Horror Movie Marketing Techniques - How To Get a Jump Scare From a Trailer
Remember all those classic horror flicks that used some super smart tricks to scare you before the movie even started? You bet! And the thing about horror movie marketing is that it's all about that balance - it's got to build tension, leave you a little terrified, and get you wanting to know just what's going to happen next. You can't just shove some gore in people's faces. It's got to be a real artful art. The best horror movie marketing takes advantage of what makes the genre so creepy!
You can easily ruin a good movie if you do a bad job with marketing. Sometimes, those trailers are worse than the films themselves! A good horror marketing strategy makes use of classic tricks like found footage, mystery, and some clever ways to scare people off-screen.
Viral Horror Marketing: When Fear Spreads Faster than a Zombie
The best viral campaigns really capitalize on how we like to share our fears! The "Blair Witch Project" totally revolutionized the way Movies get promoted, by playing up the "it's all real" game! Imagine watching a documentary about a witch and suddenly, the filmmakers vanish! Of course, those posters on cars, websites, and fake documentaries gave people the chill they were looking for and brought a ton of publicity to the film!
Another super successful movie "The Ring" also nailed the viral thing. They created those eerie "curse" tapes. The marketing crew was sneaky and placed this cursed tape into real commercials, even emails. There was a time when these trailers and social media promos were super effective because people were totally hyped about finding the truth. Those were the good ole days of social media marketing for horror!
"IT": Red Balloons in the Sewers - It Doesn't Get More Iconic than This!
Some of those horror films also use clever marketing techniques that stick with us long after the movie's over. It went all-out for its campaign by attaching red balloons to those sewers in Australia – because who doesn't associate Pennywise with sewers, right? Imagine seeing a bunch of red balloons on a stormy day with all the bad vibes. It totally played on that visual that gets us super scared, and the photos and videos went viral all over! You know it had the internet going wild! It's hard to beat a really visual, impactful marketing ploy!
"Psycho", with all the twisty turns that made the film so good - they knew that they couldn’t give audiences too many spoilers. Alfred Hitchcock - he really did a masterful job, with a clever "No late admission" policy to ensure that no one came in too late, thus missing those critical moments. There was also this whole "Don't tell anyone!" thing – even buying up copies of the book so that no one could ruin the surprise! You’ve got to hand it to him - Hitchcock was an absolute master when it came to making sure his movie did exactly what it set out to do.
"Cloverfield": Monster Mayhem, But Keep The Details to Yourself!
And "Cloverfield" – it took the whole "don't reveal the big plot twist" thing to the extreme! You had no idea what that big creature was for so long! The film made people curious by giving very few clues – just showing those epic scenes of destruction with that Statue of Liberty head. The real thrill came from the mystery and those creepy clips! It gave everyone just a taste, which made them want more. The whole thing even had a fake website - to get people talking and to tease them about more footage. This kind of mystery-style promotion was another big move for the horror marketing scene, showing just how important it is to build suspense in order to make a movie super creepy.
Sometimes it just works better when people don't know the full details. They get the biggest jumpscare when they're not expecting it. And who knows? Maybe "Cloverfield" will even go down as one of the best marketing campaigns ever - it’s certainly had a lot of influence, helping create some super scary trailers in recent years.
"M3GAN": When Dance Moves Become Creepy AF
"M3GAN" had a real social media thing going on - and those dance moves became famous pretty quickly! Remember that creepy, robot doll that became a killer? The whole "M3GAN" marketing team was all about capitalizing on that killer doll image - and using the Internet to do it. Imagine a movie premiere with people dressed up as M3GAN, all doing her iconic dance moves. Those dance clips took the internet by storm - and let's just say that people weren't exactly happy with the creepy choreography. It became a challenge - just another way for people to make M3GAN viral.
Those were the “before times,” where social media was still fun and people used it to get creative - it worked so well for M3GAN. They've been taking over TikTok. We see so many things nowadays that just look like AI trying to trick people, so it’s nice to remember when this marketing trick was all about a scary, fun-loving killer robot doll.
Horror Movie Marketing in 2024
"Saw X," "M3GAN," and "Longlegs" - they all did some clever marketing that made people want to watch. Each one found a unique way to tap into that horror hype. And don’t forget that "Saw X" movie that made an incredible, but short-lived, viral spoof using that Nicole Kidman AMC commercial - which is now legendary in the horror marketing universe.
We’ll have to wait and see what’s coming in 2024 - and whether there will be more awesome ideas in the works, but the thing about horror is that the marketing really has to make a statement. People remember those super creepy commercials and the ways those films turned into internet phenomena - it's just how horror marketing gets those people to want to see a film! So let's just say horror movie marketing is a wild, crazy game and it’s not for the faint of heart - and I can’t wait to see what we’re in for next.
