Director Report Card: John Landis (1982)

6. Coming Soon

Now a days, if we want to see a vintage movie trailer, the process is as easy as bringing up Youtube on our phones and searching for it. Nine times out of ten, you'll immediately find what you are looking for. In the days before the internet, trailers – especially old trailers – were a lot harder to see. There was such a fascination for these vintage bits of advertisement, that sometimes companies would put out tapes largely composed of old trailers stitched together. Because horror and sci-fi fans are uniquely passionate, and movies like that tend to have the best trailers anyway, many of the compilation tapes focused on those genres. I myself have fond memories of VHS trailer compilations like “Hollywood Dinosaurs” and “Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies.” And though you'd think this particular type of entertainment would be totally antiquated in our modern age, trailer collections like “42nd Street Forever” and “Trailer Trauma” have found some popularity in more recent years.

Among the more notable such releases is “Coming Soon.” It was produced in 1982, when VHS was still a growing industry, surely making it one of the first trailer compilations. The tape would collect trailers for Universal Studios' classic monster, sci-fi, and horror movies. Jamie Lee Curtis, who was still best known for her scream queen roles at the time, would appear in brief host segments in-between trailers. Most pertinent to this review, “Coming Soon” was directed and co-written by John Landis. Landis had already proven himself to be an expert in cinematic lore, especially when concerning classic monster movies, making him an ideal choice for a project like this. “Coming Soon” only runs 55 minutes long, meaning it's the kind of thing I'd normally exclude from a Director Report Card. Considering my love for the Universal Monsters and weird VHS relics, there's was no way I wasn't going to want to talk about this.

“Coming Soon” is, perhaps, most valuable for the way it identifies reoccurring trends throughout these old trailers. The title itself comes from a frequently appearing message at the end of the trailers, which is displayed at the beginning of the tape. Explosions, it turns out, where just as regular an appearance in trailers then as they are now. Montages are devoted to screams – usually screaming women – and the classical image of a monster carrying unconscious women. (A very tame example of how sex sold back when.) Footage specially shot for the trailers was sometimes employed to boost a movie's profile, especially when you had Hitchcock or William Castle directly addressing the audience. “Coming Soon” exposes us to a lot of the hyperbole that was attached to classic trailers. It gives you a good idea of what sold a movie back in the golden age of cinema.

“Coming Soon” fancies itself a history of the studio. Brief shout-outs are given to some of the studio's other wartime franchises – Ma and Pa Kettle, Francis the Talking Mule – but horror is obviously the focus. All the greatest hits are featured. The Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, and Gillman series are recalled, along with the team-up movies from later in the forties. The shift from the silent era, to gothic horror in the 30s/40s, to the atomic monsters – big bugs and extraterrestrials – of the 50s is documented. So is Abbott and Costello coming along to laugh at the monsters. I was pleased to see that some of the more obscure of the studio's creature features appear. Trailers starring Paula the Ape Woman, the Monolith Monsters, Dynamo Dan, the Mole People, the Cobra Woman, and even Curucu are featured. As a hardcore fan of these movies, I really appreciate the deep cuts.

“Coming Soon” is basically a promotional reel for Universal Studios. This might be why, even though clips from some of Hammer's later remakes – the ones Universal distributed in the U.S. anyway – are featured, the British studio is never mentioned by name. Eventually, “Coming Soon” moves into the then-present. There's a very brief behind-the-scene look at Steven Spielberg directing “E.T.,”  which was then an upcoming release. A spate of new releases are featured at the end. What's funny about this is some of these would go on to become beloved classics – “Conan the Barbarian,” “The Dark Crystal,” “Videodrome” – while others – “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf?” – would slip totally into obscurity.

Genre fans will probably be most interested in checking out “Coming Soon” because of Jamie Lee Curtis' host segments. This comprised the entirety of new footage Landis shot for the movie. They largely consist of Jamie hanging out around the various attractions on the Universal back lot. There's goofy jokes involving the mummy tapping on her shoulder or Norman Bates' knife rearing up behind her back. As always, Jamie Lee's screen presence is absolutely delightful. It's fun to watch her lounge around Dracula's castle or “Incredible Shrinking Man”- style oversized props. This probably was a day gig for Curtis and she easily could've phoned it in. Instead, she's clearly enjoying herself and makes “Coming Soon” more fun to watch than it otherwise would've been.

“Coming Soon” isn't really a proper movie, of course. However, you can still see some of John Landis' trademarks. Even in something as minor as this, he manages to sneak in a reference to “See You Next Wednesday.” Naturally, as a big film nerd himself, Landis probably had a good time assembling a clip show like this. The script was co-written by Mick Garris, a fellow genre historian, who also produced the film through his Nice Guys Production company. It's sort of funny to see those two crossing paths before they both worked on the “Masters of Horror” TV series thirty years later.

I have no idea if “Coming Soon” was successful for Universal's video department. There's obviously no information available on that sort of thing. However, one factor suggest someone must've liked the idea: Two years later, the studio would release “Terror in the Aisles,” a similar horror movie clip show, into actual theaters. Like most of these VHS compilation tapes, “Coming Soon” will never be released on DVD due to the various rights issues involved in the footage. The featurette survives as blurry Youtube uploads and bootlegs. There's not a lot to it but, for genre nerds like me, it is an amusing way to spend not-quite-an-hour. [Grade: B]