The upcoming horror movie “The Last Exorcism” is trying some novel marketing moves to lure people into theaters come Aug. 27.
The film is currently being screened across the country with a plea from producer Eli Roth running before the feature presentation.
Roth, the director of “Cabin Fever” and the “Hostel” films, asks the audience to spread the word about “Exorcism” should they find it as frightening as he did.
The movie “will live or die based on your support,” he says.
Fair enough. Word of mouth can make a difference for a film like “Exorcism,” which has no recognizable stars and a tiny budget.
But Roth also tells us the studio may use positive “Tweets” about the film in its ad campaign to bow near the film’s release date.
Has Roger Ebert been replaced by a ‘Twitic?’
I’m all for leveraging the Web to spark ticket sales, and I applaud the minds behind modestly budgeted movies thinking up new ways to let people know about their projects.
But will you really be motivated to see a film by reading, “dude last ex is totally awesome, it might make you hurl,” or “no pea soup, but its still a grate movie”
I’m not buying it.
(Photo: Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) and Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) in “The Last Exorcism.” Photo credit: Patti Perret
Related posts:
on 
on 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Forget Twitter. It’s the fact that Eli Roth produced “The Last Exorcism” that makes me want to avoid it.
Yikes …
Yeah, Eli is hardly a bankable name at this point. Think they’re jumping the gun on his name recognition.
I remember watching his first film, “Cabin Fever,” and thinking he had potential. But that film was decidedly mediocre and the “Hostel” films didn’t represent a major step up, artistically speaking.
If this film has the scare-factor that I found in Paranormal Activity (I saw it in theater to “reward” what I heard was a scary flick) then I will go to the theater once more and pony up my coins. The trailer looks scary as hell, but as we all know, sometimes the trailer is the best part. I will wait for cftoto’s review before I spend my time and money.