Oh the Horror!!
- Thread starter The Moose Wrangler
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I'd say, give nothing away, other then the very basics of the plot. No key scenes, no indication as to who is going to die. Keep the audience guessing. Too much is given away in the trailers.
I distinctly remember "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" having an excellent marketing campaign. The commercials were genuinely scary, and all the press it was getting piqued my interest. I, and everyone I know, got really pumped to see it the night it started playing.
As anyone who's seen the film can attest, it caused us to vomit in boredom. One of the worst horror films I've ever seen. Still, the marketing campaign really hooked us, that's what was important.
As anyone who's seen the film can attest, it caused us to vomit in boredom. One of the worst horror films I've ever seen. Still, the marketing campaign really hooked us, that's what was important.
So many horror films have that now, it really annoys me, might aswell just put *warning this contains flashing images* flash white lights then put the title of the film in white writing on a black background.Sonicron said:
I think a nice advert would be the title of the film in some kind of unique font (like saw's "W") in total silence then after 2 or 3 seconds heavy breathing and running for 1 or 2 seconds followed by a scream and "blood" splatters the title from the bottom left to the top middle and stays on screen for 3 or 4 seconds while the "blood" runs down the lettering before it goes off.
10 seconds maximum, it gives nothing away and everything is left to the imagination, which is usually far scarier than the actual thing.
You could make another along the same lines but you hint at the killer, so you would have the black background with the title in the middle then the killer walks in front of it, so all you can see is it's silhouette.
I like the Bioschokc 2 method of having the website the gets updated like once a day with each new sighting of the red lights under the water and the girls being obducted(can't spell worth a damn). I figure to reach a larger audience have advertisements on the radio that tell of a new murder or obduction by some kind of creature and that tells people to go to www.nameofthemovie.com for more info on these strange developments.
this seems like good advice,wouldyoukindly99 said:
Also you can't go wrong with sticking cardboard cutouts in Walmart.
Well, rule number one in horror is: Unknown is the scariest thing.
If you don't know what you are up against, you don't know how to fight back or even if you can fight back. Even knowing the the answer to the latter is "no" is not quite as terrifying as being completely in the dark (knowing the situation is completely hopeless allows you to just give up and accept what's to come, while keeping a slight hope of survival alive keeps the suspension, and panic, going on).
It also let's the audience themselves fill the blanks. With a little push a persons own imagination is the most terrifying thing afterall. Good horror is subtle in that sense.
What I personally (at least) find also very scary is when the characters are haunted by their own mind, and they might very well even know what they see isn't real... most of the time anyway.
Just the idea that you are doomed into awake nightmare is horrifying. It might be personal fear stemming from, well, nightmares where I do try to fight back and might be aware of the fact I'm dreaming, because facing what chases you instead of running is supposed to always end the nightmare... But noooo, my subconscious isn't letting me off that easy... Has to get really creative and basically make every scary thought that might go through my mind happen. (I tend to eventually bail out; I can open my eye lids while asleep if I concentrate enough which is kinda awesome effect by the way, this white, bright, horizontal crack ripping the dream world in half).
I suppose that's enough to make me very scared of the possibility of completely losing control of fears and subconscious and having nighmarish hallucinations while awake. Because I can kind of see how that might happen, being put up against your own imagination, but with no escape.
If you don't know what you are up against, you don't know how to fight back or even if you can fight back. Even knowing the the answer to the latter is "no" is not quite as terrifying as being completely in the dark (knowing the situation is completely hopeless allows you to just give up and accept what's to come, while keeping a slight hope of survival alive keeps the suspension, and panic, going on).
It also let's the audience themselves fill the blanks. With a little push a persons own imagination is the most terrifying thing afterall. Good horror is subtle in that sense.
What I personally (at least) find also very scary is when the characters are haunted by their own mind, and they might very well even know what they see isn't real... most of the time anyway.
Just the idea that you are doomed into awake nightmare is horrifying. It might be personal fear stemming from, well, nightmares where I do try to fight back and might be aware of the fact I'm dreaming, because facing what chases you instead of running is supposed to always end the nightmare... But noooo, my subconscious isn't letting me off that easy... Has to get really creative and basically make every scary thought that might go through my mind happen. (I tend to eventually bail out; I can open my eye lids while asleep if I concentrate enough which is kinda awesome effect by the way, this white, bright, horizontal crack ripping the dream world in half).
I suppose that's enough to make me very scared of the possibility of completely losing control of fears and subconscious and having nighmarish hallucinations while awake. Because I can kind of see how that might happen, being put up against your own imagination, but with no escape.
Subtlety. Make it look like news articles if you post it in newspapers. Make people blog/vlog about it (and depending on what kind of a movie it is, have them disappear/change/whatever). Something like what they did on The Truth About Marika (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Marika) would be awesome as well. In short the plot was divided into two parts, the one that aired on tv, and the "real" main one, that played out online, and in the streets of Sweden, in every town. It started out as a simple forum, and a blog. A girl wrote about her friend, that got kidnapped, she asked for help finding her. They found more and more information about it, and it turned out to be a big conspiracy, people were divided into cells, given tasks to accomplish to find out more about this company, and this security firm. Up until this point no information was given to indicate it was fictional on the official site. After a month or so the tv-series was announced as well, and ran parallel with the plot of the game. I had a friend who got really into that thing. Like, really into it. With one day left she was talking about either quitting or comitting herself to a mental institution, she was in a complete disarray, she couldn't separate reality from the game, at all. She didn't trust her friends, she trusted the people from the program more, one of them, (hired actress) escaped from the evil company and spent the night on her couch, she freaked every time she saw the security company's cars. It was very intense, and very real, and very subtle, and that's why it worked.
Sure, it sounds bad, but it was really cool, even she admitted that, when she got home, and they told her very firmly at the finale what was real and what wasn't.
I also saw a very neat (but unfortunately, a bit broken) website that was supposed to advertise some book, or movie or something about a scary hospital with connections to hell. It started out completely normal, and sometimes there were some small things that were just wrong. Some names, something moving in the background, some subtle sound effects (real sound over, creepyness almost inaudible below). But unfortunately some things were just way over the top with a page that was on fire and saying stuff like "Hell is here" with lots of blood, and then the illusion just broke.
As with the movie, you need to work with suspense, and build the atmosphere, you need to make it real, subtle, and believable. Decieve people, trick them, don't tell them anything directly. Make them find your movie, instead of shoving it down their throats with Americanesque (explosions, dramatic voiceovers, lots of flashing text, lots of very overly dramatic and poorly written oneliners) trailers.
Sure, it sounds bad, but it was really cool, even she admitted that, when she got home, and they told her very firmly at the finale what was real and what wasn't.
I also saw a very neat (but unfortunately, a bit broken) website that was supposed to advertise some book, or movie or something about a scary hospital with connections to hell. It started out completely normal, and sometimes there were some small things that were just wrong. Some names, something moving in the background, some subtle sound effects (real sound over, creepyness almost inaudible below). But unfortunately some things were just way over the top with a page that was on fire and saying stuff like "Hell is here" with lots of blood, and then the illusion just broke.
As with the movie, you need to work with suspense, and build the atmosphere, you need to make it real, subtle, and believable. Decieve people, trick them, don't tell them anything directly. Make them find your movie, instead of shoving it down their throats with Americanesque (explosions, dramatic voiceovers, lots of flashing text, lots of very overly dramatic and poorly written oneliners) trailers.