Trailers for mysteries and thrillers often have a difficult balancing act: They need to convey the enigma and allure of the story without giving away the farm, narratively speaking. When it’s done well, you get things like the trailer for Inception. When it’s done poorly, you get the trailer for What Lies Beneath, which gives away the twist that is the film’s entire reason for existing. And unless it’s really doing a good job of hiding its true nature, the trailer for Amnesiac comes down smack on the side of letting you know just about every beat of the movie.
Starring Wes Bentley and Kate Bosworth, Amnesiac follows Bentley’s memory-deprived father after he wakes up following a car crash. But (spoiler alert, or rather it would be if this trailer didn’t tell you almost everything) Kate Bosworth’s “wife” is actually holding him prisoner, pretending to be his happy spouse but quickly revealing her malicious intent. It looks like a Misery redux but with some amnesia thrown in to keep it fresh. But there’s every chance the movie itself will be trashy fun; it’s directed by Michael Polish (Twin Falls Idaho, Big Sur, Bosworth’s husband), who has an eye for composition, if not necessarily great scripts. August 14 will be your chance to see if he and his actors can make this boilerplate premise enjoyable.