13 Days of Halloween: The Scariest Trailer

You know how in horror movies, the victims-to-be always open the forbidden doors, no matter how loudly you yell, “Don’t go in there!” at the screen? Well, Culture Surfing can’t resist counting down the days to Halloween with examples of the biggest scares in pop culture, across multiple media. Think of them as the razor-blade apples in your Trick-or-Treat bag.

Let’s creak that door open by asking, “What’s the scariest movie trailer?” Frankly, the kinds of trailers that scare me most are the ones like this or especially this. Most contemporary horror trailers these days culminate with a memorably loud, often visually incoherent jolt at the audience. Today’s sneak previews can’t hold a candle to the Exorcist-influenced trailers of the 1970s, which often had a fever-dream quality that made their cheapness even more unnerving. Perhaps I’m biased because I was a kid in the 70s, but the TV commercials for the likes of Suspiria, and It’s Alive never failed to freak me out. Most menacing at all was the trailer for Magic, an Anthony Hopkins psych0-ventriloquist flick from 1978. “Fats” the evil dummy terrorized my younger self at movie theaters and on late night TV:

Does it leave you unfazed? Okay, Mr. Braveboots, what’s a scarier one?