8 Horror Movie Marketing Campaigns That Were Extra AF
Horror has been killing it lately!
Universal Pictures
In the past 20 years, the number of new horror movie releases has shot up, and there's more to see than ever before.
Polyvinyl Records
So, it's no surprise that we've also been seeing a lot of ~interesting~ marketing campaigns for horror movies over the years, as filmmakers need their movie to stand out from the literal hundreds of others to get as many butts in those theater seats as they can.
Warner Bros.
They often do so with over-the-top viral marketing campaigns to help spread the word. Here are eight of those campaigns:
1.Smile (2022) — Baseball "Smilers"
Last month, to promote the new horror film Smile, Paramount placed actors in various public locations and had them smile and stare directly into the camera. They were seen in the background of the Today show and in crowds of Major League Baseball games.
Here's one of the actors at the Mets vs. Athletics game on September 23. Positioned right behind the home plate, she was grinning ear-to-ear, staring at the camera, practically motionless, and wearing a highlighter yellow T-shirt with "Smile" written on the front.
Unsurprisingly, people began tweeting videos and pictures of the actors, and the whole thing went viral.
please eject thx @Athletics
People (me included) didn't know right away that this was a marketing campaign, so it was super creepy to see on live television.
blue shirt hasnt moved for 40 mins
2.Carrie (2013) — “A Telekinetic Surprise in a Coffee Shop”
In order to promote the Carrie remake, the viral marketing agency Thinkmodo came up with an idea to “prank” customers at a coffee shop in New York City.
The prank involved a woman becoming enraged after a man spilled his drink on her laptop. Using pulleys and remote controls, she appeared to be telekinetic. She seemingly pushed him up against a wall and lifted him off of his feet.
CarrieNYC / Via youtube.com
She then seemed to move a handful of tables with just her mind.
The big finale came when she let out a blood-curdling scream, as pictures fell off the walls and books flew off the shelves.
CarrieNYC / Via youtube.com
Customers at the coffee shop lost their shit.
CarrieNYC / Via youtube.com
They screamed, they ran, and some just watched in disbelief.
This pipe-wielding construction worker was ready to protect the whole place.
And this guy dropped his poppyseed bagel.
Here's the full prank:
The movie also advertised a phone number that you could call where you could hear Margaret White screaming at Carrie, reciting Bible passages, and humming. You can listen to them here:
3.The Blair Witch Project (1999) — The Blair Witch Myth
Leading up to, and even after the release of, The Blair Witch Project, a low-budget found footage film about three college students who go missing after hunting for an absolutely made-up legend, it was marketed more as a documentary, not a fictional horror movie.
It's probably the first instance of a viral marketing campaign, and it paved the way for every other movie on this list.
The filmmakers, and then Artisan who purchased the film after seeing it at Sundance, distributed and plastered "missing" flyers of the three stars of the film, who used their real names in the movie, all around college campuses.
A website was created to further trick people into thinking this was an actual missing persons case and that there was an actual Blair Witch.
The site, now only available through the Wayback Machine, included interviews of the victim's family members discussing the disappearance, fake news clips, an explanation of the legend of the Blair Witch, and photographs of "evidence" from the supposed event.
A couple of weeks before the release of the movie, Curse of the Blair Witch premiered on the Syfy channel (Sci-Fi at the time).
This mockumentary included interviews with actors posing as family members, friends, and professors of the three "missing" students, as well as folklore experts, historians, and local investigators to help explain the Blair Witch lore.
The film, and its intense guerrilla marketing, was an obvious success.
4.The Ring (2002) — Unmarked VHS Tapes
In 2002, the marketing team at DreamWorks took a page out of The Blair Witch book and created their own viral marketing campaign to promote The Ring, a remake of the Japanese horror film, Ringu, in which a cursed VHS tape causes its viewer to die seven days after watching it.
DreamWorks created several webpages (now defunct), like sevendaystolive.com that talked about "the ring virus" and anopenletter.com which explained what happened after you watched the haunted video tape.
Around the release of the film, people reported finding unmarked VHS tapes on their windshields that contained the minute and a half video from the film.
Since the tapes were unmarked, people didn't necessarily know that they were to promote a movie, let alone The Ring.
After sneak previews of the film revealed that audiences weren't 100% interested in — or had even heard of — The Ring, the studio changed tactics a bit and started airing TV spots that showed real footage of a terrified audience watching the film and quick testimonials from people who had just left the theater.
You can watch the footage from the VHS tape here:
5.Rings (2017) — "TV Store Prank"
In 2017, a third installment in The Ring series was released. And this time, to promote the film, Paramount brought in Thinkmodo (the team behind the telekinetic coffee shop prank) who came up with another viral prank video.
In the prank, a salesperson in an appliance store brought customers over to a wall of televisions to show them "the new 4K technology." While he talked, one of the TVs inconspicuously slid up into the wall, revealing Samara, the villain from the movie.
Paramount Pictures / Via youtube.com
People didn't notice her until she crawled out to scare them.
And, boy, did she scare them.
Paramount Pictures / Via youtube.com
The video immediately went viral, garnering over 200 million views in just 24 hours after being posted. You can watch it here:
6.The Last Exorcism (2010) — Chatroulette Prank
If you were a teen in the late 2000s, Chatroulette was the thing to do. (If you don't remember/know what that is, it's basically a video chat website that connects you to a random stranger in seconds.) And Lionsgate took full advantage of that to promote their found footage horror film The Last Exorcism.
As some lucky few perused Chatroulette in the summer of 2010, they were connected to what they thought was a live video chat with a random woman. However, it was actually a prerecorded video of an actor.
In the video, the actor flirted with the live strangers and then began unbuttoning her top.
She stopped suddenly, moved her hair away from her face, and stared directly into the camera. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, she let out a guttural scream, and lunged at the camera. The screen went black, and the url of the movie appeared on screen.
eOnefilms / Via youtube.com
There was also a variation where the actor snapped her own neck.
The people she was chatting with freaked out, and Lionsgate got some pretty good reactions. A compilation video was released of the best ones, which you can watch here:
7.Chronicle (2012) — "Flying People in New York City"
Chronicle is a found footage horror movie about three teenagers who gain superpowers, including the ability to fly. To promote the film, the team at Thinkmodo came up with yet another viral idea.
In a "prank" designed to have strangers film it, remote-controlled planes in the shape of people were flown above New York City.
ChronicleNYC / Via youtube.com
Onlookers who knew nothing about the movie filmed the planes, of course, not knowing what they were exactly watching.
Eventually, Thinkmodo uploaded their video to YouTube which explained the prank and that it was a promotion for Chronicle. You can watch the video here:
8.And finally, Scream (2022) — Fake TikToks
A month before the release of the new Scream, the TikTok account @TooBrAshSarah was created to promote the film.
The account belongs to a fictional teen named Sarah who lives in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California where Scream takes place.
Her posts begin as just horror movie-related content, but after she reports a new Ghostface killer in town, she starts posting about finding out the murderer's identity, revealing information to us about the new characters in the upcoming movie.
@toobrashsarah Reply to @iactuallyhateyogurt New developments! #savewoodsboro #screammovie #ad #paramount
♬ original sound - TooBrAshSarah
Eventually, her best friend, Ash, goes missing, and two days before the release of the new Scream movie, she posts her last video where while she's on her way to a party, she drops her phone, and Ghostface picks it up.
You can watch her final TikTok here:
@toobrashsarah Can't wait to see Ash! #savewoodsboro #screammovie #ad #paramount
♬ original sound - TooBrAshSarah
Scream cost $30 million to make and grossed $140 million worldwide, which is a huge success considering it was released during the pandemic.
