You know that feeling when you watch a trailer and you basically feel like you've seen the whole movie? The Mulholland Drive movie trailer is the exact opposite of that. It’s a fever dream. Honestly, if you saw it back in 2001, you probably walked away more confused than when you started. That was David Lynch’s whole vibe, though. He wasn’t trying to sell you a plot; he was trying to sell you a nightmare that you couldn't quite wake up from.
It starts with those headlights. Slow. Methodical.
Most trailers follow a formula. You get the "In a world" setup, the rising stakes, the "BWONG" inception noise, and a punchline. Lynch doesn't do that. The promotional material for Mulholland Drive—which, let's remember, started as a failed TV pilot for ABC—is a masterclass in psychological discomfort. It uses silence like a weapon.
The Mulholland Drive Movie Trailer and the Art of the Non-Spoiler
If you go back and watch the original teaser, it’s remarkably sparse. There’s almost no dialogue for the first thirty seconds. We see Naomi Watts as Betty Elms, looking like a bright-eyed girl-next-door straight out of a 1950s postcard. Then we see the car crash. The smoke. The woman with amnesia (Laura Harring) wandering down into the gardens of a Hollywood estate.
It feels like a noir, but something is "off."
The Mulholland Drive movie trailer is fascinating because it captures the transition from a television aesthetic to a cinematic masterpiece. When ABC passed on the pilot, StudioCanal stepped in with the funding to let Lynch film extra scenes to turn it into a feature. You can actually see the difference in the trailer if you look closely at the lighting. The "TV" parts are brighter, more standard. The "Film" parts—the parts added later—are darker, grainier, and infinitely more surreal.
Why the editing works (or doesn't)
Most people expect a trailer to give them a "hook." The hook here is just... dread. We see a blue key. We see a cowboy who looks like he belongs in a different century. We see a man in a diner talking about a dream he had behind a Winkie's restaurant.
It’s disjointed.
I think that's why it stuck in people's heads. In 2001, the internet wasn't what it is now. You couldn't just hop on Reddit and read a thousand-word theory about the Silencio club within five minutes of the trailer dropping. You had to sit with that feeling of unease. The trailer used the song "Llorando"—the Spanish a cappella version of Roy Orbison's "Crying"—to create this operatic sense of tragedy that the viewers didn't even understand yet.
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The Mystery of the Blue Box
If you watch the Mulholland Drive movie trailer today, you’re looking at a piece of marketing that successfully hid one of the biggest rug-pulls in cinema history. The trailer sets up a mystery: Who is Rita? Where did she come from? Why does she have a purse full of cash?
But it never hints at the reality-bending shift that happens in the final third of the film.
- It focuses on the "investigation" aspect.
- It highlights the romance between Betty and Rita.
- It emphasizes the "Hollywood Dream" trope.
By doing this, Lynch and the editors at Universal (the US distributor) played a trick on the audience. They made it look like a standard mystery thriller. Even the taglines used in the print ads—"A love story in the city of dreams"—were technically true but incredibly misleading. It’s a love story in the same way a car wreck is a meeting of two vehicles.
The Cowboy and the Cast
The trailer gives us glimpses of the supporting cast that eventually became legendary. Justin Theroux as the frustrated director Adam Kesher, smashing a car windshield with a golf club. It’s a high-energy moment in an otherwise slow-burn trailer.
Then there’s the Cowboy.
He only appears for a second in the Mulholland Drive movie trailer, but his presence is looming. "A man's attitude goes some ways as to how his life will be," he says. It’s such a Lynchian line. It means everything and nothing at the same time. This is why the trailer works for SEO even decades later; people are still searching for what those snippets meant before they saw the full 147-minute runtime.
How the Trailer Handled the "Pilot" Origins
It’s no secret that this movie was almost a show. If you watch the trailer with that in mind, you can see the "episodic" nature of the scenes. The hitman sequence with the messy double-murder? That feels like it could have been a subplot in a Season 1 arc. The diner scene? A one-off weirdness.
The trailer had to bridge the gap between "this is a story about a girl moving to LA" and "this is an experimental art film that will ruin your sleep for a week."
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Critics like Roger Ebert famously gave the film four stars, but even he noted that the marketing didn't quite prepare you for the descent into the rabbit hole. The Mulholland Drive movie trailer promised a puzzle. The movie gave you a puzzle with pieces from three different boxes.
Analyzing the Sound Design
If you mute the trailer, it’s just a series of pretty people looking confused. If you turn the sound up, it’s a nightmare.
Angelo Badalamenti’s score is the secret sauce here. The low, rumbling synth tones that underpin every frame of the Mulholland Drive movie trailer create a physical sensation of anxiety. It’s a technique called infrasound—or at least, it mimics it—where the frequencies are so low they make the viewer feel like something is behind them.
- The sharp intake of breath.
- The sound of a telephone ringing that goes on just a second too long.
- The sudden silence when the Blue Box appears.
These aren't accidents. They are deliberate choices to prime your brain for a non-linear experience.
The Winkie's Scene Snippet
Perhaps the most famous part of the trailer is the brief cut to the man behind the diner. It’s arguably the most jump-scare-heavy moment in Lynch’s filmography. The trailer barely shows it. It gives you just enough of the man’s terrified face to make you wonder what he’s looking at.
Most horror trailers show the monster.
Lynch shows the reaction to the monster.
That’s a huge distinction. By focusing on the fear in the characters' eyes rather than the source of the fear, the Mulholland Drive movie trailer forces the audience to fill in the blanks with their own insecurities. It’s a psychological trick that makes the trailer more effective than a million-dollar CGI extravaganza.
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Legacy of the 2001 Marketing Campaign
Looking back, the way this film was sold was actually pretty gutsy. We live in an era of "spoiler culture" where people get upset if a trailer shows a specific cameo. In 2001, the Mulholland Drive movie trailer managed to be one of the most talked-about clips on the early web precisely because it was so opaque.
It didn't have "The Ultimate Guide" to its own plot. It just had an atmosphere.
The film went on to win Best Director at Cannes and earned an Oscar nomination. Much of that initial buzz started with the confusing, alluring, and slightly repulsive nature of that first trailer. It captured the duality of Los Angeles—the sun-drenched palm trees versus the rotting shadows behind the dumpsters.
Actionable Insights for Cinephiles
If you're revisiting the Mulholland Drive movie trailer or the film itself, here’s how to actually "watch" it without losing your mind:
- Look for the 10 Clues: David Lynch actually released a list of 10 clues in the original DVD liner notes. They include things like "Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup." The trailer features almost all of these clues if you're fast with the pause button.
- Compare the Teaser to the Theatrical: The teaser is much more rhythmic and abstract. The theatrical trailer tries to impose a "plot" that the movie eventually dismantles.
- Watch the Lighting: Notice how the light changes when Betty is at the airport versus when she’s in the apartment. The trailer highlights these shifts, which represent the divide between dream and reality.
- Listen for the Sound Bridges: Lynch often uses a sound from the next scene to end the current one. The trailer uses this to disorient you, making it hard to tell when one "story" ends and another begins.
The Mulholland Drive movie trailer isn't just an advertisement; it's a prologue. It sets the tone for a story that refuses to be solved. If you go into it looking for a linear narrative, you’ll be disappointed. But if you go into it looking for a mood—a specific, dark, Los Angeles mood—then that trailer is the perfect entry point.
Don't worry about "getting" it. Just feel it. The blue key is waiting.
To get the most out of your next viewing, pay close attention to the scene in the trailer where the phone rings in the dark. It’s a direct reference to the "call" that starts the real-life nightmare for Diane Selwyn. Watch the trailer one more time, but this time, ignore the faces and just look at the background objects—the lamps, the statues, the wall colors. That’s where the real story is hidden.
Proceed with the understanding that the "Betty" you see in the trailer is a construction. The "Rita" you see is a shadow. Once you accept that nothing in the promotional material is "real," the movie starts to make a lot more sense. Or a lot less. Either way, it's a ride worth taking.