Trailer Talk: February 2026. Written by Megan Williams
The horror genre can arrive in various forms, with the parody belonging to ‘Scary Movie’.
Despite having no number at the end of the title, this is the first film in the franchise to be released in thirteen years. The film also sees the return of the Wayan brothers for the first time since ‘Scary Movie 2’ in 2001. While the films were never my humour, it was always interesting to see which films would be picked and how they’d be parodied, and the films here are great picks. Plus, due to the huge gap between entries, there’s a lot more to pick from, but the ones seen so far are ‘Halloween’, ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’, ‘Ma’, ‘Sinners’, ‘The Substance’ and of course ‘Scream 5’.
One set of films that have avoided the parodying is the fairytale series from Rhys Frake-Waterfield. After ‘Bambi: The Reckoning’, it seems there’s no end to these films because the next character to be horror-fied is Pinocchio. Just like my thoughts on the Peter Pan horror film, Pinocchio also makes sense to be turned into a horror character: the original 1883 story featured the puppet killing the cricket amongst other similar actions. And, while some of the acting and kills in the film do look silly, the idea of the puppet wanting to be a real boy by taking various peoples’ body parts is actually an interesting premise. Plus, the film uses practical effects and animatronics to create the wooden boy and his cricket friend, something that is appreciated.
The last trailer to highlight actually arrived yesterday, which is the full trailer for the ‘Backrooms’ adaptation. Based on the 2022 Youtube video by Kane Parsons (Kane Pixels on Youtube), it follows a therapist who discovers her patient is going into an obscure dimension at the back of a furniture store. This is one that I’m very excited for and was surprised to learn that it’s releasing in exactly two months’ time. Kane Parsons is involved as a director and co-writer, and it looks fantastic; the eerie atmosphere and sense of isolation that the short demonstrated has been perfectly captured here, plus it boasts a great but small cast.
