Each of the below 2013 horror movies offers a new scare to help you forget all about the holidays.

I wondered what producers are doing nowadays to promote their flicks, so I did some digging, unfortunately. Did I mention I hate horror movies?

Exhibit A: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Now Playing – a 3D version on the classic skin-wearing, rusty chainsaw-loving nutcase

Campaign: Queue the rusty chainsaw sound effects. A few awkwardly buried clicks take you to the ‘Experience’ page on the movie’s microsite
where you can learn and then share facts about chainsaw murders, like the fact that the average chainsaw wound requires about 110 stitches. Pfff, flesh wounds.

My unapologetic feedback: This campaign feels tired. Any surprise? The movie is the fifth or sixth one yet. It’s all getting a bit rusty (yuk yuk). How about an Instagram campaign where you can apply a horror-ifying (say that twice) filter to your own images then share to your channels. Now that would be cool.  OR… let’s get these guys to be a part of the campaign.  Although I’m pretty sure they would turn it into a comedy:

Exhibit B: Evil Dead, April 12 – Apparently the ‘Scariest Film You Will Ever Experience’

Campaign: An extremely entertaining campaign, the producers created a YouTube page called Dare to Share your Scare where you can watch the ‘Red Band’ Evil Dead trailer (Red Band, I guess, means the scariest mother-effing trailer you’re gonna see), record your reaction as you watch, and then upload that video to your YouTube page.

My fan contribution: This is a solid campaign and I’m sure the question you all have is: did I do it? Yes. Yes I did. And here it is:

Exhibit C: Mama, January 18 – Guillermo del Toro’s original about children raised by their dead mama.

Campaign: Using Tumblr, fans can create a
Chillergraph, aka a GIF, to contribute their own disturbing image from the film. Tumblr’s fabulous GIFs really compliment the creep factor of repetitive motion.

Scary as heck TIP: While the Tumblr page is a pretty cool idea, producers could accompany it by creating social media accounts for the character of ‘MAMA’ whose messages are creepy and targeted to fans, i.e. 11:38PM Twitter @Mention from Mama: “Do you hear something in the closet?” Bonus if it’s an account from the perspective of one of the kids. Kids in horror movies = creepy.

Taking inspiration from Hollywood’s campaigns, what 2013 movie would you like to plan the campaign for? Tweet me to start the discussion @MelanieReiff or leave a comment below.

You can follow me on Twitter or visit my blog Ademoiselle.com