So Martin Scorsese makes a horror film? I am deeply underwhelmed by this first trailer for Shutter Island. Though I am usually interested in my favorite filmmakers tackling new genres, the language here seems really derivative of modern psychological-horror tropes (grey/sepia tones, dissolving fantasy sequences, etc). Also the report that Scorsese is only doing this film to get his Jesuit priest film off the ground does not bode well.

Martin Scorsese has always worked best for me in his minor key mode. The King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, the arch-underrated Bringing Out the Dead and even Raging Bull are very small, intimate films. As much as I love sections of Gangs of New York, it was the culmination of a certain tendency of the cinephile that always wanted to be one of the great studio directors of the golden age. It even effects the generic potboilers he’s done of late (The Departed and this film), everything is just scaled so ‘big and important’. He also doesn’t seem to be having any fun any more, tracing back to Gangs as his last personal gasp.

Who knows? I’ll never skip a Scorsese film, and perhaps this will be entertaining, but it just seems like he could have directed this from his hottub in the trailer.

Click here to watch the full press conference, which includes my fantastic boss, Chris Hyams.