Movie trailers have been an important part of film marketing for almost as long as there have been movies. They exist to give audiences just a tiny taste of the movie in order to get them wanting more, but over the years they’ve evolved to be more complicated, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Instead of just giving audiences a glimpse of the movie, trailers often give away the best moments, or worse yet, accidentally reveal spoilers that would work best as a surprise. Trailers have become so overladen that some movie fans have opted to avoid watching them at all out of an abundance of caution, which sounds like the opposite effect of what marketers want.
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And then there’s the full trailer for Danny Boyle’s “28 Weeks Later,” which is nearly two minutes long yet doesn’t give anything away — in fact, it gives audiences more new questions than answers. It’s a masterclass in movie trailers that keeps its cards close to the chest, only doling out the tiniest hints of the nightmare to come. The trailer for “28 Weeks Later” is almost guaranteed to leave fans wanting more, and that’s exactly what a trailer is supposed to do.
The 28 Years Later trailer is a drip-feed of details
In the first “28 Years Later” trailer, released in December 2024, fans learned that the movie will follow a father and son after they leave the safety of their island community and go out into the world, where both the virus-mutated infected and other desperate survivors lurk. All of the trademarks of a good post-apocalyptic horror are there and the story seems like it will be something like “The Road” meets “The Walking Dead,” though we don’t know too much about the plot itself beyond that. We also don’t know the exact status of the survivors from the previous film, “28 Weeks Later,” and leaving them a bit of a mystery is a good way to get audiences in seats. Since “28 Years Later” is planned to spawn a trilogy all of its own, with a follow-up helmed by “Candyman” director Nia DaCosta, fans of the franchise are chomping for details, and that means the trailer’s “less is more” attitude is absolutely perfect.
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There are still plenty of details for fans to pore over, but the quick pacing of the trailer and the selection of shots means they’re really just hints of details — like the carefully cropped bloated monster infected we can see for a few seconds at the bottom of the frame, or a quick clip of graves with names that fans can scour to see if there’s anyone they recognize. Instead of relying on the draw of returning star power or revealing the whole plot in order to draw audiences in, the trailer delivers what it will feel like to watch “28 Years Later,” and that’s a rare and wonderful thing.
The 28 Weeks Later trailer is all about violent vibes
The creepy poem from the previous “28 Years Later” trailer is back, but this time they added a beat to it, making a truly unsettling soundtrack to accompany the bits of dialogue that pepper the trailer. We see and hear Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Jamie talk about the importance of their secluded home and make his case for taking the young Spike (Alfie Williams) with him on a journey across the heavily-guarded causeway that connects the island to the mainland. Otherwise the trailer seems isn’t interested in showing us characters or revealing the plot. It’s all about the oppressive, terrifying vibes of being a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world. The trailer recalls the editing style of the original “28 Days Later,” with odd angles and quick cuts of chaos to unnerve and disorient the viewer. Combined with the poem, distorted feedback sounds, and some rather pointed bits of choral chanting, it’s enough to make even the most hard-boiled horror fan feel a bit unsettled.
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The horror genre can be the worst offender when it comes to bad trailers, often giving away the best scares and craziest moments in an effort to entice audiences. The marketing for “28 Years Later” so far has shown that it’s possible to create a compelling and creepy horror trailer (for a sequel, no less!) without revealing much at all.
Thankfully fans won’t have to wait too long to find out exactly how the virus has mutated and the world has changed in “28 Years Later,” because it hits theaters later this year on June 20, 2025.
