Stranger Things came out last Friday, so I’ll forgive you for missing out on any other pop culture phenomena as you got caught up before the web unwittingly spoiled you.
But if you’re finally coming out of your cave (and are doing just fine) after a weekend holed up in Hawkins, Indiana then here’s what you missed in the world of Hollywood trailers.
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Spoiler alert: there’s a whole lot of psychological thrillers that will never pass the Bechdel Test.
Phantom Thread
Just when you though Gary Oldman’s performance in The Darkest Hour was a shoe-in for Best Actor at the Oscars, Daniel Day-Lewis shows up in his last-ever acting gig as a creepy old man emotionally manipulating a much younger woman.
What more could the Academy want?
Phantom Thread, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), tells of a 1950s dressmaker who “finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love”, according to an official synopsis.
The film hits South African cinemas 9 March 2018, just five days after the Academy Awards.
Journey’s End
Keen for another World War I movie? You’re in luck!
Starring Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) and Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Journey’s End is the fifth film adaptation of the eponymous play about a troop of soldiers trapped in the trenches.
The film doesn’t yet have an SA release, but will open in the UK 2 February 2018.
WINCHESTER: The House That Ghosts Built
No, this isn’t about Supernatural, but I’d forgive you if you thought that for even a second.
WINCHESTER: The House That Ghosts Built stars Helen Mirren as a grieving widow who, convinced she’s cursed, orders the construction of the Winchester Mystery House — now a real tourist attraction in California.
The supernatural horror’s teaser gives off a camp vibe one wouldn’t expect from Dame Mirren, but here’s hoping that a little extra time in post-production will pull this one through.
Catch the film in SA 30 March 2018.
Justice League
Warner Bros. is well aware Thor: Ragnarok just came out, but begs you please not to forget that the DC Universe also really needs your money.
Here’s what feels like the millionth trailer for Justice League. In it, you’ll see some superheroes doing some crime fighting.
The film hits SA 17 November.
Den of Thieves
Here’s a trailer for Den of Thieves, a heist film starring Gerard Butler, 50 Cent, and O’Shea Jackson Jr.
The trailer has already been drawing comparisons to 1995’s Heat, with its tough cops taking on an equally-tough group of thieves, and it would be good for Butler to prove his selling power after his latest Geostorm stands to lose quite a bit of money.
Den of Thieves is out 2 February 2018.
The Commuter
Adding to the ever-growing Help-We’re-Stuck-On-A-Moving-Vehicle-And-Something-Wants-To-Kill-Us genre is Liam Neeson’s The Commuter, about an insurance salesman who gets manipulated into a criminal conspiracy with life-and-death stakes.
The film also stars Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey).
It opens 12 January 2018.
Bright
Feel like watching a buddy cop movie that uses monster allegories to make comments on race? Look no further.
Bright is an original Netflix film starring Will Smith as one half of a human-orc crime fighting duo. Set in an alternate present day, the film follows the cops as they “encounter a darkness that will ultimately alter the future and their world as they know it”.
Catch it on Netflix 22 December. The soundtrack will be available from 9 November.
Mudbound
Netflix has released the official trailer for Mudbound, a film about two World War II vets who forge an unlikely friendship in the harsh US South.
It stars Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby), Mary J Blige, Garrett Hedlund (Tron), and Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton).
The film will be on Netflix 17 November, but it is unclear if the release will be global.
Almost Friends
There’s a lot of war and violence on this list, so here’s a quick reprieve with a coming-of-age story seemingly about how a woman helps a man find himself.
Starring Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) and Odeya Rush (The Hunter’s Prayer), Almost Friends seems like yet another film centred on a manic pixie dream girl — though that could be a result of the trailer hedging its bets on Freddie Highmore’s face. Here’s hoping it’s the latter.
Almost Friends doesn’t have an SA release, and is still doing festival runs in the US.
Dismissed
This trailer is your standard Student-Threatens-To-Kill-Teacher-That-Gave-Him-An-Okay-Mark film, but the true plot twist is that this isn’t Cole Sprouse branching out from his Riverdale fame, but his brother Dylan reentering the acting scene altogether.
It really gets you thinking about how being a twin must rule when one gets a little more famous and you can use your own face as clickbait. Of course, if one of them gets embroiled in scandal, they both go down. You win some, you lose some.
Dismissed doesn’t have an SA release.
Feature image: screenshot, Phantom Thread via Focus Trailers/YouTube
