Fun with trailers

With the less than inspiring fare from Hollywood the past decade, coupled with the ubiquity of homemade and indie videos, it's no surprise that trailers and mini-movies have become as entertaining as traditional cinema. My favorites are those not attached to any actual full length movie.

I became a fan of movie-less trailers last year when I saw Kevin Tancharoen's Rebirth, the latest film treatment of the popular Mortal Kombat video game. The ten minute flick, starring Jeri Ryan and Michael Jai White, was originally intended as a movie pitch but now looks like it will evolve into an internet mini-series.



Riverdale, but not quite how the Archie comics depicted it. An exceptional low-budget indie collaborative project, this fictional trailer brings a chilling realism to the high school adventures of Archie Andrews and his gang. Vestal virgin Betty Cooper impregnated, Dilton Doiley out for blood, Reggie coked-up, and Jughead's gay crush on Archie are among the treats in the too-short four minute clip.



Not all trailers need be drama. This fun romp, based on Kevin David Anderson's book Night of the Living Trekkies, has a Star Trek convention besieged by a zombie attack. Though geeks irl are still wondering what took so long for the merger to happen, the attention to detail of the various Star Trek species certainly makes up for it.



With an all-star cast including 'Sir' Todd Bridges, Sean Patrick Flanery, Tricia Helfer, and Las Teclas de Negro, the Black Keys' music video for "Howlin' For You" is another cool fictional trailer clamoring to be made into a full length movie.