There are many movies that have caused disturbances with some elaborate marketing campaigns. It looks like Paramount’s ramped up promotion of Scream VI has been responsible for creating some creepy moments captured on CCTV cameras around the U.S. Over the course of the week, the iconic Scream villain has been seen appearing on live-cams in several cities, and it immediately brought back memories of the creepy clown incidents from back in 2016. However, there is nothing sinister about the random appearances of Ghostface, as Paramount confirmed that it has all been planned and executed by them in advance next weeks’ release of Scream VI.As shared by KRON4 News on Twitter, people dressed as Ghostface have been seen standing on street corners and casually walking down the street, which has led to a number calls being made to the police to report the potentially concerning individuals. While they would no doubt have preferred to let the campaign of “terror” continue a little longer, this is what has clearly prompted Paramount to own up to being the masterminds of the whole thing.
While this kind of immersive promotional tactic is not new, and was previously used by Paramount ahead of the release of Smile to similar effect, the random and unsettling appearances of Ghostface in various cities has definitely put the character into the minds of people. Whether it will be enough to push up the movie’s box office receipts is something that will be discovered next weekend when Scream VI makes its debut.
Scream VI Will Be The Goriest Scream To Date
The Scream franchise has always delivered plenty of gory deaths, but according to the cast of Scream VI, the latest outing for Ghostface will be taking a step up in every way. This time around, the scope of the movie is bigger, with the setting changing from the quiet, serene suburbs to the bustling city of New York. This means, as the trailer has shown, we can expect to see the Woodsboro haunt left behind and Ghostface making his kills on the subway, in convenience stores and in other places full of bright lights and crowds of people. Returning star Jenna Ortega previously hinted at a much more vicious killer in this instalment, saying:
“I think Ghostface is a lot more of a scary figure. I feel like we've always seen him as kind of a clumsy, funny almost killer. Where I think in this one, he's actually, a lot of the deaths are very visceral and very, kind of tragic in a sense, which kind of brought in this more dramatic atmosphere. But I still think we do a good job of balancing comedy and stuff like this, but I think audiences should be prepared for it to be a bit more of a roller coaster, more than anything.”
In a way, this plays into Wes Craven’s original purpose of the Scream franchise, which was to make a genuinely scary horror movie that also liked to play the horror handbook for all it was worth. As well-known horror trope, the escalation of every sequel is something that has been played out perfectly so far in the franchise.
Scream VI stars Melissa Barrera as Sam Carpenter, Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy Meeks-Martin, Mason Gooding as Chad Meeks-Martin, Jenna Ortega as Tara Carpenter, Hayden Panettiere as Kirby Reed, and Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers alongside Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving. The movie hits cinemas on March 10.