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How to Discuss Without Spoilers (will inevitably contain spoilers).
OBollocks
Posts: 907Member, Staff
The tl;dr version of an incredibly laboured train of thought: How do you recommend something to someone without spoiling it for them, when the spoilerific things are the exact things that will motivate them to ingest said media?
Two cases predominate for me recently, Cabin in the Woods, and Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow.
CitW, for those who haven't seen it, is about a group of teens who go to aforesaid domicile...and that's about all you can say without spoiling the film. If you haven't seen it DO NOT go and read a synopsis. Don't commit such an act of self-harm. See the film, even if you have to wait months for it to come out on BR/DVD. It's not a straight horror film, but the most you can say without spoiling anything important makes it sound like exactly the type of film it isn't. "A bunch of American teens go to a cabin in the woods." immediately makes people make faces and wave their hands.
Miss Smilla suffers from a similar problem in that it's a great book that is ostensibly a murder mystery but contains certain elements that would greatly interest readers of other genres (the reasons for the expedition, those that have read the book). Trying to pass the book to a friend, he made the tactical mis-step of reading the blurb and passed it back, declaring he was not interested in murder mysteries. Once again, le sigh, as the French say.
There must be a way around this. More and more I believe that you should just go into a work as 'blind' as possible to its specifics, but this makes it harder and harder to back up one's recommendations with examples from the work itself. In case you think this is a trifling matter, I can assure you it is not. My brother has recently started mocking me by declaring "Bruce Willis is a ghost!" every time something falls over, so preoccupied have I become with presenting him with spoiler-free media descriptions.
This must stop.
Two cases predominate for me recently, Cabin in the Woods, and Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow.
CitW, for those who haven't seen it, is about a group of teens who go to aforesaid domicile...and that's about all you can say without spoiling the film. If you haven't seen it DO NOT go and read a synopsis. Don't commit such an act of self-harm. See the film, even if you have to wait months for it to come out on BR/DVD. It's not a straight horror film, but the most you can say without spoiling anything important makes it sound like exactly the type of film it isn't. "A bunch of American teens go to a cabin in the woods." immediately makes people make faces and wave their hands.
Miss Smilla suffers from a similar problem in that it's a great book that is ostensibly a murder mystery but contains certain elements that would greatly interest readers of other genres (the reasons for the expedition, those that have read the book). Trying to pass the book to a friend, he made the tactical mis-step of reading the blurb and passed it back, declaring he was not interested in murder mysteries. Once again, le sigh, as the French say.
There must be a way around this. More and more I believe that you should just go into a work as 'blind' as possible to its specifics, but this makes it harder and harder to back up one's recommendations with examples from the work itself. In case you think this is a trifling matter, I can assure you it is not. My brother has recently started mocking me by declaring "Bruce Willis is a ghost!" every time something falls over, so preoccupied have I become with presenting him with spoiler-free media descriptions.
This must stop.
Best Answers
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deathmtn
Posts: 226
Maybe you could avoid describing the something at all. Simply recommend by describing:
- How it make you think and/or feel
- What other things it was like that your target also liked
Of course, while it may work on a personal communication level, I could see how it can break down when broadcasting to a large, unknown audience. -
jon_a_ross
Posts: 719
I agree that professional reviewers often spoil movies in the stupidest of ways. Talking about the appearance of X actor (who only shows up in the last ten minutes) or about how great the special effects were in Y battle or Z location... I personally try to only refer to the act 1 of a movie, the first 15 minutes of set up or so, in any detail and then just go into a generic soup of feelings and technical breakdown.
The lack of shaky cam gives the fight scenes a really great classic feel etc...
As for Cabin in the Woods, saying that it explains how come 80's and 90's horror movies happened as they did isn't really a spoiler given my rules above, as they show the set up happening in that first act. Running two parallel story lines gives us the classic horror movie and then those who make it happen. They also have excellent use of framing and humour to bring the characters and movie to life. -
BaneAu
Posts: 76
While it doesn't directly answer, I always push my friends to abide by the 'three chapter' rule of thumb. 'Yeah, the blurb might suck dude, but trust me, by Chapter 3 you will be sucked right in.'
Doesn't help when it takes more than three chapters, unfortunately. Also, as someone who abhors spoilers I approve of this thread (and toss the trailer for The Avengers into the abyss)
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1 • Off Topic Insightful Dislike 1Like WTF Awesome •Just had difficulty convincing people of the merits of Kill List and Super. Honestly just want to stop talking to people about films, but they keep bringing them up.
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