"We suffer more in imagination than in reality," once said philosopher Seneca. He was talking about anxiety and overthinking, but it's no secret that the phrase applies to horror movies, too. A lot of the time, it's the things we think we see, or simply the anticipation of seeing something truly terrible, that make the hairs on the back of our necks stand on end.
The dread-inducing trailers for Nosferatu, from The Witch's Robert Eggers, and Osgood Perkins' Longlegs understand this in a big way, as they obscure their respective, eponymous villains to ratchet up the tension. The teaser for Tillman Singer's Cuckoo kind of does it as well, only offering up quick or blurred shots of Hunter Schafer's slack-jawed, sunglasses-wearing stalker – and all of their promo is better for it. Other scary flicks could learn a thing or two from their marketing.
