These horror trailers took the saying, "show, don't tell" way too literally.
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00:00Cutting together a film trailer is a very difficult job. Essentially, you need to cut
00:04down an entire film into a one or two minute trailer that encourages viewers to see it.
00:09However, executing the perfect teaser is extra difficult when the genre is horror.
00:14So what do most horror trailers do? They show everything. Every jump scare is revealed,
00:20every gory scene is on full display, every twist is spoiled, and sometimes even the ending is
00:26ruined. Before you ask, of course, major spoilers are ahead. So beware if any of these are on your
00:32to watch list. Also, I apologize for my voice. I am a little bit sick, but so are these horror
00:38movie trailers that went and spoiled the plots of their movies. So yeah, that hangs together. Let's
00:43go. I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 10 horror movie trailers that gave away the entire plot.
00:49Number 10, What Lies Beneath. In Robert Zemeckis' supernatural thriller, What Lies Beneath,
00:54Norman and Claire Spencer are a happily married couple until their life is turned upside down
00:59after a ghostly encounter. For the first half of the movie, Claire suspects that her neighbor
01:04murdered his wife and the spirit is seeking vengeance, although this turns out to be a red
01:10hairy. In reality, the ghost belongs to a college student called Madison who had an affair with
01:15Norman. When Madison was about to make the affair public, Norman murdered her. Now that Claire knows
01:20the truth, Norman is forced to kill her too. Because the film spends so much time setting up
01:26the neighbor as the killer, the big reveal is made far more shocking. At least it would have been
01:31if you hadn't seen the trailer. The teaser makes it so abundantly clear that Norman is the murderer,
01:35it doesn't even feel like it's meant to be a plot twist. In fact, most of the promos don't even
01:40mention the neighbors. Although the film has a lot of great jump scares and clever misdirection,
01:45all of this was pretty much ruined for anybody who saw the trailer.
01:48Number 9. Get Out
01:50In Get Out, a black man called Chris is anxious about meeting the family of his white girlfriend,
01:55Rose Armitage. When he arrives at their family estate, the Armitages appear friendly on the
02:00surface, but Chris suspects that they're hiding a terrible secret. Get Out was critically acclaimed,
02:05smashed it at the box office, and even snagged an Oscar for best original screenplay,
02:10which is a massive rarity in the horror genre. But if you watched the trailer, you'd assume Get
02:15Out was horror schlock instead of an unnerving psychological thriller. Not only does the teaser
02:20make the film look generic, it gives away way too much. In several shots, we see Rose's father,
02:25Dean, donning a surgical mask and prepping his medical tools while Chris is tied up. Although
02:30the viewer couldn't guess what sort of procedure Dean is going to perform on Chris,
02:35it's disappointing the trailer felt like including these clips. Even though first-time viewers might
02:39assume that the Armitage family holds ill will towards Chris, you'd still assume that Rose has
02:44genuine feelings for him. That is, unless you saw the trailer where she has a rifle train on his
02:50head. So that one's out of the bag. Number 8, Morgan. In Luke Scott's film debut, a bunch of
02:56scientists make an artificial human called Morgan from scratch. When her intelligence and abilities
03:01grow exponentially, the team worry they won't be able to stop her if she decides to turn against
03:06them. The first trailer is a perfect example of how to sell a horror film. The premise is clear,
03:11the titular character comes across as intriguing without giving too much away. There is mention of
03:17Morgan causing a dangerous incident, but we aren't told or shown the exact details. More importantly,
03:23the trailer makes it sound like Morgan is really a force to be reckoned with without actually showing
03:28us what she looks like. Unfortunately, the second trailer shows everything the story has to offer,
03:33discarding all intrigue and subtlety. We see Morgan's face, causing the character to lose her mystique.
03:39The incident which was hinted at in the initial promo was revealed in the second trailer, clear as
03:43day. And not only does it show Morgan attacking and killing people, it reveals that the character has
03:49psychic powers. Unfortunately, if you've seen this preview, you can probably work out everything
03:54that's going to happen in the film beat for beat. Number 7, Hereditary. Hereditary begins with Annie
04:00dealing with the death of her estranged mother. As she tries to pick up the pieces, she suffers
04:04another personal tragedy that turns her entire life upside down. As scary as Ari Aster's film is,
04:10Hereditary is far more terrifying if you watch the whole thing, not knowing what's coming around
04:15every subsequent corner. It's a long movie and the scares are spread out, but each one is totally
04:20worth it since this is one of the few horror dramas that takes its time developing the story and
04:25characters. Unfortunately, the trailer was cut in a way so the film looks like a jump scare frenzy.
04:32On top of that, it showed the most unnerving moments, including one of the main characters
04:36being burned to death. You also see Censored smacking their head off the attic door, spoiling one of the
04:42most terrifying shots in the entire movie. Fortunately, most of these shots, but not all of them, are at least
04:47revealed in jump cuts, so maybe you won't understand what's happening without context. That said,
04:52it's still way better to go in cult. 6. The Devil's Advocate
04:56In The Devil's Advocate, ruthless lawyer Kevin Lomax wins a seemingly unwinnable case,
05:02inspiring the world's biggest law firm to accept him into their ranks. In his new job,
05:06he's tutored by the firm head, John Milton, who promises to change Lomax's life for the better.
05:12Although he earns more money than he can spend, Lomax becomes wary of Milton's hedonistic lifestyle.
05:17Over time, Lomax realizes he has to get away from the law firm before it destroys him, body and soul.
05:24Even though there are hints Milton is more than he lets on, it's not revealed until the final act
05:29that he is the devil himself. But in the trailer, this fact is made unmistakably clear. We see him
05:35cursing God, talking about how he's had so many names over the ages, and how he's been around,
05:41quote, since the whole thing began. Just to ensure the viewer doesn't misinterpret Milton of being
05:46poetic with his words, we see him boiling holy water with his finger. It's a solid film, but if
05:51you've seen the trailer, there's no surprises to be seen. Number 5. From Dusk Till Dawn
05:56From Dusk Till Dawn follows a pair of bank robbers who go on the run after one of them kills a bank
06:02clerk. To evade the police, the duo take a family hostage and force the father to drive them all
06:07across the Mexican border. After passing through, they hide out in a strip club, only to learn the
06:12residents are vampires. What makes this discovery all the more mind-blowing is that the first half
06:17of the movie plays out like a straight action drama. There's no hint whatsoever the movie's
06:22going to take a supernatural turn, but at the 50-minute mark, vampires pop up and the rest of
06:27the movie turns into an undead gore fest. Of course, anybody who caught clips of the movie beforehand
06:33knew what was coming. Not only does the teaser show all sorts of vampiric monsters,
06:37it spoils the best shots, kills, and one-liners. If you keep your eyes peeled, you can see one shot
06:44depicting several characters escaping from the strip club during the day, proving that they
06:49survived the night. So not only does the trailer spoil the big surprise, it spoils who makes it
06:55out alive. Number 4. Quarantine
06:57Wreck was a Spanish fan footage horror released in 2007. It was a smash hit which inspired an American
07:04remake only one year later called Quarantine. The film follows a TV reporter called Angela and her
07:10camera operator getting trapped in a building that's been quarantined by the CDC. After a bit
07:15of exploring, they discover the residents have been turned into murderous mutants after being infected
07:21by a virus. The trailer shows many shots you'd expect, like Angela being chased and attacked by the
07:26infected. The very last shot shows Angela desperately trying to crawl to safety before being dragged into
07:33the darkness by one of the creatures. This shot became so iconic it was used for the movie's poster.
07:39What people may not have realized upon seeing this shot in the trailer is that it's actually the
07:43shot from the very end of the movie. Once Angela is dragged away, that's it. Credits roll.
07:49It's completely understandable that a trailer highlights the most exciting moments in a movie
07:53to sell tickets, but that's no excuse why the preview for Quarantine spoiled the very last frame.
07:59Number 3. Retreat. In Carl Tibbetts' thriller Retreat, Martin and Kate are a couple who's grown
08:05distant from one another after suffering a miscarriage. Hoping to rekindle their marriage,
08:10the pair journey to an island and settle in a remote cottage. While there, they discover a
08:15mysterious man who reveals a terrifying secret that may well change the world forever. On paper,
08:21Retreat sounds like it ticks all the right boxes. It has an intriguing premise and a wonderful cast,
08:26but if you are thinking about checking the film out, you have to avoid the teaser at all costs.
08:32Not only does this movie spoil the ending and the twist, it just spoils the whole thing straight
08:37from start to finish. The absolute worst kind of trailer. Retreat's trailer is so good at covering
08:42every facet of the story, it feels like it was strategically designed to ruin the movie.
08:47If you watch it, congratulations, you've basically seen the whole thing.
08:52Retreat isn't great, but if you're curious what happens, check out the preview and save yourself
08:56two hours. Number 2. Dream House. In Dream House, Will Atterton moves into his new home with his wife
09:02and two daughters. Everything seems hunky-dory at first, and then Will discovers that a man called
09:07Peter Ward supposedly killed his family in the house five years prior. Not ideal. Because Ward was
09:14recently released from a mental hospital, Will becomes worried that he may return to the house
09:18to kill again. When Will visits the institution that Ward stayed at, he discovers a horrifying truth.
09:24He is Peter Ward. Worse still, the family he's been living with is nothing more than a well-constructed
09:31delusion that he conjured in his mind. Sadly, plenty of people who saw the film were not as
09:36surprised by this revelation because the trailer told him about it. Even though the premise alone
09:40was intriguing enough to fill a trailer, the two and a half minute long teaser spent a good 75 seconds
09:46repeatedly telling the viewers about Will's true identity. The trailer doesn't spoil every twist,
09:53but a lot of potential viewers were turned off by it, believing the entire film had been ruined for
09:58them. Number 1. Carrie. In this Stephen King adaptation, a teenager called Carrie is bullied
10:04relentlessly by her overzealously religious mother and mean classmates. As she grows increasingly
10:10frustrated, Carrie discovers she can harness her emotions to move objects with her mind. When a popular
10:16student, Tommy, invites Carrie to the prom, she believes things are finally starting to look up.
10:21However, Carrie doesn't realize Tommy and his colleagues have rigged the ceremony ballot to
10:25ensure she's elected the prom queen. When she's on the ceremonial podium to collect her crown,
10:31the students drop a bucket of pig blood on her, humiliating the poor girl. This prank causes Carrie
10:36to snap, using her telekinetic powers to kill everybody in the room. Of course, whoever cut the
10:41trailer together couldn't help but ruin this iconic climax. Not only does the preview show Carrie's
10:47murdering everyone at the prom, we also see her use her telekinesis to kill John Travolta's
10:52character, crucify her mother, and burn her house down. Just to prove Hollywood never learned
10:57anything, or just assumed everyone knows the plot to carry by now, the 2013 remake spoils
11:03everything with its poster and trailer as well. That's the end of our list, but do let me know down
11:07in that comment section if you can think of any other horror movies that spoil the entire plot
11:12in the trailer. As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture. Thank you so much for hanging out
11:16with me. As always, you can come say hi to me on my Twitter account where I'm at JessMcDonnell if you
11:22want to, but make sure you stay tuned to us here for plenty more great lists.
11:25Thanks, guys.
11:27Thanks.
11:27Thanks, guys.
11:29Thanks for watching.
11:32Thanks, guys.
11:41Bye, guys.