The joy of film trailers is that they give us just a taste of the film. They’re the clerk of a delicatessen offering you a free sample so that you could decide whether or not you would like have the main meal.

However, the issue with some trailers is that they give us too much. In the trailer for the recently released "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates," the audience is given a handful of major plot points. It essentially gives the audience a basic rundown of the entire film.

A trailer shouldn’t show the audience major plot points of a movie, rather, it should give them a tease of the film with an idea of the kind of atmosphere it has. If it’s a comedy let the jokes give an idea of what the audience can expect from it. If it’s an action movie, give the audience a taste of the action instead of the plot like in the trailer for Batman Vs. Superman:

This trailer is essentially the entire movie summarized in less than 3 minutes. The conflict between Batman and Superman is set up, they battle each other, a new enemy is introduced and finally they team up alongside Wonder Woman to fight the new enemy.

A great example of an effective trailer is from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." We are only given teases of the film. The characters, the plot, and the conflict are evident but little is known about them. We only get snippets of scenes and dialogue to get a sense of the atmosphere. Only until we watch the film do we get the full experience.

Another great example of a film trailer is from "10 Cloverfield Lane." That trailer gave the audience virtually nothing to interpret in terms of plot and continued to do so in the few televised promotions that followed. It hooked the audience in with only one trailer, just months before its release and left the audience with an urge to feed their curiosity by watching the film.

I’ll be honest, as much as I enjoyed watching "10 Cloverfield Lane," I felt as if I had more fun watching the trailer and anticipating its arrival than I did watching the actual film.

In addition to the teasing of the plot, characters and conflict, a trailer should also give the audience a cliffhanger that promises the audience what they can expect to see in the film if they watch it.

In "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the cliffhanger at the end was the light saber battle and in "10 Cloverfield Lane," the cliffhanger was wondering what was outside the bunker.

Showing good scenes in a trailer is what hooks the audience, and not giving away too much while making promises as to what they can expect is what a film trailer should do.