‘Dark Was The Night’ Trailer Brings Back Old School Monster Movie Memories

Dark Was the Night has unleashed a trailer. The film is due out on July 24, and from the looks of it, movie-going audiences are about to be reintroduced to the way monster movies used to be.

The trailer does a good job of setting up the mood and the promise of brutal violence without going “too far” or showing “too much.”

The monster movie horror sub-genre enjoyed a golden age during the 1950s that was somewhat reborn in the 1980s as special effects improved and censors relaxed.

But one thing that the ’80s films stayed true to through classics like Pumpkinhead, Jaws (1975 but a huge influence on the ’80s), and An American Werewolf in London was this: the less you show of the monster the better.

In fact, many times you wouldn’t get a good look at the beast in all its glory till the final 10 or 15 minutes. Part of that was due to budget limitations, but filmmakers also understood the anticipation could create far worse images in the mind of audiences than anything you showed on screen.

In Dark Was the Night — at least the trailer for it — we are reintroduced to that concept. The presence of the monster is in almost every frame, but beyond a shadow here and there, we’re left to wonder.

The plot centers on an evil unleashed from the woods due to the meddling of a logging company. Soon, animals start to leave the area in droves and some end up viciously attacked or killed.

It’s not long before people become the next target, and the only hope of stopping it is a small town sheriff and his deputy.

Kevin Durand, Steve Agee, and Lukas Haas, star in this fright flick. Here’s a look at the trailer.

Thankfully — as is often the case with modern horror films — you won’t have to wait if your local theater fails to bring this one to your town.

In addition to its theatrical release, it will also be available on iTunes video on demand the same day, according to the film’s official website.

In other horror movie news, the Halloween anthology film appears to be making a comeback, but it’s not Trick R Treat 2 this time around. (Hopefully we’ll get that one sometime in the near future.)

No, a Comic-Con trailer has hit the web for Tales of Halloween, which you can check out here.

As for Dark Was the Night, will you be checking this one out on release day?

[Image via Dark Was the Night trailer, linked above]