As cinema continues to shapeshift in a very literal formatting sense, and the future remains unclear regarding the size of the screen on which we’ll get to appreciate it, trailers often give us the only taste of a cinematic experience. To feel the rumbling drums of “The Northman” on the big screen or to hear Jenny Slate’s weirdly therapeutic voice for “Marcel The Shell With Shoes On” becomes a physical experience.
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But then, when something like a glimpse of Jordan Peele’s sci-fi thriller or the first look at Mark Jenkin’s indescribable horror resonates on the smallest of screens, on a phone in the subway, or through tinny laptop speakers, you know you’re onto a winner. It’s advertising, sure, but it’s also a wildly compelling art form. Celebrating a weird, hybrid year of teasing delights of all sorts, here are our favorite film trailers of 2022.
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16. “Enys Men”
The term “experimental filmmaking” gets tossed around a little too often, but British auteur Mark Jenkin toys with form and perception more than most. His folk horror “Enys Men” rejects all labels associated with genre or era, yet its trailer feels as if taken directly from the world of Kubrick’s Overlook Hotel. There’s no concern about going too far too soon, about making things palatable for the viewer. It’s a rare skill to create such a clear, intense emotion (here, terror and confusion) while withholding so much plot. You don’t know who they are or what anything is – yet the teaser immediately throws up so many urgent questions only a cinema ticket will answer.
15. “Nope”
Did you know that the first moving images, and so the birth of cinema, were of a Black man riding a horse? The Haywood siblings know this in Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” with Keke Palmer’s megawatt smile introducing us to the story of movie-making and risk-taking with unnerving showmanship. But things aren’t as they should be, as the trailer’s pacing drastically shifts, title treatments don’t read as they should, and suddenly every frame could give you nightmares. Everybody knows the most terrifying threats are those that can’t be seen, but Peele gives just a glimpse of the looming horror to justify its guttural feeling that provides the film with its title. We’re not dealing with this. We’re not dying. We can’t see it, and we won’t. Nope, it’s not happening.
14. “Men”
One note sung by one woman sets off an eerie chain reaction, violated by countless men, in Alex Garland’s unnerving patriarchal horror. The trailer uses just one echo from Jessie Buckley’s character to enhance and destabilize the isolation of one traumatized woman, haunted by her past mistakes and whatever this present escape holds. It’s a neat touch only to show her in the trailer, heightening the claustrophobia caused by attacks both real and physical while also suggesting a threat that’s reserved for the mind. If it sounds indecipherable, it’s because, for now, it is: that’s what makes it so alluring.
13. “Barbarian”
A perfect needle drop can do a lot. Even maybe make you forget that if Bill Skarsgård turns up, it’s rarely good news. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young try and make this house inviting as their croon sets up the “Barbarian” trailer – but this is, after all, from those who brought us “Malignant.” The bait-and-switch in tone is breathtaking, with nightmare-inducing visuals letting go of any pretense of calm and making you forget the first half of the trailer even happened at all. “This is perfectly natural,” a robotic TV narrator pretends – the best kind of lie you could hear.
12. “Aftersun”
“Aftersun” is defined by the shaky home footage – really shot on DV cameras by stars Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio – that peppers the narrative of this family holiday. The MUBI trailer honors this storytelling device while gently introducing its stars, Corio, with her effervescent energy and knowing smirk, Mescal at his most heartbreaking (even more than “Normal People”). There is a sense of slow sadness, of growing regret and everlasting love in the expansive vistas of holiday resorts and closeups of faces, hands, reflections, and swimming pool ripples. It’s an outstanding achievement to convey subtlety in emotion while pushing for a gut-punch of emotion in under two minutes – and Charlotte Wells’ film, and trailer team, succeeds. We wish we could have stayed for longer, too.
11. “Everything Everywhere All At Once”
“You may only see a pile of receipts, but I see a story.” Who knew that an IRS office could become fertile ground for one of the most outlandish, ambitious genre movies of the year? “Very busy today, no time to help you.” Although we do already see glimpses of a dozen different Evelyns in the trailer if anything showing you the full range of Michelle Yeoh is essential to understand just the tip of the iceberg of what’s on offer here. More a glorious smash cut and celebration of cinema usually reserved for end-of-year rankings, it feels like an exception that a film of this grandeur – with its “In The Mood For Love” homage as much as its googly eye and sausage fingers – thoroughly deserves.