This Week In Trailers: Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer, The Whistlers, Gorillaz: Reject False Icons, Inherit The Viper

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they're seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising?

This week we whistle while we work, develop a habit with Josh Hartnett, say hi to the Gorillaz, and hunt down a kitten killer.

Since it's the Christmas season, we'll begin with a cheery true crime serial documentary.

A twisted criminal's gruesome videos drive a group of amateur online sleuths to launch a risky manhunt that pulls them into a dark underworld.

I've never heard of this incident until finding this trailer. I know that Internet mobs have been wrong a time or two with their detective work, so I am not sure of the outcome. The trailer does a good job obfuscating the results, but a part of me hopes that it has a satisfying ending with the perpetrator being found and brought to some kind of justice. It's rough viewing at the beginning, but it's good to see an army of people coming together to find a disturbed individual who is possibly capable of something far more heinous than what we see here.

Director Corneliu Porumboiu, Romanian director of the highly acclaimed 2009's Police, Adjective, ventures into criminal thrills with a different kind of police story.

A policeman intent on freeing a crooked businessman from a prison on Gomera, an island in the Canaries. However, he must first learn the difficult local dialect, a language which includes hissing and spitting.

I am not positive what I've watched here, but with hints of the Coen brothers nuttiness, a crime story, and a stylish eye, that's a trifecta that has my attention. A little bizarre, but completely engrossing in its presentation, I'm a fan for sure.

Continuing the theme of crime and punishment this week, the debut feature by director Anthony Jerjen looks incredible.

Crime thriller about three siblings in Appalachia getting by as local opioid dealers, trying not to get caught in the spiral of violence that comes with the territory.

This is about as "what you see is what you get" of a thriller as you will find. There's no need to top what has come before in terms of movies about people living hardscrabble lives who turn to crime to survive as long as you have a fresh angle. While I see nothing that would show this will be the next Boondock Saints or The Town, there's still a commendable technical competence that's on display here that's intriguing and makes this look worth watching when it drops.

Director Denholm Hewlett only needs to point and shoot.

Focused on the life of the band and their collaborators over the 3 vital years in which they developed critically acclaimed albums, 'Humanz' and 'The Now Now', and undertook their most ambitious world tour to date.

This trailer is a clean and tight thirty seconds. There's no context, no narrative foothold to grab onto, but, if you're a fan of the animated band Gorillaz, there can be nothing better than this. Just getting a peek behind the colored, cartoon curtain of the band will allure enough fans to come out of their house for this one-night-only event. You want to try to find ways to give theaters a shot in the arm? This is a good place to start.

Nota bene: If you have any suggestions of trailers for possible inclusion in this column, even have a trailer of your own to pitch, please let me know by sending me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com or look me up via Twitter at @Stipp

In case you missed them, here are the other trailers we covered at /Film this week: