You’ve probably seen advertisements for the horror flick Primeval — opening today in theaters nationwide — touting that the film is "inspired by the true story of the most prolific serial killer in history," that this monstrous killer has taken "over 300 victims," and that "to this day, he remains at large." You probably wouldn’t guess, however, that this killer is, in fact, a giant crocodile.
Besides the fact that this ad campaign is just plain misleading, it irks me to no end that the marketing team for Hollywood Pictures thinks they’ll attract audiences by calling a serial killer "prolific" — like, you know, Stephen King’s prolific, or Rachael Ray. Which is not to say necessarily that the movie is bad, but since it also did not screen for critics in advance, consider this Popwatch PSA fair warning before you plunk down your money for a ticket.
Speaking of big crocs — what other movies have had deceptive ad campaigns?
Comments (1-30) of 47 Add your comment
Most recently “ATL”…i mean, it looked like a gritty urban drama, but who knew it was really about…hanging at a skating rink. Yeesh.
Until it’s release date, the ads for the movie Chicago didn’t let on it was a musical.
Someone told me Primeval was about lions.
Hmmmm…
well… it’s not misleading like Primeval but Notes on a Scandal is pretty much just an extended version of its trailer.
I thought it was about mud. The silent killer.
I think one of the biggest misleading ad campaigns, or at least titles, belongs to an awful teen movie from last year: “John Tucker Must Die.” SPOILER ALERT: Not only does John Tucker NOT die, but he grows as a human being throughout the course of the movie. Absolutely shocking.
Primeval”s ????????
The Village. It was promoted as another horror/thriller epic from M. Night Shyamalan, and instead, it was a really bad and really boring period piece with bad dialogue and an ending anyone could see coming. Who knew?
The Family Stone was supposed to be this hilarious comedy. Who knew that when you got to the center of that tootsie-pop it was just death and grief?
I’ve said this before when Lady In The Water came out; campaigns like this may have the small chance of getting people in the theater the first weekend by tricking them, but its also an awesome way to have people hate your movie. When people go in expecting scares or something that was falsely promised to them, they’re going to be disappointed no matter what. They better hope they fool a lot of people because word of mouth and internet backlash will end up destroying them the second week.
Speaking of reptiles, up until its release date I thought Rocky Balboa was about Rocky fighting a boa constrictor named Bal. Imagine my disappointment after sitting through that film and not seeing one single snake.
Fatima, I’m with you. Ever since M.Knights The Village, I don’t trust anything of his that I see.
L.I.T.W was D.O.A since there was a lot of behind the scenes studio dram-uh.
Err…correct me if I am wrong but, I could have sworn that the “giant killer crocodile” idea was done in the stinker “Lake Placid”?
The Break-Up was advertised as a comedy in the vein of Wedding Crashers…not the two hour suck-fest it really was.
just goes to show…people need to do their research.
correction: the village was not a period piece. it was set in modern day. if you followed the story at all, you’d know that.
The Mummy. The ads on this one led me to believe it was going to be a scary movie with eerie effects. Instead is was a pg-13 rated BRENDAN FRASER romantic comedy. It was so misleading AND bad that my friends stopped letting me pick the movie for months afterwards.
To go way back, when I saw the trailer for “Ever After” with Drew Barrymore, I swore I’d never ever ever see it–marketed as a teen romance, with bad techno music in the trailer. The trailer was also edited to change the meaning of certain bits of dialogue and certain shots. Then I was in a situation where I couldn’t get out of seeing it, and…I found it to be nothing like its trailer, and actually quite fun. Jerks.
The Drew Barrymore movie – Riding in Cars with Boys – was made to look like a comedy, but it was a very depressing movie.
“Snow Dogs.” I seem to recall it being marketed as a talking dogs picture, when in fact the dogs only talked during one scene when Cuba Gooding Jr. was coming down from a horrible acid trip. Or something like that.
I didn’t see them, but I’m told “Man of the Year” was nothing like it’s trailer, and “Happy Feet” turned out to be a depressing environmental public service announcement.
Are you kidding, Mike? You didn’t know “Chicago” was a musical?
I knew Chicago was a musical. The ads showed no singing and very little dancing.
I agree with E, Happy Feet was a public service announcement with dancing, plus The Ringer was misadvertised. In the commercial you see Johnny Knoxville make fun of the severely mentally developed but that was about five minutes of the movie and had absolutley nothing to do with the plot and message.
I don’t remember what “Man of the Year” was about because I ended up falling asleep in it. Good nap, though.
Misleading? Anything with Dane Cook. He’s supposedly funny. He’s not.
Normally I’d be all mad at you for spoiling it, but thank you for spoiling it. You saved me $10.
See, now I’m torn. Misleading ad campaigns? Pointless and annoying. Movies about killer crocodiles? Still pointless and annoying, but also awesome. Guess I’ll just catch it on the SciFi channel in a couple of weeks.
Mike (one of the first comments) – please tell me you were joking that Chicago ‘didn’t let on it was a musical’.
I’ve been getting Primeval and The Hitcher totally confused. So at first I thought that the Sean Bean film (talk about slumming, dude — from LOTR to this crap?) was actually a crocodile movie, and I couldn’t figure out what the two teens from the trailer were doing in Burundi. Thanks for clearing that up.
Warning: I am cranky today so take it with a bit of salt.
I hate trailers that are purposely misleading, but what I hate even more are the trailers that give away the ENTIRE plot of the movie. Don’t tell me all of the plot twists, or I won’t show up in the theater to see the darn thing! I love a trailer that just sets the tone of the movie, and gives a taste of what the characters and conflict might be. I guess it means they have to be more creative, and we all know the movie industry has been low on creativity for some time now.
The ads, like the trailer, highlighted the murders and prison. There is a snippet of “All that Jazz”. You see showgirls. The musical aspect wasn’t the focus of the ads. I had never seen the Broadway show. I had no idea there were so many songs. I loved by the way and saw it three times. That’s why I remember it.
“Angel Eyes” — trailer made it look like a supernatural, “Sixth Sense” thing, but it was a conventional story about two shattered people healing together.