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10. The Shining (1980)
By IFC
on 06/25/2009
Stanley Kubrick had already made Stephen King's terrifying best-seller his own, as the novel never featured the ghostly vision of twin little girls, or "Heeeeere's Johnny!" or the equally iconic Overlook Hotel elevator hallway that the trailer centers on. For nearly the first minute, this image of those menacing doors remains static as credits roll up, announcing all the major players of this collaboration: Kubrick, Nicholson, Duvall, King. A synth-heavy drone with tinkling notes soon builds into a swarm of ominous noise (one almost expects the Tycho Monolith to appear), and then in slow motion, gallons of blood pour out from the doors, splash up the walls and onto the camera, a tidal wave so thick that the furniture starts floating. (The combination of unsettling soundtrack and visuals was recently borrowed for the somewhat larger-scale teaser to Roland Emmerich's upcoming apocalyptic disaster flick "2012.")
Kubrick was a compulsive perfectionist, so while it only took three takes to nail this moment on a miniature set (each time spending nine days to reset the shot), it took about a year before he was happy with how the blood itself looked. This is especially ironic, since Kubrick still convinced the MPAA -- who, at the time, would not allow trailers to feature blood if they were to be approved for all audiences -- that the blood was merely rusty water. --Aaron Hillis
I guess you guys haven't seen the trailer for The Hughes Bros.'s Dead Presidents, huh? What about Forest Gump? I think those are the 2 greatest of all time. Gump is better than the movie. And Dead Prez is the best ever.
Oh... what about the SW Ep 1 teaser? Maybe you should call this the best film trailers on YouTube! LOL. Dead Prez is probably too hard for you to locate.
I think The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and 300 should be included!
Clerks? No love for the Clerks trailer? Sigh.
Honorable mention for the Grindhouse fake trailers? "Don't" was brilliant.
Great list, by the way. Thanks for including 'Man Who Wasn't There'
Seriously? We have to click 50 times just to get the damn list? No thanks.
Like clicking 50 times is soooo hard, right? But you guys forgot about There Will Be Blood!!
50 PAGES?!!! Get back to work researching how to post an article. No Digg for you.
50 PAGES?!!! Get back to work researching how to post an article. No Digg for you.
GREAT article and flawless pick for #1. I actually did a lil piece on that trailer at our own movie blog, so I'm elated to see as your top pick. Yay trailers!