AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHO AVOIDS WATCHING TRAILERS AND PROMOS?
There’s nothing worse than sitting down to watch a movie and realising you’ve seen all the best bits already in the trailer. OK, maybe there is one thing worse than that – having a film’s big twist or reveal spoilt by what you see in the trailer. Some trailers are less revealing than others, but too many feel the need to share the whole story, which kind of defeats the purpose of going to see the movie in the first place.
In case you haven’t worked it out, I’m quite spoiler-phobic. I don’t like knowing what’s coming – I find it takes away from the enjoyment if I’m anticipating plot developments all the way through a movie – and so I avoid watching trailers as much as possible. Trailers might clock up millions of views on YouTube as soon as they’re released, but I’m generally not adding to that tally.
For me, there’s nothing better than going into a film knowing very little about it and having no expectations about what I’ll watch for the next couple of hours. More often than not, I’m pleasantly surprised. Sometimes I’m blown away because I had no idea what was in store for me. Occasionally, I regret not being warned how awful a movie is.
Given my job, it’s not always possible for me to avoid trailers. For example, I’ve seen the one for upcoming film Jojo Rabbit (out Boxing Day) a handful of times at one screening or another – and I kind of feel like I’ve already seen the movie. And that’s a problem. Possibly not quite as big a problem as that caused by the polarising trailer for Cats (also out Boxing Day), which seems to have turned a lot of people off going to see the movie.
It’s not just movie advertising that I shun. I try to steer clear of ads and promos for TV shows as well, especially Australian reality TV series like The Amazing Race and Survivor, which, in their efforts to hype up each new episode, give far too much away. And yes, I’m wise to the fact that the promos often try to trick viewers into thinking one thing is going to happen and it turns out something else happens instead. I call that a reverse spoiler – “Oh, you’re trying to make me think that Contestant A is going to be eliminated? Then that must mean they’re safe and that it’s Contestant B who goes home instead.” I’m not new to this, you know.
It’s got to the point with Survivor where I’ll mute the TV and turn my head away during the “next time on Survivor” bit, and as soon as I stop seeing glimpses of blue water in my peripheral vision, I know it’s safe to turn the sound back on to hear what the eliminated contestant has to say for themselves. Crazy, right? But I’m not the only one who takes great lengths to avoid spoilers, am I? Am I? •