Remakes, Mashups, Parodies - The Wonderful World of Fanmade Trailers

By Chris Kavan - 05/10/14 at 06:52 PM CT

Oh sure, you look at me like I should spend my free time reading Dostoyevsky or learning a meaningful skill - but, shut up, sometimes you just have to spend a good 15 minutes... okay an hour... or two - watching something that someone, somewhere, spent entirely too much time putting together. But damned if it isn't as entertaining as hell to sit down and laugh my ass off or at least marvel at the ingenuity people in this world truly have. Plus, it gives me a chance to share some of my favorite videos I have come across and, hey, feel free to share your own because I can never have enough fun (or shrug off work when I have to).

THE ALTERNATRAILER

That's what I like to call them - taking something familiar and turning it on its head. The one getting all the attention recently is the "Frozen Horror Trailer" - and I have to say, it gets things right:




The key to a good alternatrailer is the music. One of my all-time favorite examples was created by Robert Ryang back in 2005 for The Shining - recut as a family-friendly father/son bonding film - the use of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" cannot be denied - and it completely makes the trailer work:




There are a lot of examples of people doing this - I'm thinking of "Scary Mary" (a horror take on Mary Poppins) or turning David Lynch's twisted Blue Velvet into a slapstick comedy. Sometimes you have to wade through a lot of junk to find the gems, but when you do, it's totally worth the effort. Essentially with the right music and some fancy editing, any comedy and/or family-friendly film can become a horror and any deep, dark twisted film can become a romantic and/or straight-up comedy.


THE CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONALS

Whereas a lot of the recut trailers are done by individuals, these next few are done by a group of dedicated people who actually make (part of) their living by entertaining people. Screen Junkies, Bad Lip Reading, CinemaSins, Tobuscus - these are but a few examples of YouTube Channels dedicated to making an art form out of trailers - in their own unique way.


Screen Junkies are the purveyors of the "Honest Trailers", arguably the most popular of the bunch and have done everything from Star Wars to Star Trek, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, just about every Marvel film - and more. But since I like zombies, I give you World War Z (Warning - all their videos are obviously full of spoilers):




If you want something silly (although not necessarily a trailer per se), look no further than the fine folds of Bad Lip Reading. I have no idea how much time they have to spend to get things just right, but the results speak for themselves. Who knew Game of Thrones could be turned in to a feel-good medieval theme park comedy just by replacing a few words and using silly voice-overs (even if half of it makes little to no sense):



Plus, who doesn't like a good old-fashioned sophomoric fart joke every now and then?


CinemaSins doesn't do trailers - they do the whole movie... and point out everything that's wrong. This has even more spoilers (I mean, they do go though the entire movie) so don't click on anything you haven't seen! But they have a lot of fun with things - even if it does take all the fun out of something like The Avengers:




Finally we have YouTube royalty Tobuscus who delights with the "Literal" trailer - essentially describing everything that's going on while it's going on. God, that sounds so dumb, but hell if it doesn't work (and why didn't I think of it first?). He does a lot of video games, but movies (Such as Hunger Games: Catching FIre) also gets the treatment:




THE PROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONALS

Finally, I leave you with the people who have money (and star power) to make their own real fake trailers. First, from the people at SNL I give you "The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders" - a trailer so damn perfect, people petitioned for it to become an actual movie (sadly, no word from Wes Anderson... yet):



The reason is works so well? Whoever wrote this got everything right - the use of music, the costumes, the detailed minutiae Anderson is known for - and it helps that Edward Norton (who has worked with Anderson before) does a dead-on Owen Wilson impersonation. This is by and far one of my favorite fake trailers I have managed to watch.


For something a little more lowbrow (though just as entertaining) you can't beat the find folks at College Humor - who have been entertaining me for years. Such as their take on The Sims Horror Movie:




Hopefully a few videos gave you something to laugh about - and now you, like me, can spend countless hours browsing humorous videos when you should be doing real work. Hey, at least I got a blog out of all my "research" - now go have some fun - and if you see anything hilarious, make sure to send it my way.

Comments

Chris Kavan - wrote on 05/11/14 at 02:46 PM CT

All the bad lip reading ones I have seen have been hilarious - and it actually makes the Twilight movies watchable! The only problem is I will randomly spout something from one of them and then people look at me strangely - such is life.

smeagol - wrote on 05/11/14 at 05:47 AM CT

funny stuff. i liked the game of thrones one

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