Top 10 Most Misleading Movie Trailers

Trailers for “Jennifer’s Body” seemed to promise a film in the vein of erotic teen thrillers as “Cruel Intentions,” albeit with a horror twist, played fairly straightforwardly. The way the camera lingered on the clearly evil and sexually devious title character appeared to play into the male gaze as well as stereotypes of bisexual women. Writer Diablo Cody took immediate issue with how the film was marketed toward boys on Megan Fox’s sex appeal, insisting it was a movie for girls too. Initially, marketing did inform some opinions of the film with Roger Ebert calling it “Twilight for boys.” However many others, particularly in recent years, have praised the film as a feminist classic and an important film for the bisexual and queer communities.

Derek Cianfrance’s film is told cutting back and forth between two linear storylines, one chronicling the beginning of a relationship, and the other telling its last days. By intercutting between the two narratives, the film carries a sense of melancholy, with the characters played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams growing closer in one time period while drifting further apart in another. The trailer, however, focused only on scenes from the earlier storyline, with a sparse glimpse or two from the latter. Even when those moments were shown, Gosling, who was in makeup to appear older and less conventionally attractive, was intentionally obscured. This gave filmgoers the impression of a more traditional indie romance rather than the story of an ultimately doomed relationship.

While all of these trailers were misleading about the content of their film, only this trailer led to a lawsuit over false advertising. “Yesterday” had the good luck of casting Ana de Armas just as her star was rising and capitalized on that by featuring her in the film’s trailer. However, when the film was released, any trace of de Armas was completely absent. While it’s not unusual for a role to be cut from a final film, it is to feature an entirely cut performer in the trailer. The actress’ fans cried foul and sued Universal over false advertising. The lawsuit gained significant media attention, but ultimately suffered the same fate as Armas’ scene, being thrown out.

Godzilla’s American return in 2014 was built up to be a major event, boosted by a series of epic trailers. These prominently featured Bryan Cranston, fresh off the massive success of the recently concluded “Breaking Bad,” seemingly attempting to thwart a government conspiracy to cover up the emergence of Godzilla. The excellent trailer excited audiences, primed to see a conspiracy thriller with Cranston hunting down Godzilla. While the final film was solid, it didn’t quite deliver on the promise of the trailer, which has gone on to be considered one of the best of all time. Cranston was barely in the film in fact, only appearing in an extended prologue, killed off before the forty-five-minute mark of the two-hour-plus movie.

After a decade of chasing teens through the woods, the eighth “Friday the 13th” teased a different locale. The trailer showed Jason staring at the iconic New York City skyline as an instrumental version of Sinatra’s song named after the city played. The change from claustrophobic woods to one of the most crowded cities in the world was sure to be an interesting one. It’s just too bad we didn’t see much of that, as it turns out it’s very expensive to shoot in NYC. Instead, most of the action takes place on a boat with only the final act in Manhattan. Decades later, “Scream VI” would commit the same sin after promoting its New York setting with both slashers shooting primarily in Canada.

Although it was made by Walden Media, Walt Disney Studios picked up the distribution rights for “Bridge to Terabithia,” promoting it as a fun family adventure flick. After the success of their “Chronicles of Narnia” adaptation, which saw children discovering a hidden magical world full of wonder and creatures, the studio decided to promote “Terabithia” in the same way. Unlike “Narnia,” though, the “magical world” was nothing more than a few scenes where the children imagined an escape from their problems. Rather than being a rollicking fantasy, the film deals with the real-world trauma that the young characters go through. The filmmakers would even go as far as to distance themselves from the deceptive ad campaign, which hid the darker themes.

After years stuck in developmental hell with a revolving door of directors and writers, several different scripts for a third “Alien” film had been written, thrown out, rewritten, and thrown out again. Finally, first-time director David Fincher was brought on board to shoot a version that combined multiple drafts which was still being rewritten as shooting began. Just as filming was getting underway a teaser was released to build hype, despite there being no actual footage. Instead, it simply provided the basic premise, this time the xenomorphs would finally come to Earth, a concept that quickly excited fans. And while an old draft was set on Earth, that idea didn’t make it into the shooting script at all, leaving fans bitterly disappointed.

It’s become a growing trend for studios not to advertise the musical films they have produced as actually containing singing. Numerous trailers have outright hidden that they were musicals at all, scrubbing any reference to song and dance from promotion to the film. You would not be to blame if you arrived at the recently released “Cyrano” or “Wonka” only to find out in the theater that the actors in the film were signing. Perhaps the worst offender of this trend was the remake of “Mean Girls,” which seemed to follow the original film incredibly closely, with one major alteration. Other than a note hidden in the “A” of the stylized title, there was no indication that this was an adaptation of the Broadway musical.

You’d be forgiven if you thought “Kangaroo Jack” was a fun, family-friendly buddy flick about a talking, rapping kangaroo because that’s what advertising promised. It’s no wonder that audiences were upset when they got a raunchy crime story with a kangaroo that certainly did not rap, aside from a brief dream sequence. The deception came about after the film, a mobster comedy full of sex and violence in the vein of “Midnight Run” then called “Down and Under,” tested incredibly poorly with audiences. The film was quickly retooled to get a PG rating, and inspired by the similarly deceptive trailer for “Snow Dogs,” a hallucination scene with a CGI kangaroo was thrown in to appeal to younger audiences.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“Black Christmas” (2006)
Additional Footage Shot Exclusively for the Trailer Not Even in the Film

“Suicide Squad” (2016)
So Different That Trailer Company Was Asked to Re-Cut the Film

“Adventureland” (2009)
Made to Look like Greg Mottola’s Previous & Very Different Film “Superbad”

“Passengers” (2016)
A Love Story Made to Look Like a Nonstop Action Space Adventure

“Downsizing” (2017)
Promoted as a Straight-Up Comedy

After the overwhelming success of “Taken,” Liam Neeson’s career received a surprising second wind as an action star in films like “Unknown” and “The A-Team.” When the trailer for “The Grey” was released, it seemed like this was yet another one of those dumb but fun action films, this time with Liam Neeson punching wolves in the face! What audiences got was a restrained survival thriller where a group of men were slowly stalked and hunted by wolves. It was more of a philosophical meditation on mortality and finding the will to live in the face of tragedy. The film even repurposed the final shot of the film, with Neeson facing down and accepting his mortality as simply another action moment.

Which trailers do you feel tricked you? Let us know in the comments below!