Trailer: ‘Hope’ Is a Batshit Crazy and Bloody Sci-Fi Horror Alien Invasion Film!
Holy shit. What did I just watch? Last week, we told you we’d heard that Na Hong-jin’s Hope, which just […]
Holy shit. What did I just watch?
Last week, we told you we’d heard that Na Hong-jin’s Hope, which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, was secretly a full-blown sci-fi creature feature. Up until now, the early clips and promotional images made it look like some grounded police thriller with zero indication that it was hiding anything this insane underneath the surface.
Turns out our tipster was completely right.
The first teaser trailer for Hope is absolute kitchen-sink filmmaking; it’s a chaotic mash-up of sci-fi, horror, action, creature-feature insanity, and apocalyptic spectacle all slammed together into one gigantic, unhinged fever dream. One second, it looks like a gritty detective thriller; the next, there’s an alien baby, a creature stalking people through the woods, a massive spaceship crash, giant Terminator 2-style artillery weapons, and a gigantic alien monster literally leaping out of the sky to attack someone on horseback.
It’s completely fucking nuts.
Critics coming out of Cannes have been equally blown away and baffled by what Na Hong-jin has pulled off. The Hollywood Reporter called the film “a crazy good time,” praising its “fresh take on sci-fi horror” and “thrilling action,” dubbing it an “instant cult classic.”
Not everybody is sold on the execution, though. Some reactions have criticized the CGI and overwhelming scale, with IndieWire calling out what it described as “some of the worst CGI since The Mummy Returns.” Others close to me have compared the film’s chaotic ambition to Southland Tales… messy, overstuffed, borderline incomprehensible at times, but still somehow an absolute blast to watch.
