling in love and struggling with prejudice, misunderstanding, and finally acceptance. In a similar vein to Hollyoaks Later, this is Star Trek with the hormones left in, and it’s such a well executed fake trailer its hard to believe Kirk and Spock never really indulged in a little space slap and tickle, after all, five years is a long time.
Shining
You know when you watch some trailers and then don’t need to see the film because you already know exactly what will happen (these are usually films involving a cooky Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston or more recently the blonde chick from Grey’s Anatomy)? That’s the premise Shining works on, and its the most convincing fake trailer I’ve come across. Hilarious because it makes a disturbing film look like a saccharine chick flick and also because it perfectly captures the mood of a hundred trailers we’ve seen before and highlights the lazy guff we’ve got used to Hollywood feeding us by the shovel load. Whether a testament to the intelligence of the people on youtube, or just to the quality of the trailer, reading a few of the comments underneath it’s clear that some people have missed the joke entirely and are eagerly awaiting Jack Nicholson’s new feel-good family film (and gosh, don’t he look young).
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