Straw Dogs

Rob Lurie remakes the 1971 film with stars James Marsden and Kate Bosworth and Screen Gems puts together a great dramatic trailer.

What Was Good

The storytelling was very good. By starting in crisis, the trailer was able to attract immediate attention before shifting back in time to set up the story and explain what was going on. The editors did a good job of not only capturing the tension between Skarsgård and his cronies attacking Marsden and Bosworth’s house, but capturing the tension between Marsden and Bosworth as well. The editing was crisp and clean and the trailer ended with a great montage supported by a good soundtrack. The use of captions added a lot to the drama of the trailer as well. Overall, it was very well done.

What Wasn’t So Good?

While the storytelling and editing were very good, it went a little long by running almost three minutes in length. This isn’t too much of a problem though because it did give a great sense of what the movie was about. The ending was gross and uncalled for, however. Sometimes is it a common theme at the end of a movie trailer to “gross out” or shock an audience such as The Human Centipede trailer did but for Straw Dogs, it was completely unnecessary. It was already established that things were going to get nasty and it would have been a much better if the trailer ended sooner or with a different clip.  

Will People Go See It?

Judging by this trailer, people should go see this movie. Straw Dogs gives Marsden the chance to display his acting chops in a role other than “Cyclops” or “the stoned guy” in Death at a Funeral by having to fill the shoes of Dustin Hoffman, who previously played the character of David Sumner in the original forty years ago. I was very impressed with Marsden’s and Bosworth’s performance in this well-executed preview and it certainly gave me a slight chill after I watched it. This first trailer definitely caught my interest and I hope the movie doesn't let me down.

Other Great Related Movie Trailers

1.) Cost of a Soul

2.) The Devil’s Double

3.) Wrecked