The Bring Her Back Trailer Proves That No One Cuts A Horror Teaser Like A24

Danny and Michael Philippou are back! The Australian duo responsible for the excellent supernatural horror film "Talk to Me" is ready to unleash a new horror movie upon the world with "Bring Her Back." The film is surrounded in mystery, with the official synopsis merely teasing a ritual and a secluded home. And yet, even without many (or any) details on what the movie is really about, the first teaser for "Bring Her Back" does an excellent job of building anticipation and dread.

The trailer begins innocently enough, with a shot of a cat being startled by knocking somewhere in a house. From there, though, the teaser evolves into a procession of brief and seemingly random shots that allude to someone's death, a funeral, an autopsy, bloody images, and Sally Hawkins screaming about bringing her back, all before ending on the visual of a naked man approaching a woman inside a circle (the summoning sort). The images come at you fast, accompanied by the unsettling repetition of a knocking sound and an eerie score. It's the best kind of teaser — one that tells you almost nothing about the movie, yet just enough to make you want to know what the hell is going on.

In an age where marketing campaigns are spoiling the best part of movies in their trailers (looking at you, "Captain America: Brave New World"), the trailer for "Bring Her Back" is outright artful in its execution. The thing is, however, that we shouldn't be surprised. As much as this teaser is focused on generating buzz for the new movie from the directors of "Talk to Me," it's also an excellent showcase for A24's marketing department. Indeed, it seems nothing can sell a horror movie these days quite like an A24 trailer.

There is a running joke that A24 trailers are all the same, and there is no denying that they do have a specific house style. The distributor works with the same trailer-cutting companies for its movies and has come to develop a unique style — one that has been employed in the marketing for every horror movie A24 has released since "The Witch" in 2015.

These horror movie trailers are recognizable for including the repetition of a creepy sound (a knocking sound in "Bring Her Back," the echo a character yells into an underpass in "Men," a clicking noise in "Hereditary), an unsettling score that slowly crescendoes, and quick shots that are largely devoid of context yet nevertheless build an eerie atmosphere. These rapid-fire images showcase the visual style of the films being promoted, yet avoid revealing what's actually going on in any particular scene. At most, A24's longer trailers tend to sell the premise of the movie, but not the actual plot. Take the first trailer for "Green Room," which only briefly shows a shot from the concert at the start of the film, but otherwise is all about building tension through shots of characters trapped in a room, Patrick Stewart yelling from just outside, and images of men arming themselves up.

A24 is truly great at selling its horror movies, perhaps all too well. Of course, there is a downside. The A24 approach often tricks casual moviegoers who don't care about distributors into thinking they're getting a more typical horror movie, only for them to end up disappointed when they get a slower indie film with a bigger focus on atmosphere than jump scares. That has resulted in more than a few box office failures for A24 along the way.

We'll find out just how scary "Bring Her Back" is when the movie reaches theaters on May 30, 2025.