Pop-culture junkies in Anaheim got the sweetest fix of the year this past weekend, when the annual comics/movies/TV/videogames convention known as WonderCon came to town. Though the event does not enjoy the high profile of San Diego’s legendary Comic-Con that takes place every summer, a couple of new trailers for hotly anticipated films debuted at WonderCon regardless. Halls full of hyperventilating fans roared with approval when the trailers below made their premiere over the weekend, and now we non-Anaheimians may drink in their splendor as well. Enjoy, and take a moment to appreciate the fact that we can see these clips without weathering mile-long lines and dudes dressed as sexy Mortal Kombat characters. You’re the real heroes, WonderCon attendees.
Sinister 2
Clocking in at a slim 16 seconds, the new teaser for the follow-up to 2012’s excellent Sinister doesn’t offer much. The film’s something of a wild card at present, and the teaser doesn’t do much to clear it up. Though C. Robert Cargill and Scott Derrickson have stayed on as writers, Derrickson stepped down from the director’s chair and allowed Ciaran Foy to take over. A shift in creative personnel can make a world of difference. For a positive sign, the trailer’s brief inclusion of footage showing a running filmstrip inspires hope that the sequel will maintain its predecessor’s fixation on film as an object of obsession. That’s the lame thing about DCP; it doesn’t create fear the way good old-fashioned film does.
The trail of the tape
Title: Sinister 2
Director: Ciaran Foy
Screenwriter: C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson
Cast: Shannyn Sossamon, James Ransone, Jaden Klein
Release date: August 21, 2015
The entire trailer in one line of dialogue: “Tell anyone, and we’ll kill you and your whole family.”
The entire trailer in one screengrab:
Insidious: Chapter III
Audiences have already had their fair share of sneak peeks at the third installment of the Insidious franchise. (Which, along with Sinister, comes dangerously close to infringing on the horror title Nefarious. I have already called dibs on Nefarious. No one take that.) The newest trailer smartly refrains from giving too much away, instead providing a short clip of Stefanie Scott consulting a soothsayer to contact her deceased mother. It’s pretty unsettling, though it also provides sad support for that unfortunate saying, “There are no roles for women of a certain age in Hollywood, apart from creepy psychics.” Think of it as an amuse-bouche—a scary amuse-bouche!
The trail of the tape
Title: Insidious: Chapter 3
Director: Leigh Whannell
Screenwriter: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Lin Shaye
Release date: June 5, 2015
The entire trailer in one line of dialogue: “If you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you.”
The entire trailer in one screengrab:
And one more, not debuted at WonderCon, but first making itself known over the weekend.
Avengers: Age Of Ultron
With a few short weeks separating audiences from the sequel to The Avengers, there’s not much left to tease. Iron Man says something snippy, as is his wont. Thor chuckles heartily, as is his wont. Black Widow executes a stunt defying death and the very laws of physics all while keeping her coiffure perfectly in place, as is her wont. For this comics nerd, the biggest revelation is the Eastern European accent that Aaron Taylor-Johnson is evidently bringing to Quicksilver. This would suggest that showrunner Joss Whedon will continue adhering to Marvel’s Ultimates mythology that guided the plot of 2012’s The Avengers, in which Quicksilver and his sister Scarlet Witch are understood to be Magneto’s Romanian-born children. (Last year’s X-Men: Days Of Future Past took a different route, cheekily suggesting that Magneto may be Quicksilver’s deadbeat dad without really addressing the point.) My assumption, however, is that Whedon won’t be 100 percent devout with the Ultimates source material; I feel like an incestuous relationship between two of the leads might be a hard sell in tentpole season.
The trail of the tape
Title: Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Director: Joss Whedon
Screenwriter: Joss Whedon
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, James Spader, Scarlett Johansson
Release date: May 1, 2015
The entire trailer in one line of dialogue: “Let's show ’em what we got.”
The entire trailer in one screengrab:
