I was watching a trailer for an upcoming film recently Idont need to name the movie specifically, but heres a hint: Its title rhymes with TheSchmelectric State and I was struck by how absolutely dire it made its movie look.That is rare. Most trailers look at leasta little intriguing. This, after all, is their job. Alla bad movie needs are90 seconds of funny, romantic, or thrilling moments to fill out a solid trailer. I wouldnt say making a goodcommercialfor a bad movie is necessarilyeasy, but it can be done. (See this list for proof of that.)But what about the opposite? Are therebadtrailers for masterpieces? The answer is: While they are more rare than good trailers for masterpieces, or even good trailers for cinematic disasters, they do happen. Itssort of like cooking. You can have the best raw ingredients in the world, but if you dont prepare them in the right way, the final dish can turn into a steaming bowl of crap.Case in point: The 20 bad trailers. Some bungle their pitch; others are downright mendacious in their attempts to obscure their films true nature from the ticket-buying public. A few are just plain boring!You can seethem all for yourself below. I truly hope that if I some day write asequel to this list of bad trailers for good movies, Iget to includeTheSchmelectric Stateon it.Star Wars (1975)READ MORE: The 15 Best Fake Trailers From Real MoviesFor such a genre and era-defining blockbuster, the first teaser forStar Wars sure is crummy. Theediting is clunky and the voiceover is downright bizarre. At one point the narrator describesStar Warsas the story of a boy, a girl, and a universe, which I guess is true?He also announcessomewhere in space, this may all be happening right now. Wait,right now? What happened to a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away? I guess that part came late in the edit, huh?Star Trek Beyond (2016)Not to be outdone, some ofStar Treks trailers through the years have been pretty rough too. I cant think of a worse one than the trailer forStar Trek Beyond. The movie itself may bethe most thoughtful and thematically coherentTrek featurethat doesnt feature the Shatner/Nimoy crew. You would never know that from the trailer though, whichsells it as a pure action movie (and reliesway too heavily on Beastie Boys Sabotage). Theres barely any mention of the films villain, and zero explanation of the movies larger story. Thetitle treatment with BEYOND front and center first, followed by STAR TREK slowly appearing above it really foregrounds the way the marketers wanted to frame this movie.Cast Away (2000)Theres no graver sin for a trailer in my book than giving away a movies ending. In the case ofRobert ZemeckisCast Away, the trailer leaves zero doubt about what happens to Tom Hanks character and whether or not he escapes his isolation on adeserted island. Zemeckissupported the spoiler-laden trailer, stating publicly thathe believed based on his research that people really want to know exactly every thing that they are going to see before they go see the movie. People might; I sure dont.What Lies Beneath (2000)Robert Zemeckis strikes again! WhileWhat Lies Beneath doesnt give away quite as many plot details asCast Awaydid around the same time, it reveals several of the films big twists, including the truth nature of Harrison Fords character.Counter to Zemeckis argument, a lot ofWhat Lies Beneath is a lot less suspenseful after you see this trailer, because you have apretty good idea whats going to happen and why. Which, in a mystery, kind of defeats the purpose! (The generic erotic thriller music does this one no favors as well.)Warrior (2011)Similarly, the trailer forWarrior, about the intertwined destinies of a pair of MMA fighter brothers played by Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton, ticks off every major plot point and detail of the two mens lives and relationship except the outcome of the final fight between them. Its admittedly a fine line to walk; how do you tell people enough about a movieto make them want to see it, without telling themtoomuch and making them feeling theyve seen itall without paying? For me,Warrior crosses that line.The Cabin in the Woods (2011)Of course, you can also make a bad trailer by withholdingtoomuch information.The Cabin in the Woodsteaser makes the film look like a stock slasher about a group of teenagers hunted through the wilderness by a supernatural evil. The trailer never begins to acknowledge the truth that the film is a deconstruction of exactly that sort ofclich, and of horror audiences desire to see such rituals reenacted over and over. True, you wouldnt want aCabin in the Woods trailer that revealed too much. But in this case the pendulum swung too far in the other direction.Drive (2011)Another classic movie trailer mistake: Selling a film not for what it actually is but what you think a paying customermight want to see. The trailer for Nicolas Winding RefnsDrive is a notorious example. It presented the movie not as a moody, atmospheric character study but as a more straightforward actionthriller loaded with stunts and car chases. In fact, the trailer was sounrepresentative ofthe movie, that a Michigan womansued the films distributor, claiming she was duped into seeing it by inaccurate marketing.Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)No one sued Disney over the firstPirates of the Caribbeantrailer, but it was quite similar toDrivein the sense that it only presented one side of the film to potential customers. In this case, it emphasized the action, and portrayedThe Curse of the Black Pearlas a straight-forward high-seas adventure. It only briefly nods at the movies major supernatural elements, and barely hints at its sense of humor at all, withJohnny Depps Captain Jack Sparrow treated as a quippy badass instead of a bumbling chaos agent. You could argue that the trailer was effective Pirates was a massive financial hit but you cant say it gave a complete picture of what audiences would get when they bought a ticket.Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)Movie trailer editors clearly think people love water-based adventure, anddontlove anything else in movies set on the open ocean.If you saw theMaster and Commanderadandnever watched the movie itself, you would assume its this tightly focused chase film. The other half (or more) of the filmEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)Marketing execs just dont have a lot of faith in audiences, huh?Eternal Sunshine of the SpotlessMind is funny in a melancholic way at times, butI wouldnt really describe it as a comedy. But its trailer sure would! It presentsEternal Sunshine as if it were yet another wacky Jim Carrey vehicle, with upbeat music, fast editing, and a heavy emphasis on moments where the cast smiles and dances. This onereallymisses the tone ofits film.Galaxy Quest (1999)The reason that most people loveGalaxy Quest its razor-sharpsatire ofStar Trek and especicallyStar Trekfandom is barelyvisible in the films trailer.If you knowTrek you might pick up on the fact that the movie isriffing on that same concept. But the trailer,perhaps in an attemptto appeal to asbig an audience as possible (including non-Trekfans), sells it as a much broader sci-fi comedy, with the Hollywood component kept in the background as much as possible. This looks like a bad movie, whichGalaxy Quest most certainly is not.Children of Men (2006)Children of Men is one of my favorite movies of the 2000s. And I am pretty sure if I saw this trailer without context, I probably would have avoided the film entirely. It doesnt capture any of the technical skill on display and,possibly to avoid making people think the movie is a big bummer (which it kind of is!) the trailer has a far more hopeful and exciting vibe than the film, thanks to weirdly uplifting background music and an emphasis on this miracle that Clive Owens character must fight to protect.In Bruges (2008)Im a broken record here. You dont want potentialticket buyers to think your movie isdark and bleak (which,in most cases on this list, it is) so youamplify just the upbeat or funny moments and sell the thing as a more conventionalcomedy. Thats arguably good marketing, but to me thats not a good trailer (or, at the very least, its not an accurate one).Adventureland (2009)After writing variations of the same blurb over and over on this list, I think I have finally found the best way to describe the strategy these trailers deploy: They suggest their subjects are the dumbest possible versions of whatever concept theyre peddling ina sometimes misguided (sometimes sadly correct) belief that the dumbest possible version of an idea is the one that amass audience wants to see. If you watch this trailer forAdventureland, and then compare it to the movie, youll see what I mean.The Mexican (2001)Here is anothertrailer that looks like a boring, convention Hollywood rom-com. And why not? Whenyour movie starsBrad Pitt and Julia Roberts, two of the most beautiful people alive, thats an appealing hook for an audience. In truth, Pitt and Roberts spend most of The Mexican, something this trailer takes great pains to disguise, anda surprising amount of thestory is about a lonely, thoughtful hitman played by James Gandolfini, in perhaps his best film performance.The Fountain (2006)To be fair, I have no idea what a good trailer for Darren Aronofskys ambitious, ponderous sci-fi filmThe Fountainwould look like. But this would not be it.Aronofskytells three stories in three time periods (with shared casts, including Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz) about life and death. The precise nature of the connection between them is never made entirely clear; the trailer makes it seem like they might all be happening to the same guy who is somehow an immortal, almost like hes a Highlander who got caught in an arthouse film.Strange Days (1995)TheStrange Days trailer starts with Ralph Fiennes looking directly into the camera and asking Have you ever jacked in? Have you ever wiretripped? Uh, no. Wait, maybe? What do those words mean? Itsan off-putting first note; its meant to immediately establish the films futuristic trappings, but it mostly just makes you feel like youve walked into the theater in the middle of the movie. I likeStrange Days a lot, but it is not hard to see why the film was a flop after you watch this trailer.Bad Santa (2003)This is another unenviable task for a trailer cutter.Bad Santas dialogue is roughly 40 percent profanity; almost every other word out of Billy Bob Thorntons mouth is eitheran expletive or sexual slang. Its astoundingsomeone couldpiece together a two-minute trailer without any vulgarity and if youlisten closely, youll hear where theyve had to snip outa few four-letter words here or there. The bigger problem is, like so many other trailers on this list, theyve also removedmost of the darker material, leaving you with the impression thatBad Santa is a wacky comedy about an incorrigible but lovable oaf. The reality is quite a bit grimmer and grimier than that.How to Train Your Dragon (2010)The notion of pitching the simplest and most accessible version of yourself in a trailer isespecially true of ads for kids movies, whose target audience is admittedly not much for nuance or subtlety. This trailer for How to Train Your Dragon isnt necessarily terrible, and it at least captures the look of the films animation. Still, it barely scratches the surface of Dragonsheart or emotional story, emphasizing instead the action and goofy physical comedy for children. While the franchise is still going more than 15 years later, theres no question the film is a far better version of How to Train Your Dragon than the one on offer here.Frozen (2013)Is Elsa the hero or the villain ofFrozen? Based on this trailer, its hard to tell. Certainly it makes Anna look like much more of the central figure in the story, instead of half of a two-hander about a pair of deeply connected siblings. The trailer also mostly features a generic orchestral score instead of the famous songs from the soundtrack. (Maybe they werent finished at this point in the post-production process.) Either way,I wouldnever have predictedFrozen would become one of Disneys biggest hits in history based on this trailer. This makes it look like a flop waiting to happen.Get our free mobile appThe Best Fake Movie Trailers From Actual FilmsWe love when real movies feature phony trailers for nonexistent movies. Here are the 15 funniest ones ever made: