Amy Winehouse, an iconic songwriter and performer, achieved international fame, struggled through a broken marriage and substance abuse, and died tragically at age 27. The official trailer for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s new biopic Back to Black opens with Winehouse (played by Marisa Abela) picking up an acoustic guitar to write a song, while in the background a bell tolls and strings swell on the same pitch.

As a remake of the 1994 original, this update of a cult classic recounts how musician Eric Draven exacts supernatural revenge on the anniversary of his and his fiancée’s murder. Rooted in action and fantasy, the original was known for Brandon Lee’s performance as Draven; this mantle is taken up by Bill Skarsgård (It, John Wick: Chapter 4), with FKA Twigs assuming the role of his fiancée, Shelly Webster.

Several soon-to-be-released films poke irreverent fun at the action film genre, including Boy Kills World (out April 26th) and Deadpool & Wolverine (out July 26th). Another example, which we explore in this week’s blog, is David Leitch’s new film The Fall Guy. This film’s Official Trailer #2 re-works Journey’s 1980 hit “Any Way You Want It.” The use of an arena rock hit song from 40+ years ago immediately jolts us out of the expected action film trailer tropes of suspenseful synthesizers and deep dramatic drums (but don’t worry: this trailer uses them as well!). It involves a comedic take on a stuntman (played by Ryan Gosling) who—while in love with the director of an action film (Emily Blunt)—goes on a chase after a movie’s missing star (named Tom Ryder).

Resisting the rumour that the sequel might well be more akin to a jukebox musical than a drama that incorporates musical numbers per se, the first full trailer for the se- quel to 2019’s Joker exhibits some restraint in this regard. Instead, it opts for a mea- sured orchestration for a single song. “What the World Needs Now is Love”, a 1965 classic composed by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David. It was first made popular in a performance by Jackie DeShannon and now finds a revival here.

On its way to theatres in a few weeks is Challengers, a sports-romance film about a love triangle surrounding tennis star-turned-coach Tashi (Zendaya). The film’s second official trailer is cut to a remix of Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado’s song “Maneater” from her 2006 album Loose.

Notably a new idea in a sea of sequels, reboots, and franchise entries that tend to emanate from Hollywood, IF is an imaginative entry directed by John Krasinski (The Office; A Quiet Place) focused on the conceit of reuniting lost imaginary friends with the children who conceived of them.

The recent teaser trailer for Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has been garnering a lot of YouTube attention. It’s a simple trailer with three scenes and some slow-moving music. But wow does it ever pack in a lot of visual and musical nostalgia from Beetlejuice - that creepy 1988 fantasy-comedy classic. In case you haven’t seen Beetlejuice, the film’s title character (Michael Keaton) is a ghoulish “bio-exorcist” who emerges from a model village in the attic of a couple named Barbara and Adam.

Twisters looks—and sounds—as squarely focused on its subject matter as the original 1996 blockbuster hit, albeit this time of course incorporating the impact of climate change. Throughout the trailer, sound design comes to the fore, with what one might typically consider music taking a back seat to the proceedings.

As the unabashed fourth entry in a franchise that’s as popular as it is, well, despised, this trailer wastes no time at all indulging the audioviewer with instantly recognizable ear candy. From the first second, that quintessential guitar riff from Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” whisks us back to the world of Gru and his minions.

The First Omen (directed by Arkasha Stevenson) is a return to the origins of the Omen film series that brought us the classic horror film character Damien, who is supposed to represent the Antichrist. The First Omen is set in Rome, and is a prequel to the 1976 film The Omen. The symbolism of the Antichrist and the act of returning to the origins of a decades-old film franchise both point to the concept of “going backwards.” But this trailer takes the concept of “backwards” literally and has a field day with it.

One of the quirkiest superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Deadpool. His character loves to parody the superhero film genre, and the music for the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine trailer plays along, giving us hyperactive EDM grooves which seem to purposefully overuse several trailer music clichés including the BRAAAM sound, ticking clocks, and “trailer triplets.”

A new idea in a movie industry landscape rife with sequels and franchise instalments is almost always worth celebrating, and this is certainly true for Damsel, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Millie Bobby Brown. A central idea of the film appears to be to play on our expectations of the story and aesthetic of well-worn fairy tale tropes; the way the trailer’s musical arrangement hews to this idea displays a similar commitment to originality through subverting our aural expectations.

This week sees the theatrical release of Madame Web, a Sony film based on Marvel Comics character Cassie Web, a Manhattan paramedic who can see the future. I love how this trailer uses music and sound reminiscent of the “glitch” genre of electronic music to reinforce the main character’s glitching between different realities, past and present.

The latest offering from A24 shows no hint of slowing down on the type of off-kilter, thoughtful cinema the studio is known for. The first half minute of the trailer focuses on atmospheric sounds amidst a dramatic dialogue, clearly establishing that a new civil war has broken out in what seems to be a near-future United States. Swirling strings and a muted siren presage the din of a panicked crowd, leading up to an audiovisual blackout at 0:27 with the diegetic click of a camera shutter—a strong indicator that a photojournalist features prominently in the film.

Australian director George Miller’s reboot of his Mad Max series of films continues this summer, with the release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Story, a prequel to the block- buster Mad Max Fury Road (2015). We analyze a lot of action film trailers on our Trailaurality blog, and I love that instead of simply building towards a predictable se- ries of “trailer triplets,” this Furiosa trailer does more with less: it occupies vast spaces between dialogue, using sound design, thoughtful instrumental layering and unusual time signatures to create suspenseful builds.

Coming from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss as well as Alexander Woo, the streaming series 3 Body Problem is a sci-fi thriller based on a trilogy of books of the same name by Chinese author Liu Cixin. Its screen adaptation for Netflix was undoubtedly spurred in part by the series being recommended by Games of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin, in addition to multiple high profile public figures such as Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg.

Sonically, the Official Trailer for Masters of the Air is broken into five distinct sections which flow from one into the next: a micro-teaser; an ambient love theme; a suspenseful build; an air battle sequence filled with combat sound design; then a triumphant rendering of the earlier love theme. Masters of the Air is an upcoming Apple TV+ miniseries about US Air Force pilots and their raids over Nazi Germany, starring Austin Butler (The Bikeriders, Elvis).

It’s been an eventful year for film trailers, and 2023 had much to offer on the order of trailer music that’s original, incisive, and thought-provoking. Here are a few trailers and overall campaigns that we feel are particularly noteworthy.

In the world of film music, there are a handful of composers whose sound is so distinct you need only mention their name and it conjures up vivid cinematic imagery and emotion. Besides the two dominant paradigm shifters, John Williams and Hans Zimmer, other names such as Bernard Herrmann, Howard Shore and Danny Elfman may come to mind. But Ennio Morricone holds a coveted place in the hearts of film composers and film lovers, because of his effortless and sweeping gift for creating melodies, knack for imagining distinct and iconically memorable tone combinations, and the immense depth and breadth of his musical contributions.

As much as this trailer is about the much-hyped sequel to the best-selling game of all time, with over 185 million units sold, it’s also a curious case of music curation. With Grand Theft Auto V having been released over a decade ago, it’s something of a generational event. And the fact that the sixth instalment revisits Vice City (a fictionalized version of Miami) reinforces this idea.