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The trailers for movies are an art form (and an industry) in their own right.

Besides big celebrity names, directors that create cult classics, and favourite genres, trailers are a powerful force in persuading viewers to watch a particular movie.

The formula of a trailer has to be just right in order to attract the masses – from the music to the shots they include and the references they use.

Some people (myself, most definitely, included) love to watch just the trailers, allowing them to autoplay on YouTube, without ever seeing the actual movie.

Whether a trailer is, in fact, better than its big picture version, or lives up to the hype a trailer can generate, is a story for another day. but Mental Floss has compiled a list of the 25 best movie trailers ever made.

We’re not going to argue with them, although we could, so here are the top five, in descending order.

5. ALIEN (1979)

The Alien trailer was so famous that when time came for Ridley Scott to return to the franchise with Prometheus, he and his collaborators relied on the same sound effects he had used three and a half decades earlier. Best of all, this trailer features what just might be every single shot of Jones the cat seen in the film.

The movie scores 8,4 on IMDb.

4. JAWS (1975)

Before celebrated voice actor Don LaFontaine, there was Percy Rodriguez. For a certain generation, his voice is synonymous with trailers, especially in the horror genre.

Jaws might have made the cut simply for its historical position as the first of what we consider to be contemporary blockbusters, but the trailer is actually pretty great, starting with John Williams’s music and Rodriguez’s ominous description of a shark…

Ultimately the trailer veers into more of an overview of the plot, but those first moments are so fantastic that you don’t even need the rest.

The movie scores 8,0 on IMDb.

3. THE EXORCIST (1973)

The Exorcist trailer is famous not only for being too intense for audiences, but also for featuring music that composer Lalo Schifrin recorded for the film that director William Friedkin eventually discarded completely…

Even today, getting through even just a few seconds of the trailer is difficult (if you struggle with strobing effects, you might want to avoid it altogether).

But given the impact of the final film, this trailer established expectations that Friedkin undoubtedly lived up to, whether or not he wanted to terrify audiences even before they got into the theater.

The movie scores 8,0 on IMDb.

2. PSYCHO (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock was always a showman with his movies, and many of them had terrific trailers. But the trailer for Psycho—which is long by contemporary standards—ranks among his best, as the filmmaker himself offers viewers a tour of the Bates Motel and the scene of its grisly murders.

What’s most amazing is the patience Hitchcock shows in winding through the house and each room before finally ending up in the bathroom where its most famous scene takes place, finally delivering a terrifying payoff after lulling viewers with his charm and personality.

The movie scores 8,5 on IMDb.

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)

With this perennial Best Movie Of All Time (at least until recently), Orson Welles created a fantastic trailer for his feature debut, playing first on his background in radio and stage, then introducing his Mercury Theatre troupe, a few details about the film, and some chorus girls—strictly for “ballyhoo,” he confessed.

The movie scores 8,3 on IMDb.

That “at least until recently” refers to the fact that Paddington 2 is now considered to be the greatest movie of all time, according to the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Given that all of the movies above scored so well on IMDb, it appears they did deliver the goods.

You can see the full list of the 25 greatest trailers ever made here.

[source:mentalfloss]