''Trailers from Hell'' (branded as ''Trailers from Hell!'') is a

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

in which filmmakers discuss and promote individual movies through commenting on their trailers. While the series emphasizes horror, science fiction, fantasy, cult, and exploitation cinema, films from a wide variety of genres have been covered. ''Trailers from Hell'' launched as a website in October 2007,JOE DANTE presents Trailers From Hell! - Cinefantastique
/ref> as a collaborative project by film director

Joe Dante Joseph James Dante Jr. (; born November 28, 1946) is an American film director. His films—notably ''Gremlins'' (1984) alongside its sequel, ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990)—often mix the 1950s-style B movie genre with Counterculture of th ...

, new media entrepreneur Jonas Hudson, graphic artist Charlie Largent, web developer Tom Edgar, and producer Elizabeth Stanley. It also premiered at

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

in 2009. Kris Millsap, who joined the site in 2012 and later became a partner, oversees its digital direction and produces the companion podcast ''The Movies That Made Me''.

Commentary

Each trailer features commentary on the art, craft, and history of filmmaking, regarding both the trailer itself and the film it represents. Regular ''Trailers from Hell'' commentators, referred to as "gurus" on the series website, include (in addition to Joe Dante)

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing comedy films such as ''The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), ''Animal House, National Lampoon's Animal House'' (1978), The Blues Brothers (f ...

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, Gothic fiction, gothicism and horror fiction, horror often blending the genres ...

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he w ...

, and

Eli Roth Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films ''Cabin Fev ...

. Film editor and critic

Glenn Erickson Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low-budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacitie ...

writes, "The host commentaries provide the real added value, cramming a wealth of information, humor and insights into the two- to four- minute trailer running times."DVD Savant Review: The Best of Trailers from Hell volume 1
/ref> Some of the trailers he cut early in his career for low-budget filmmaker

New World Pictures New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment, New World Communications Group, Inc., and New World International) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia com ...

have been called the "best trailers for less-than stellar movies you've ever seen". Dante was also able to augment his collection with many additional previews for classic and "not so classic" horror films during his time at Corman's studio. The previously mentioned Erickson has referred to ''Trailers from Hell'' as "one of the brightest web destinations for fantastic film fans...." while the horror and suspense genre journal ''

Cinefantastique ''Cinefantastique'' is an American horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine. History The magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by publisher/ ed ...

'' called it "fabulous".

American Movie Classics AMC (an abbreviation of the channel's original name, American Movie Classics) is an American basic cable television channel that is the flagship property of AMC Networks. Launched in late 1984, the channel aired classic films prior to the 197 ...

has lauded Dante for being "appreciative of and well-versed in the history of the exploitation cinema" through his work on ''Trailers from Hell''.

Home video

There have been two compilations of ''Trailers from Hell'' that have been released on DVD so far. Volume 1 was released in 2010 and Volume 2 was released by

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

on July 5, 2011.Full Moon Streaming Partners with Joe Dante’s “TRAILERS FROM HELL”
/ref>

Distribution

On January 19, 2022, ''Trailers from Hell'' launched a dedicated FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) channel on Plex, developed by partner Kris Millsap in collaboration with Best Ever Channels. The channel features ''Trailers from Hell'' commentaries, curated classic films, and special presentations.

List of commentators

Fede Álvarez Federico Javier Álvarez Mattos (; born February 9, 1978) is a Uruguayan filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films ''Evil Dead (2013 film), Evil Dead'' (2013), ''Don't Breathe'' (2016), and ''Alien: Romulus'' (2024). Early life Álvare ...

Allison Anders Allison Anders (born November 16, 1954) is an American independent film director whose films include '' Gas Food Lodging'', '' Mi Vida Loca'' and '' Grace of My Heart''. Anders has collaborated with fellow UCLA School of Theater, Film and Telev ...

Allan Arkush Allan Arkush (born April 30, 1948) is an American director and producer of films, television and videos. He is a regular collaborator with Joe Dante. Early life Arkush grew up in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He graduated in 1966 from Fort Lee High ...

John Badham John MacDonald Badham (born August 25, 1939) is an American film and television director, best known for directing the films ''Saturday Night Fever'' (1977), ''Dracula (1979 film), Dracula'' (1979), ''Blue Thunder'' (1983), ''WarGames'' (1983), ...

Rick Baker Richard Alan "Rick" Baker (born December 8, 1950) is a retired American special make-up effects creator and actor. He is mostly known for his creature designs and effects. Baker has won the Academy Award for Best Makeup a record seven times f ...

Jessica Bendinger Jessica Bendinger (born November 10, 1966) is an American screenwriter and novelist. Education Bendinger graduated from Columbia University in 1988. She is a classmate of screenwriter Andrew W. Marlowe. While at Columbia, Bendinger interned for ...

* Darren Bousman *

Axelle Carolyn Axelle Carolyn (born 3 April 1979) is a Belgian filmmaker and former actress and journalist. Biography Acting Amongst many other jobs she worked on her way to directing her first films, Carolyn briefly worked in front of the camera. Her most n ...

Larry Cohen Lawrence George Cohen (July 15, 1936 – March 23, 2019) was an American filmmaker. He originally emerged as the writer of blaxploitation films such as ''Black Caesar (film), Black Caesar'' and ''Hell Up in Harlem'' (both 1973), before becomin ...

Julie Corman Julie Ann Corman (born ) is an American film producer. She is the widow of film producer and director Roger Corman. Life and career Corman was born Julie Ann Halloran in 1942. In 1970, she married film director and producer, Roger Corman, with ...

Don Coscarelli Don Coscarelli Jr. (born February 17, 1954) is an American film director, film producer, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in horror films. His directing credits include the first four films in the Phantasm (franchise), '' ...

Jim Cummings James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in over 400 titles. Cummings has frequently worked with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., serving as the offic ...

Jon Davison Jon Davison (born January 16, 1971) is an American singer, musician and songwriter who has been the lead vocalist of progressive rock band Yes since 2012. He was previously the lead singer of progressive rock band Glass Hammer from 2009 to 201 ...

David DeCoteau David DeCoteau (born January 5, 1962) is an American film director and producer. Early life David DeCoteau was born on January 5, 1962, in Portland, Oregon, where he was raised. DeCoteau was an only child and was adopted at birth. His father ...

David Del Valle David Del Valle is a journalist, columnist, film historian, and radio and television commentator on horror, science-fiction, cult and fantasy films. Described by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as "Something of a cult celebrity himself," he was inducted i ...

Ernest Dickerson Ernest Roscoe Dickerson (born June 25, 1951) is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of film, television, and music videos. As a cinematographer, Dickerson is known for his frequent collaborations with Spike Lee ever since they ...

Illeana Douglas Illeana Hesselberg ( ; born July 25, 1961), known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. She appeared in three episodes of '' Six Feet Under'', for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outsta ...

Bill Duke William Henry Duke Jr. (born February 26, 1943) is an American actor, director, and producer. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. As a ...

* Francis Galluppi *

Mick Garris Mick Garris (born December 4, 1951) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist born in Santa Monica, California. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, as well as making Stephen King adaptations. Early life Garris was b ...

Mark Goldblatt Mark Goldblatt is an American film editor and director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on '' Terminator 2: Judgement Day'' (1991). He is a former President of the American Cinema Editors. Life and ca ...

Stuart Gordon Stuart Alan Gordon (August 11, 1947 – March 24, 2020) was an American Filmmaking, filmmaker, theatre director, screenwriter, and playwright. Initially recognized for his provocative and frequently controversial work in experimental theatre, Go ...

Dana Gould Dana Gould (; born August 24, 1964) is an American stand-up comic, actor, writer, and voice artist who has been featured on HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central. He voiced the titular character in the '' Gex'' franchise, and wrote for ''The Simpso ...

Sam Hamm Sam Hamm (born November 19, 1955) is an American screenwriter and comic book writer. Hamm is known for writing the initial drafts of the screenplay for the 1989 ''Batman'' movie before those duties were handed over to Warren Skaaren. He also re ...

* Marshall Harvey * Mark Helfrich *

George Hickenlooper George Loening Hickenlooper III (May 25, 1963 – October 29, 2010) was an American narrative and documentary filmmaker. Early life Hickenlooper was born in St. Louis, the son of Barbara Jo Wenger, a social worker and stage actress, and George ...

Jack Hill Jack Hill (born January 28, 1933) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the exploitation genre. He was an early associate of Francis Ford Coppola and Roger Corman, and worked on many films distributed by American International Pictur ...

* Heidi Honeycutt * Gillian Horvat * Tim Hunter *

Dan Ireland Daniel Frederick Ireland (May 11, 1949 – April 14, 2016) was an American-Canadian film producer and director. He was the co-founder of the Seattle International Film Festival. Ireland began executive-producing films for Vestron Pictures in the ...

* Kier-La Janisse *

Jonathan Kaplan Jonathan Kaplan (born November 25, 1947) is an American film producer and film director, director. His film ''The Accused (1988 film), The Accused'' (1988) earned actress Jodie Foster the Academy Awards, Oscar for Academy Award for Best Actress ...

Larry Karaszewski Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone, ...

Lloyd Kaufman Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their featu ...

* Daniel Kremer *

Karyn Kusama Karyn Kiyoko Kusama (born March 21, 1968) is an American filmmaker. She made her feature directorial debut with the sports drama film ''Girlfight'' (2000), for which she won Best Director and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival an ...

Neil LaBute Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, ''In the Company of Men'' (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Fest ...

* Mary Lambert *

Max Landis Max Landis (born August 3, 1985) is an American filmmaker. He is the son of director John Landis. He wrote scripts for the films ''Chronicle'' (2012), '' American Ultra'' (2015), ''Victor Frankenstein'' (2015), and '' Bright'' (2017). He wrote ...

* Christopher Landon *

Quentin Lee Quentin Lee (; born 1971) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian-American film writer, director, and producer. He is most notable for the television series ''Comedy InvAsian'' and feature films ''The People I've Slept With'' (2009), ''Ethan Mao'' (2004), ...

Dennis Lehane Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author and screenwriter. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including '' A Drink Before the War''. Four of hi ...

Michael Lehmann Michael Stephen Lehmann (born March 30, 1957) is an American film and television director known for directing the dark comedy '' Heathers''. Early life and education In 1978, Lehmann graduated from Columbia University.

* J.D. Lifshitz *

Rod Lurie Rod Lurie (; born May 15, 1962) is an American director, screenwriter, producer and former film critic. Early life and career The son of internationally syndicated cartoonist Ranan Lurie, he was born in Israel but moved to the United States at a ...

* William Malone *

Neil Marshall Neil Marshall (born 25 May 1970) is an English film and television director, editor, producer, and screenwriter. He directed the horror films ''Dog Soldiers (film), Dog Soldiers'' (2002) and ''The Descent'' (2005), the science fiction action f ...

Bear McCreary Bear McCreary (born February 17, 1979) is an American composer of film, television, and video game scores. His work includes the scores of the television series '' Battlestar Galactica'' (2004), '' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', '' Black Sails'', '' ...

Ib Melchior Ib Jørgen Melchior (September 17, 1917 – March 14, 2015) was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, film producer, film director, and screenwriter of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American I ...

* Mike Mendez *

Ed Neumeier Edward Neumeier (born August 24, 1957) is an American screenwriter best known for his work on the science fiction movies ''RoboCop'' and ''Starship Troopers''. He wrote the latter's sequels '' Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation'', '' St ...

Josh Olson Joshua R. Olson is an American screenwriter and podcaster, known for writing the 2005 film ''A History of Violence''. Career Olson wrote and directed the low budget horror film ''Infested'' in 2002. He wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film ' ...

Patton Oswalt Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom ''The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–2023) as adult ...

Oren Peli Oren Peli (; born January 21, 1970) is an Israeli filmmaker, best known for writing and directing the 2007 horror film ''Paranormal Activity''. He acted as producer on subsequent Paranormal Activity (franchise), films in the franchise, as well a ...

Mark Pellington Mark Pellington (born March 17, 1962) is an American film director, writer, and producer. Life and career Pellington was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Bill Pellington, an All-Pro linebacker who played American Football, football with t ...

Dan Perri Daniel Richard Perri (born August 11, 1945) is an American film and television title sequence designer. He has worked in film title design since the 1970s, and has been responsible for the main titles of a number of notable films including ''The E ...

* Michael Peyser *

Adam Rifkin Adam Rifkin (born December 31, 1966), sometimes credited as Rif Coogan, is an American filmmaker and actor. His career ranges from broad family comedies to dark and gritty urban dramas. He is best known for writing family-friendly comedies like ...

Howard Rodman Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, author and professor. He is the former President of the Writers Guild of America, West, professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, alumnus of Telluride Association ...

* Eduardo Rodriguez *

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He is known for writing and directing the films '' The Brother from Another Planet'' (1984), '' Matewan'' (1987), ...

* Michael Schlesinger * Steve Senski *

Katt Shea Kathleen Ann Shea (born October 9, 1959) is an American actress, film director, and acting teacher. She is best known for directing the erotic thriller ''Poison Ivy (1992 film), Poison Ivy'', which was nominated for the 1992 Sundance Grand Jury P ...

Alan Spencer Alan Spencer may refer to: * Alan Spencer (writer), American director and writer * Alan Spencer (cricketer), English cricketer See also * Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill Deputy lieutenant, DL (25 July 1825 – 19 Ap ...

Michael Tolkin Michael L. Tolkin (born October 17, 1950) is an American screenwriter, novelist, and director. He has written numerous screenplays, including ''The Player (1992 film), The Player'' (1992), which he adapted from his own 1988 novel of the same name ...

Brian Trenchard-Smith Brian Medwin Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English-Australian filmmaker and author, known for his idiosyncratic and satirical low-budget genre films. His filmography covers action, science fiction, martial arts, dystopian fiction, comedy, ...

Jesus Trevino Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religi ...

* Robert Weide *

Ti West Timon C. West (born October 5, 1980) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, and actor, best known for his work in horror films. He directed the horror films ''The Roost'' (2005), ''Trigger Man (2007 film), ...

* Richard Whitley * Christopher Wilkinson *

Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical Film genre, genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zo ...

* Dr. Z *

David Zeiger David Zeiger is an American film director, writer and producer. He is most well known for the documentary ''Sir! No Sir!'' (2005), which is the only full-length film chronicling the extensive antiwar and resistance activity of U.S. troops durin ...

References

External links

*
''Trailers from Hell'' at IMDb

Official YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trailers From Hell American film websites Internet properties established in 2007 Film fandom Cult following Horror fandom Science fiction fandom Fantasy fandom