COOL STUFF

Creepy Viral Babysitter Needed Ad for The House of the Devil

by Alex Billington
January 18, 2010
Source: ShockTillYouDrop

As a reader of this blog, you probably already know that we're big fans of viral marketing and usually write about every little viral that pops up. Peter from SlashFilm informed me that there's a creepy viral for The House of the Devil that the filmmakers have been running recently. And coincidentally ShockTillYouDrop just wrote an article about this exact viral so I thought we'd point it out too because its pretty frickin' creepy. For those who don't know, The House of the Devil is a horror movie that first premiered last year set in the 80's and made to feel completely like it was made in the 80's (they even sent VHS tapes to some websites).

So in the movie, a desperate college student named Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue) takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. But she slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret - they plan to use her in a satanic ritual. The House of the Devil hits DVD and Blu-Ray on February 2nd in a few weeks (which is why they're doing this viral). This is the same film that had those gorgeous old school posters. Dark Sky Films, who is distributing in the US, has been doing some fun marketing (like those VHS tapes) and has upped the ante again with a real world viral "Baby$itter Needed" ad. Take a look below:

This is the exact same flyer that was used in the movie to lure Samantha to the "House of the Devil." I was told that Dark Sky has been posting these babysitter ads in a few cities. And if you call the number you'll get a super creepy message from Mr. Ulman (played by Tom Noonan), the guy who is looking for a "babysitter." The best part about this is that there are probably some unsuspecting girls out there who are actually taking this seriously. There is a disclaimer on the ad, but I don't think that's good enough. Someone out there must have been fooled into thinking this was legit (and then didn't understand the message when they called).

I'm not sure where this photo originally came from, its been floating around the web for a while. I'd like to know what cities and what locations these ads were posted. This looks like it's a photo of the ad re-printed in a newspaper ad slot, so it looks like it's not actually on display anywhere (they'd probably get in trouble), but rather a newspaper viral ad. Not bad, I still like the concept. I think this is a fun little viral and it could help House of the Devil gain some cult status (if it works well). What do you think? Will you call the number?

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Related categories: Cool Stuff, Indies, Viral News