Among the billions of posts and GIFs online right now, there are a few little creepy ones that stand out for me.. They all come from the Tumblr account for the upcoming January 2015 film THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 . The site is http://womaninblack2.tumblr.com/.. you can find gems, like the one I feature with this post, and others including an arm reaching out to a woman from a baby carriage, freakish images of people screaming, and clever other ways the movie makers are getting their message out on social media.
But I see these THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 images being shared more than any others online in some time. Perhaps it’s because the there second clips are macabre and downright creepy—as the one featured here .. No matter how many loops over again it makes, each time I see it I still stop and get just a bit of a chill at the face on my screen..
And that is smart for THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 . People like GIFs.. the online community enjoys quick laughs and even quicker scares.. The movie is drumming up interesting simply by users freely passing around GIFs and other images with #SheNeverLeft as the tag…
And that is how marketing is now.. A chimp with half a brain and an empty wallet can do it. But to do it effectively, you need to know your audience, your platform, and the style of people who would share images like those being given out by the makers of THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 ..
I remember a time when images online had copyrights and those copyrights mean something.. Big studios would sent out directives to websites —like mine—demanding a cease and desist on the publication of certain movie images.. But now? Now things are quite the alternate. Now studios and Hollywood executives are fine with their movie stills being shared. They even help. They upload to platforms hoping that users ‘reblog’ and make them go viral—all free, all fast. And all effective.
Those cease and desists are long gone. Now we are encouraged to steal those images and post away—knowing the end result will add to the word of mouth advertising.
Everything I just said is common sense and has been so for years. But i still get a little impressed when I come across a TUMBLR site or media site as effective as the one for THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 .
The movie has another thing going for it: It’s being released in January, it’s PG-13, and it comes after the Christmas season ends.. I personally think that January releases for horror are a good thing. By that point, we have had it up to our mistletoe in Christmas cheer and happiness. We want to be scared again.. and teenagers, those who will most likely make up the vast majority of the PG-13 release crowd on January 2 in the wide box office open for THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2, will eat this horror up.
The distributor is RELATIVITY.. No word yet officially on the number of theaters the film debuts in. But it’s a wide release. And an even wider TUMBLR world of image sharing..