The Preview Bait-And-Switch

Have you ever gone to see a movie, and after watching it, felt utterly cheated because the movie looked nothing like the preview. How was it possible that the only funny thing in the movie were the 3 jokes in the prevew? How was it possible that the preview seemed so much more funny, exciting, scary than the actual movie itself?

Here's how. Devious editors, armed with a magician's sense of misdirection, can make dog-turd seem like a steamingly hot delicious meat-loaf.

The proof? Here's two previews that have been floating around the net, showing how one can cut a classic into a completely different genre, using some brilliant moves on the cutting floor. Watch how music, pacing timing, and montage, can make light into dark, and dark into light.

1. The first is "The Shining" [redux] as redemptive family comedy:


2. And the second, reversing the genre-switch, is "Sleepless in Seattle" as horror: