If I had epilepsy, this trailer would trigger a seizure. There is some pretty heavy plot elements happening in these two and half minutes, so I tried hard to concentrate on what the story was about, but the clips were so choppy, I got nauseous. Not only are the clips truncated, but each one ends in a whole fade to black. It’s very sloppy. It’s as though the trailer author recently found the fade to black button and wanted to use it…a lot. I love the effect, don’t get me wrong, but only when it is used sparingly, with a point. It is very good as a transition. Many trailer’s use it to emphasize a reveal or a plot twist. Fast & Furious used it very nicely at the end of their first trailer, punctuating the overlayed music. This trailer uses the effect to give me a headache.
I feel like the author is teasing me. The short tidbits of scenes do not give me time to focus on the actors or action. I get almost a peripheral view of who the actors are, enough to think, ”Oh, that might be so-and-so.” From this trailer, I get the feeling that I could simply rent Die Hard 3, or 88 Minutes, or Ransom, which have the same sort of forced time limit, puzzle game atmosphere. I get nothing from this trailer to make me think there is anything novel or innovative in this film. The main actor is a wrestler, but I could go see a Dwayne “The” Johnson movie for that. The villian sounds suspiciously like a bad John Malkovich impersontor, but I could watch Con-Air for that. If I want cool actions stunts, I’d rather watch Die Hard 4, or any other action film that puts all its energy into awesome action scenes.
This trailer refused to answer my biggest question I have when I watch previews:
Why should I bother?
Rating: 
I have disliked this trailer since the first moment I saw it, which is why I’ve been avoiding the review of it. I just think it is too blah. There isn’t anything terribly intriguing that would make me want to see the film. The effects are nothing special. The plot has been done before, so it’s nothing to write home about. I was never very taken with the escaping witch series, but at least the old-school films had something eerie about their style and tone. I still think fondly of those films because they creep me right out. This new rip-off looks much too slicked up and sassy; it’s lost any of its old appeal.
A trailer reflects the tone of the film; that’s obvious and self-explanatory, right? Of course. Ideally. However, a trailer like The Haunting in Connecticut perfectly demonstrates the idea that the trailer is a mini version of the film. The most obvious example I can point out is that there is a definate beginning, middle, and end to this trailer. It probably is not the same three points as the real film, but for the trailer, it works perfectly. It leaves the viewer satisfied. 
Yikes! There are three movie plots crammed into this dinky little trailer! How much information do they expect us to process in just three and a half minutes? Adam Sandler’s funny, Seth Rogen’s funny, Adam Sandler’s dying, now he’s not dying, now he’s a home wrecker. Yeesh. It should have ended with a simple Adam Sandler may not be dying, that gives the essential conflict without having the whole film laid out.
Despite what my friends will tell you, I was not the only person in our group to say “What are they counting to?” when we first saw the new Friday the 13th trailer. Plus, I figured it out quickly enough, so there. Although these trailers aren’t any longer than other theatrical trailers, for some reason, with them counting to 13, it feels like they go on forever. I get that they are trying to be clever, and I also like the nostalgia it conjures from the original film’s trailer, but it did seem to drag a little.
The new film’s trailer is a little less blatant. It uses some clever editing (i.e. fades, flashes, quick cuts) to try to detract from the fact that they are still giving away the murders…only more creatively. We can still gleen who’s going to bite it when, but it happens in such quick sucession, we tend to doubt what our eyes just saw. The quick cuts are slightly misleading, but essentially we’re shown the murders. 
I know this film has been out for a while, but I enjoyed the trailer so much, I needed to review it anyway. I’m not usually a fan of ensemble pieces; I usually get invested in one or two of the characters and get bored when the others are on screen. However, this film does a really good job of balancing the time and energy put into developing each character. 
It’s like when you hear someone yell, “I’m gonna puke,” and you look. You knew what you were about to see; you didn’t really expect anything different. If that wasn’t what you wanted to see, you simply should not have looked. Yeah…that’s this trailer. I don’t know what I was expecting from a trailer of the sequel to Waiting. I guess this is about it.
