New GrindHouse Trailer

Blood…yada, yada, yada…gore…yada, yada, yada…vindictive scorned hot women…yada, yada, yada. Apply once with Tarantino, rinse, and repeat with Rodriguez. Those pretty much sum up my thoughts about the new trailer for GrindHouse that’s being greeted with much soiling of Watchmen underroos by fanboys across the internet. Don’t get me wrong, the trailer is a lot of fun and I’m definitely going to see it. But my mind was made up long before now on that. The marketing campaign at this point can only lose me as a ticket sale, it can’t convince me further.

And that’s the thing about this movie’s entire campaign. It is meant to be gushed over by the audience most likely to already be inclined to see it. That’s not a negative, but it’s also not necessarily a positive. There is nothing – and I mean nothing – about this or the previous trailer that is going to attract anyone from the wider audience to the flick. While it’s good that the Weinstein Co. has identified their niche and are gearing the campaign toward it, the hype surrounding the campaign is out of proportion to that niche. Let’s tone down the rhetoric about new trailers and such and just concentrate on making sure that you’re doing everything you can to retain that core audience.

Actually, the one clunky part of the trailer I thought was the opening narration that explains what a grindhouse was. This is indicative of the confusion surrounding this campaign. The core audience already knows since they’ve had explained to them since this movie went into production or through their own experience. The explanation makes it seem like the studio is trying to educate a larger audience on the conceit behind the 2-in-1 movie. If you’re going niche, then assume a minimum level of knowledge about the subject matter. It helps in not honking people off.