Best of the Dark Side: 13 Bonechilling Horror Movie Trailers

The "Dark Movie Trailers" page was probably the most difficult page of links to keep updated. Apple.com's fabulous Trailers archive didn't quite exist yet (and even when it did, I was careful to keep backup links to good trailers at other places in case Apple ever decided to shutter their archive). Understandably, movie trailer pages took up a lot of bandwidth, so they'd shut down often. I didn't want to direct link to the Quicktime .mov files, as that would be rude, and tried to avoid linking to overly spammy, pop-up ad-laden doorway pages.

Still, the payoff was worth it, as I found so many fun horror trailers to watch and to share with you guys!

1. Alien: The Director's Cut

A scary trailer for the 25th anniversary of the film.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/alien_25/

2. An American Haunting

I found this trailer extremely visually interesting and well edited. Perhaps it didn't do its job, as I never went to see the movie. But that was probably due to a lack of time in a busy year. It's not often Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland stoop to doing a horror film together. Now on revisiting this trailer tonight, I might have to Netflix the film soon.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/anamericanhaunting/

3. The Corpse Bride

Ok, I know the title of this post has the term "Bonechilling" in it, and "The Corpse Bride" is not at all spooky or scary. Nor very chilling. But I can't help it, I have to list this trailer here because it's so fun to watch. Quite unlike the movie, which I found a bit boring and disappointing. A Tim Burton fan, I still dutifully own the DVD, but I don't reach for it to rewatch it. Still, the trailer is beautiful.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/corpse_bride/

4. Dark Water

The trailer for some reason actually creeped me out so much I didn't want to see the movie. I'm not afraid of water, so I'm not sure why I was so disturbed by this trailer. In retrospect, hearing how incredibly bad it was, I'm glad I didn't.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/dark_water/

5. The Exorcist

This trailer, with its attempt at inducing seizures using black-and-white flashes, is actually quite surprisingly frightening. I can't believe they unleashed this on a simpler, more innocent public back in the day. Eek.

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-exorcist/trailer

6. The Grudge

Great editing, a barely-seen ghost, plus a breathy voiceover from Sarah Michelle Gellar, make this trailer actually quite creepy.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/the_grudge/

7. The Haunting

Is it the narrator's creaky, creepy voice that makes this trailer so scary? The movie was cheesy (C'mon, Catherine Zeta-Jones?) but Lili Taylor saved it for me, and the visual effects were interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EBuaPXTJA

8. The Messengers

Another crappy film with a nice spooky trailer. I'm always a sucker for horror trailers with weird little babies.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/themessengers/

9. The Omen

This remake trailer made the list because of my favorite scene from the trailer: The nanny climbing up on the roof, saying "Damien, look at me Damien. It's all for you!" and then jumping off the building. Ha, ha.

http://www.spike.com/video/omen-trailer/2724397

10. Pan's Labyrinth

The film itself won three Oscars, but I think the trailer editor should have won some awards too! Stunningly beautiful work.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/picturehouse/panslabyrinth/

11. Poltergeist

Laugh if you need to, but this trailer really made an impression on me when I was a kid. (I was 13 when the movie came out). Carol-Anne saying "They're Heeeeeere" was of course what intrigued me and made me beg to see the film.

http://www.movie-list.com/p/poltergeist.html

12. The Ring

This trailer did a fantastic job of getting people into the theaters. Fantastic sound editing and music.

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-ring/trailer

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-ring/trailer-b

13. The Shining

It's all about those nasty elevator doors.

http://www.movie-list.com/s/shining.html

--Carrie Carolin

http://www.darklinks.com