Teaser trailers are an art, relying more on inference than on marketing. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy had great teasers. P.T. Anderson’s recent film The Master had a great teaser. In fact, teasers are so tantalizing and effective, some films choose to only use teasers for trailers. Case in point, Room 237, a documentary about the mysteries and hidden messages of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (and for those who don’t remember, Room 237 in The Shining is that room with the naked old lady ghost in it).
My favorite bit of press buzz from this trailer is from Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman. He describes the documentary as, “An amazing experience. A veritable Kubrickian Da Vinci code. It’s criticism infused with the power of conspiracy theory.” Can I get a “What?” My interest is certainly piqued. Did we all completely miss something about Kubrick’s The Shining? Was Kubrick sending covert messages to the Illuminati? I mean, I know it’s a mysterious, psychological horror-thriller, but come on…essentially it’s a haunted house story — a genre that by its very nature defies complete explanation.
My guess is this documentary is going to be populated by film nuts and weirdos who’ve “decoded” the mysteries of the film. Which is to say this is going to be very entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking. The best part about these kinds of documentaries is they remind audiences you can always see something new in something you’ve already seen. It’s a good message for the cinema arts.
I give this trailer three and a half stars. This trailer is the right kind of hype. It also makes me miss that bloody machine, the VCR (ha. aren’t I funny?).