Whatever You Do, Don't Watch This GREEN ROOM Red-Band Trailer
Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room is a brutal, tightly-paced thriller that's been making waves on the festival circuit and hits theaters next week. (I'll have a review for you then, but you can read Joey's out of Sundance right here.) But if you're interested in seeing the film, I implore you NOT to watch the brand-new red-band trailer that was just released.
I understand why the marketing department cut it together like this — they're all about simply trying to get asses in seats — but if you plan on seeing the movie, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by watching this trailer first. The way Saulnier plays with tension is such a huge part of why the movie works, and though you may not have context for it right now, if you go into the theater with these images in your mind, it will actively damage the experience of discovering how certain characters get out of sticky situations and — more importantly — which ones survive to certain points in the film. If you see someone blasting a shotgun in this trailer, you're going to be waiting for that moment in the movie; but the way the story is constructed, the film might want you to think that person is in danger of dying early on in the film.
You could argue that these reasons are the same for not watching any trailer, not just this one. I actually agree with that, but I realize that asking people to stop watching trailers altogether is ludicrous, and it's not something I'd want to ever happen. I loved the experience of watching the first teaser for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story yesterday, but there's a chance I might skip watching future trailers just so I don't have any more cool moments teased for me beforehand. With Green Room, though, a film that's so small scale and dependent on its pacing and tension being broken up with bursts of violence throughout, it just seems like a damaging experience to see all of those elements shaken up and presented out of context. Just trust me on this one.