Traumatika‘s director explains why the teaser trailer for the 2024 horror showed essentially nothing of the actual movie. Premiering at FrightFest in August 2024 and releasing theatrically on September 12, 2025, Traumatika follows a boy whose nightmares start coming alive when his mother seems to be possessed by a demon, leaving him with experiences that will haunt generations.
Traumatika initially released a minimal teaser trailer, which shows almost nothing from the film, as the camera goes down a hallway and an announcement appears saying: “Due to the intense nature of Traumatika, we are not permitted to show the trailer.” This statement is followed by some excerpts from reviewers calling the movie “non-stop” and “bonkers” appearing on-screen, with terrified dialogue heard in the background.
The teaser wraps up with the words, “This is not a movie you see. This is a movie you survive,” followed by a few swift classic horror movie shots of some of the characters, and a “You have been warned.” Traumatika would release a more typical trailer about a month out of the movie’s theatrical premiere, but the first one is, in many ways, more tantalizing and memorable.
In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns, Traumatika director Pierre Tsigardis spoke about the inception of this unique teaser. Tsigardis revealed that it started out as a characteristically vague teaser, which showed some stills while hinting at some sinister things happening in the background. But when Saban Films liked the idea of showing nothing, they went all in on it.
Check out Tsigardis’ full comments below:
ScreenRant: They didn’t release a proper full trailer because they were like, “This is too extreme of a movie to release a full trailer.” I would love to know how much of that was your input on that versus the distributors’ marketing team.
Pierre Tsigardis: We had cut a trailer, an original teaser, that was not showing anything. It would just be, like, some of our favorite still shots from the movie with just a little [push] in, we would just add some sound design in the back of, like, horrific things happening in the background, and teasing the title of the movie at the end, and nothing else.
And that’s something that we had provided to Saban, and I think they liked the idea. It evolved into an idea that was like, “Oh, wait. We like the idea of not showing anything. Maybe we could say a disclaimer [like], ‘This is too crazy to show anything right now,'” [and] show some reviews and then show a little blurb at the end.
And that’s what they came up with. And honestly, it made a lot of people talk online, and I think it opened the conversation. “Oh, is it really that scary? Come on, guys.” And I think that’s good, for the conversation to be open.
And I think we do deliver with the trailer, something that makes you want to watch the movie. But we knew we were going to give you guys the trailer–just, like, in a week, [to] get you ready.
What This Means For Traumatika
Tsigardis comments on exactly the kind of reaction a marketing team would hope this kind of advertisement would provoke: disbelief that the movie could really be “that scary.” Generating curiosity rather than traditional hype can be very valuable for a little-known horror movie such as this and allows it to stand out among 2025’s best horror movies.
On the other hand, with horror movies especially, trailers are good to have to provide audiences with a better warning that a broad “you have been warned,” as well as a sense of the story for them to be invested in. As the director also notes, they were about to release a real trailer.
The non-trailer perhaps helped boost the movie by sparking conversation, so people would be ready when the next advertisement appeared. The strategy generated excitement for the movie in a way that never would have happened if they had just released a plain old movie trailer.
Our Take On Traumatika’s Non-Trailer
The Traumatika teaser also indirectly pokes fun at trailers that give far too much away, when today’s entertainment industry relies on a lot of advertising. Traumatika is a small case study in how hyperbolically teasing a movie’s vibes can be very effective, and it might actually be fun to go into a movie not really knowing what you are in for.
- Release Date
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August 24, 2024
- Runtime
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88 minutes
- Director
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Pierre Tsigaridis
- Producers
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Maxime Rancon