There’s a new trailer for Joe Johnston’s remake of Universal’s The Wolfman. If you didn’t like the first trailer, which really sold the film as a piece of gothic old-school horror, you’ll probably like this one a lot more.

The first trailer was very much what you’d expect: here’s the legend of the wolfman, here are the characters, here’s what happens to them. But it was almost too pagebound. This trailer is very different, and far more modern in approach. It’s more like a music video than anything else, married as it is to a slightly dark but mostly generic goth/industrial rock tune, which actually works quite well in this context. (I’m sure I should know this song, but can’t place it.)

And then there are many flashes of characters and scenes. We get the malevolence of Anthony Hopkins, the suffering of Benicio Del Toro, and some transformation glimpses that actually look pretty great. Did those reshoots help? I liked the transformation sequences in the original trailer, and I like them more here. There’s new footage in here, too, and it all looks great.

More than anything else, this trailer works because it has a sense of mystery. Seeing it, I want to know more about what goes on, where the first clip just left me feeling like the film would be entirely predictable. And perhaps it is. This might just be a great piece of salesmanship on Universal’s part. This trailer proves that context is everything; hopefully the movie will work on its own terms.

Apple has the trailer in HD, and I really recommend checking it out in that format. The Wolfman is directed by Joe Johnston (of the upcoming Captain America) and stars Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. It opens on February 12, 2010.