(click for a large version)
I talked several times this year about the SAW posters. They were very effective in their time, and they still seem to work for the SAW movies themselves. But the style is a played out, which means that it’s time to find new ways to promote other horror movies. Well, this poster is a nice example of a different approach. I many ways it is very gross, but not in the SAW blood and guts style. It’s gross in an unsettling way, in a “that just looks wrong” way.
This is the kind of posters that gets people’s attention. It might not immediately make you want to see the movie, but you will notice it. And it will get you talking about it and perhaps even about the movie itself. And once you are already aware that this movie exists that makes it much easier for the rest of the marketing material to reach you.
This poster does has one big disadvantage when compared to the SAW posters tough: it’s not as obviously connected with the content of the movie. When you saw a severed leg in the poster for the original SAW, you knew you were going to see somebody get his legged chopped off. With this? Not so clear. Do people actually come out of the an eye in the movie?
But it’s still a very nice effort.
I think the style works here, but agree that it is played out (though I don’t think it’s the same style that the Saw films are using). This style is being used to death in advertising right now, from the poster to “One Missed Call” to phone ads to speaker ads. It’s everywhere.
I think the image is pretty creepy. I have seen the original and the film plays more suspenseful than scary. The poster is a perfect fit.