Just ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, here’s the final trailer for Todd Phillips’ Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

What to make of this? It looks pretty intense and Phoenix is clearly pulling out all the stops, but frankly Phillips’ track record (The Hangover movies… oy!) causes a little pause for breath and despite the clearly well-intentioned decision to basically makes this a riff of Scorsese’s King Of Comedy I’m concerned it all feels a little too familiar, that its narrative arc may be a path already too well-trodden.

Frankly, I hope I’m wrong, I hope this film absolutely knocks it out of the park and I’ll be first in line on opening day, but I can’t help think this might not be a joke funny enough to repeat.

Joker opens on October 4th.