One of many first articles I wrote once I joined ScreenCrush some (gulp) eight years in the past was an inventory of current trailers with unhappy cowl variations of fashionable songs. On the time, they appeared to be in every single place. Within the wake of the trailer for The Social Community — which paired pictures of social media with the sounds of a ladies’s choir singing Radiohead’s “Creep” to good impact — the idea of inserting bleak and/or haunting renditions of fashionable songs into trailers had exploded. It appeared price documenting, in order that’s what I did.
A yr and a half later, I had sufficient examples for a second record. Two years after that, I did one other. A fourth adopted within the fall of 2020. And now right here we sit, two years later, and there are nonetheless so many trailers like this — not only for films, however for tv reveals and video video games as effectively.
Will I ever cease writing these lists? Sure, if Hollywood trailer editors cease making them. Virtually eight years later, they hold churning them out. Listed below are 10 newer examples.
1. The Tremendous Mario Bros. Film
That includes “The Tremendous Mario Bros. Theme”
Who might neglect the upbeat cheerful sounds of the theme to Tremendous Mario Bros.? That sound is about as iconic as online game music will get. And that’s one of many causes to twist and decelerate a basic music in a trailer; to make folks really feel heat and fuzzy by reminding them of one thing they know and love, after which to twist that music in a brand new route as if to subliminally counsel the movie delivers a novel method to one thing the viewer already is aware of and loves. Slowing down that Mario Bros. theme, and taking part in it on a twinkly piano, suggests this film is a grand, mind-blowing journey.
2. Black Panther: Wakanda Endlessly
That includes “No Girl, No Cry”
That is undoubtedly an fascinating instance of the unhappy cowl music trope. The trailer begins with a melancholic cowl of Bob Marley’s “No Girl, No Cry” however ultimately that offers solution to Kendrick Lamar’s extra upbeat “Alright.” I haven’t seen Wakanda Endlessly but, however the mixture of songs appears to acknowledge the grief followers collectively really feel concerning the dying of Chadwick Boseman, whereas implying that the franchise will by some means discover a solution to transfer on in his absence.
3. Purple Rocket
That includes “Bye Bye Bye”
Right here is one other significant use of this concept. Purple Rocket is a couple of down-on-his-luck porn star who returns house after years in Los Angeles. The unique “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC got here out throughout the character’s glory days; taking part in a tragic model within the trailer underscores simply how far he’s fallen all these years later.
4. Final Night time in Soho
That includes “Downtown”
The music “Downtown” by Petula Clark takes on main significance in Edgar Wright’s Final Night time in Soho, so utilizing it within the trailer shouldn’t be merely making an attempt to capitalize on a development. (After all, as related as it’s to the content material of the particular film, it nonetheless qualifies right here as effectively.)
5. Slumberland
That includes “Clocks”
Sure, that’s an instrumental (and considerably somber) model of Coldplay’s “Clocks” that performs throughout the trailer to Netflix’s Slumberland. As you’re about to see, Netflix is a fan of unhappy covers of pop songs in trailers.
6. Wendell & Wild
That includes “How You Like Me Now?”
Jordan Peele is one other fan of unhappy covers — or no less than cleverly downbeat remixes — in his trailers. A model of “I Bought 5 On It” was used within the trailer for Us; Nope messed with the tempo of Stevie Marvel’s “Fingertips.” Peele’s animated film with director Henry Selick, Wendell & Wild, makes use of a sinister cowl model of The Heavy’s “How You Like Me Now?”
7. M3GAN
That includes “It’s Good to Have a Good friend”
It isn’t good to have a pal, you see. The truth is, in case your pal is a sophisticated synthetic intelligence that appears like a bit woman however murders folks like Jason Voorhees on steroids it’s not good in any respect. That’s the ironic level of that music alternative. Simply need to be certain we’re all on the identical web page right here.
8. Dumbo
That includes “Child Mine”
The unique “Child Mine” isn’t precisely a toe-tapper; it’s a lullaby sung by Mrs. Jumbo to Dumbo. So the model right here isn’t fairly a unhappy cowl of a well-liked music. Extra an even-more-sad-and-operatic model of a well-liked music, and its use signifies the epic feelings of this live-action remake. (No less than that was the intent.)
9. Midnight Suns
That includes “Enter Sandman”
Though this development is finest identified from film trailers, adverts for different issues have gotten into the act too. This Marvel online game, for instance, has a tragic cowl of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” I think about the phrases “Exit mild / Enter evening” have been the first purpose the music was chosen for a sport concerning the superhero crew Midnight Suns.
10. The Magicians
That includes “This Magic Second”
Do you get it? As a result of they’re magicians? And the music is “This Magic Second”? You get it.
The Greatest Pretend Film Trailers From Precise Movies
We love when actual films characteristic phony trailers for nonexistent films. Listed below are the 15 funniest ones ever made:
