32 Times A Movie’s Marketing Misdirected The Audience

Have you ever walked out of a movie feeling like you saw something almost entirely different from what the trailer promised you? Well, you are certainly not alone, and this sort of thing happens all the time in Hollywood, to be frank. See for yourself by taking a look at some beloved films that would prove to be a bit of a stretch from how they were portrayed in the marketing, for better or worse.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

From director Karyn Kusama and writer Diablo Cody, Jennifer's Body, starring Megan Fox as a high school student transformed into a succubus after a failed demonic sacrifice, is heralded as one of the most misunderstood cult favorites of all time. The trailers delivered on the thriller's horror content but were light on its feminist themes and heavy on its risque coming-of-age comedy. Not to mention, the poster's depiction of Fox contradicted the film's tongue-in-cheek commentary on teen objectification.

About Time (2013)

Richard Curtis' About Time starts off much like the winning rom-com the marketing promised and that you would expect from the writer and director of Love Actually. However, the time travel movie starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams ultimately evolves into a deeply emotional tearjerker about holding onto one's familial bonds.

Godzilla (2014)

The marketing for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' reboot of the world's most famous kaiju relied heavily on the popularity of one of its stars, Bryan Cranston. So, it came as quite a surprise to see Godzilla kill off the Emmy-winning Breaking Bad cast member's character in the first act.

Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

The central character of the Cameron Crowe-penned, Amy Heckerling-directed coming-of-age comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High is Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh). However, you would not know that from the marketing, which made Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli the most prominent figure.

Passengers (2016)

The trailer for the futuristic sci-fi thriller Passengers suggests that commercial space travelers Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) and Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) are both mistakenly woken up from their cryogenic slumber at the same time. In the actual film, Jim is the only one woken up by accident and selfishly wakes up Aurora on purpose so he would no longer be alone, tainting the story's romantic element for many critics and audiences.

Sucker Punch (2011)

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch was marketed with trailers that comprised mostly of the F-rated thriller's visually stunning action sequences. However, they appeared to leave out the fact that these moments only exist in the head of Emily Browning's character, Babydoll, and that she and the rest of the ensemble are confined to a mental asylum throughout.

Magic Mike (2012)

Audiences who expected a fun dance flick from director Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, which is loosely based on star Channing Tatum's life, would be more fulfilled by its 2015 sequel, Magic Mike XXL. However, the original is essentially a tale of self-destruction and aspiration for a better life, complemented by a number of fun dance sequences throughout.

The Cabin In The Woods (2011)

Director Drew Goddard's feature debut, The Cabin in the Woods, was marketed as just another formulaic horror flick about stupid kids getting into a freaky situation during a woodland vacation. Of course, in truth, the film is a clever and subversive deconstruction of the genre's most prevalent tropes and has since been heralded as one of the best horror-comedy movies of its time.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Director Robert Rodriguez revealed to Yahoo! that Miramax wanted to underplay the Quentin Tarantino-penned From Dusk Till Dawn's horror elements in favor of hyping up its Pulp Fiction-style crime thriller elements in the marketing. Thus, many were surprised to see the story of two ruthless criminal brothers on the run (played by George Clooney and Tarantino) suddenly become a relentlessly gory vampire movie in the final act.

Drive (2011)

Considering its title, it is easy to see why some audiences may have assumed that Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, starring Ryan Gosling as a getaway driver who participates in a job gone wrong, would be a high-octane action flick instead of a slow-burn neo-noir drama. According to The Guardian, one woman felt genuinely bamboozled by the thriller's marketing and filed a lawsuit against it, citing that she was promised something more along the lines of the Fast and Furious movies.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)

Johnny Depp stars in the title role of the gothic thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in which a 19th Century hairstylist seeks to avenge his wife and child's brutal murder, which he was wrongfully convicted of. Unless you were a fan of the original 1979 stage production by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, you might not have known that the Tim Burton movie was a musical from the marketing alone.

It Comes At Night (2017)

Personally, I believe Trey Edward Schults' sophomore feature, It Comes at Night, is a masterful exercise in slow-burn suspense and paranoia. The film follows a family's struggle to survive a cataclysmic virus. Yet, I can also understand why someone might have been disappointed to learn that the A24 horror movie is not a straight-up zombie flick like the marketing suggested. I'll even admit that I am not sure what the "it" in the title is supposed to refer to.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

I imagine there were many fans of Jim Carrey movies who walked into director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind not expecting a cerebral, somber meditation on the lengths one might go to escape their romantic grief. The trailer, set to Electric Light Orchestra's upbeat hit, "Mr. Blue Sky," does highlight some of the acclaimed sci-fi film's surreal elements but also attempts to sell it as more of a quirky, overt comedy.

The Grey (2012)

Director Joe Carnahan's The Grey is widely praised as a moving story about the struggle to survive both the unforgiving natural world and internal depression. However, the trailer hypes the thriller up as "Liam Neeson vs. the wolves," which is a scene we do not even get to see as the film cuts to black and the credits roll right after the Irish actor's character prepares to fight his furry foe.

Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)

Perhaps director Doug Liman's retrospectively beloved time loop movie Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise as a reluctant soldier who mysteriously finds himself continuously respawning after death during a human-alien war, was a box office flop not because of its underwhelming title. I think it had more to do with the marketing hyping up the alien Invasion movie as an earnest war film, completely underselling just how fun and clever the action-packed sci-fi thriller turned out to be.

Red Eye (2005)

The misleading nature of Red Eye, starring Rachel McAdams as a woman coerced into assisting the flight passenger next to her (Cillian Murphy) with an assassination plot, can be blamed on a couple of things, including the fact that Wes Craven is the director. The marketing even seemed to try selling it as a slasher in the vein of his Scream franchise, but the PG-13 political thriller is actually one of the filmmaker's lighter efforts in terms of tone.

Unbreakable (2000)

Unbreakable was marketed as more of a supernatural thriller in the vein of M. Night Shyamalan's breakthrough hit, The Sixth Sense, from the previous year. Thus, many audiences were surprised to learn they were seeing a dark take on a superhero movie that was not based on a comic book and was way ahead of its time.

Catfish (2010)

Imagine going to see what you assume is a found-footage thriller, such as The Blair Witch Project, only to find out that the film in question is just a simple documentary. That was the case with Catfish, in which Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost document Nev Schulman's relationship with a woman he meets online and whose true identity is put under scrutiny.

Bridge To Terabithia (2007)

I remember seeing the trailer for Bridge to Terabithia, starring Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb, and thinking it was a feel-good family film set in a wondrous fantasy land. However, I later discovered that director Gabor Csupo's adaptation of Katherine Paterson's novel is a deeply saddening story about escaping the grief of reality through imagination.

Lady In The Water (2006)

Any time a new M. Night Shyamalan movie is announced, audiences are bound to immediately assume it is a horror movie. The trailers for his somber fairy tale Lady in the Water, in which an apartment complex superintendent (played by Paul Giamatti) tries to help a mysterious young woman (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) return to her otherworldly home, did not help dispel such assumptions.

Wonka (2023)

Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet portrayed author Roald Dahl's eccentric chocolatier as a younger man in director Paul King's Wonka. The only hint that the wondrously sweet family film was a musical might be that the original 1971 film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, was a musical because there were certainly no signs of that in the marketing.

The Many Saints Of Newark (2021)

Fourteen years after the acclaimed HBO series, The Sopranos, ended with one of the most divisive series finales in TV history, Warner Bros. released a divisive feature film digging deeper into the mafia family's past. The Many of Saints of Newark was not an origin story for Tony Soprano (played by the late James Gandolfini's son, Michael) like the marketing promised and centered more heavily on his mentor, Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola).

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Did you know that Matthew Broderick's eponymous slacker from John Hughes' classic high school movie had two other siblings, in addition to Jennifer Grey's Jeanie? Anyone who saw the original trailer for Ferris Bueller's Day Off might have been able to pick up on that, only to find that the actors who played his younger brother and sister were cut from the finished product.

Click (2006)

Click, in which Adam Sandler plays an overworked family man who receives a special remote that is universal in the true sense of the word, would turn out to be one of the comedian's more mature efforts, especially after the device begins to take control over his character's life. However, the film's more serious and even heartbreaking turns surely came as a surprise to audiences expecting yet another screwball comedy like the former Saturday Night Live star is best known for.

Colossal (2016)

You might say that the misleading marketing for director Nacho Vigalondo's Colossal worked in its favor, as audiences expected this flick starring Anne Hathaway as an American woman who discovers a kaiju in Japan is mimicking her actions would be a quirky sci-fi comedy. The story is actually much deeper than that, as it is revealed that the monster is a manifestation of the main character's struggle with addiction.

Kangaroo Jack (2003)

Not only is the eponymous, Australian-based animal from Kangaroo Jack barely in the movie, but he does not even talk, save for one dream sequence taking place in the head of Jerry O'Connell's character, Charlie Carbone. However, said dream sequence was a huge focal point in the marketing, which also underplayed the PG-rated comedy's unbelievably inappropriate material, which I imagine many parents did not appreciate.

Yesterday (2019)

Nothing about the tone or plot of Yesterday, in which a struggling musician (played by Himesh Patel) finds himself in an alternate reality in which The Beatles never existed, is undersold in its marketing. However, many people were shocked and even angered to see Ana de Armas, who was featured in the trailer, completely cut from the finished film, including two fans of the Oscar nominee who attempted to sue Universal over it.

Mean Girls (2024)

If you did not know that 2024's Mean Girls was based on the coming-of-age comedy's stage musical adaptation, you might have assumed it was just a pointless remake of the 2004 original. There were absolutely no hints of it being a musical in the marketing, unless you count the sheet music note in the logo.

Observe And Report (2009)

Based on its joke-heavy trailer, audiences expected Observe and Report to be just another zany romp like what star Seth Rogen was then-primarily known for and not a pitch-black psychological thriller examining the mind of an unstable mall security guard. I would be more concerned to discover if parents mistook director Jody Hill's divisive dramedy for a similarly plotted movie from the same year: the more family-friendly Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Bicentennial Man (1999)

Seeing Robin Williams play a robot sounds like a fun time for the whole family, and the marketing for the PG-rated Bicentennial Man largely made it seem like that was the case. Little did audiences know that this futuristic flick based on an Isaac Asimov story was a slow-paced examination of mortality from the point of view of a machine.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)

Tina Fey stars in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot as real-life journalist Kim Baker in an adaptation of her memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which chronicles her days covering Middle Eastern conflicts in the early 2000s. While ultimately praised for its balance of comedy and drama, the trailers for the film emphasized the former, perhaps to better appeal to fans of the 30 Rock star and creator.

Lamb (2021)

A24's Lamb, starring Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason as a couple raising a strange half-sheep, half-human hybrid, was marketed as a horror flick. However, that element of the otherwise bizarre story does not come into play until near the end, while most of the film is a slow-paced meditation on grief and the struggles of parenting.