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Pet Peeve: When A Poster Spoils the Last Shot of the Movie

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Last year I shared one of my biggest pet peeves with all of you: when a movie trailer contains major spoilers. That happened with The Lazarus Effect, as well as several other films I mentioned. As it turns out, it’s not just trailers that spoil movies (shocker, I know)! All too often a film’s poster will give away key scenes from a movie. Sometimes they even give away the film’s ending. It could be argued that it’s not really a spoiler if you don’t know the film’s ending, but the viewing experience is tainted if you’re sitting there watching a movie and suddenly realize you’ve already seen the film’s ending.

I was recently enduring (yes, that is the right choice of words) the 2012 Todd Lincoln bomb The Apparition because I’m working on a post that ranks all of the Dark Castle Entertainment horror films (What can I say? They’re guilty pleasures of mine.). While doing a bit of research on the turd, I happened across the film’s poster, which looks like this:

the-apparition-poster

Based on the domestic box office gross of $9.6 million, it would seem that most of you reading this opted not to see the film. If that is the case, good on you! You dodged a bullet. The Apparition consists primarily of watching Ashley Greene and Sebastian Stan walk around their house…doing nothing. At a scant 82 minutes, the film is still far too long. It feels like a short film that was stretched out to feature length. The mostly talented cast of Greene, Stan, Tom Felton and Julliana Guill are completely wasted, but I digress. I did not come here to criticize a film that doesn’t need anymore criticism (its 3% Rotten Tomatoes score is harsh enough). I came here to bring up a marketing trend that just doesn’t make any sense. Look at the poster above, and then watch the clip below. I should warn you that this video showcases the final minutes of The Apparition, but you weren’t going to watch the whole movie anyway, right?

You can’t even get mad at me for posting spoilers here, because the film’s poster is one big giant spoiler! Admittedly, the ending is the best part of The Apparition, so the studio didn’t have much else to work with. It’s almost as if Lincoln had this ending in his head and  wrote 75 pages of a screenplay just so he could get to film this one scene. The quality of the scene aside, why would any studio choose to spoil a movie’s ending with its poster? It does not make any sense.

It’s not like this is the first time this has happened either. Does anyone remember the poster for Quarantine, the 2009 remake of [REC]?

2008-quarantine-1

Maybe this one shouldn’t be qualified as a spoiler since Quarantine is almost a shot-for-shot remake if [REC], but how many regular Americans (and by “regular” I mean people who don’t live and breathe horror like us) do you think knew that going into the movie? This is a mean-spirited joke that isn’t particularly funny.

As you may know, The Apparition and Quarantine are not the only movies to pull this little stunt with their marketing. Here are a slew of other films over the past few decades that have deemed it necessary to feature the film’s ending in the poster:

carrie   drag-me-to-hell

prometheus   the-wicker-man

Why do studios do this? Clearly it’s not that they think the movie is a stinker because the four posters above are all for great movies (unless you’re not a Prometheus fan, anyway). It does seem to be a lack of confidence on their part though.

What other posters have you seen that feature major spoilers? Why do you think studios deem it necessary to do something like this? Let us know in the comments below!

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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