Jurassic World Rebirth looks more horror movie than adventure – and that has me thrilled

Jonathan Bailey in Jurassic World Rebirth — (Image credit: Universal)

The epic first trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth has arrived, and, even after just two minutes of footage, it's clear this movie is leaning heavily into the horror aspects of the franchise – and that's what has me most excited about the movie.

Now, the Jurassic Park movies have never been shy about being scary. The original movie has that terrifying raptor sequence in the kitchen, after all, and every installment since has featured at least one chilling showdown with a bloodthirsty dino. But, they've also all focused on the wonder and joy of seeing these scaly (or feathery) creatures returned to the planet. Who could forget Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler's reaction to seeing real life dinosaurs for the first time? Rebirth, meanwhile, looks all about sheer terror.

Welcome (back) to Jurassic Park

A dinosaur in Jurassic World Rebirth — (Image credit: Universal)

The trailer sets up a journey to a distant, secluded location filled with dinosaurs. Scarlett Johansson's no-nonsense Zora teams up with Jonathan Bailey's nervous paleontologist Dr. Loomis in the hopes of bringing home a huge medical breakthrough, and we see the mismatched duo on an Indiana Jones-style quest to obtain DNA from an egg, while the giant, carnivorous parent comes home pretty disgruntled to see them. So far, it's all a light-hearted adventure.

But the tone of the trailer shifts when Loomis's voiceover is heard saying "these dinosaurs were too dangerous for the original park." Then, we see an absolutely terrifying glimpse of a huge dinosaur stalking the human characters – before we're also shown a hapless person trapped behind glass with a sharp-toothed creature, a deadly dino flaring its neck frills at a young girl, a T. rex snapping its formidable jaws, and a group of dinosaurs circling the main team's boat like a prehistoric version of the shark from Jaws.

The horror vibes are very intentional on director Gareth Edwards' part, too. "Jurassic Park is a horror film in the witness protection program," he told Vanity Fair. "Most people don't think of it like that. We all went to see it as kids. But I was scared shitless, to be honest, when I was at the cinema watching the T. rex attack. It's one of the most well-directed scenes in cinema history, so the bar's really high to come on board and try and do this."

Like Edwards, I've also always been absolutely terrified by the Jurassic Park movies, and I've always enjoyed them best when I have to watch them between my fingers.

Fear factor

Dinosaurs are horrifying creatures, after all. If you've ever been dwarfed by their skeletons in a museum, you'll have felt a fraction of that evolutionary-encoded fear of being in the fossilized sights of an apex predator. Even the etymology of the word "dinosaur" is the Greek word deinós, meaning terrible or fearful, and saûros, meaning lizard.

As much as I love the gentle giants of the franchise, it's the chase sequences or the sudden attacks that really get my heart racing. "There's something very primal that’s buried deep inside everybody,” Edwards told Vanity Fair. "As mammals, we evolved [with] this fear of the bigger animal that's going to come one day and maybe kill us or our family. The second we see it happening onscreen, you're like, 'I knew it… We had it too good for too long.'"

The same interview also confirms that the movie will adapt a scene from the original novel by Michael Crichton, in which Dr. Grant and the kids are chased by a T. rex through a river while they paddle a rubber raft. I remember this being the scariest and most intense scene of the entire book, one that stayed with me after I finished it, so I can't wait to see a version of it finally depicted on screen.

All of this focus on the scarier side of these creatures has me feeling very optimistic for Rebirth, after I wasn't a huge fan of Dominion. Seeing the dinos restored to their spine-chilling glory is something I've been waiting for all this time – and that's what has me most excited to return to the world of Jurassic Park.

Jurassic World Rebirth arrives on July 2. In the meantime, check out our guide to all of this year's most exciting upcoming movies for everything else that's in the works.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.