When you’re an indie film distributor and you don’t have the market foothold or advertising budget of Disney, you have to get creative. So, when A24 approached filmmaker Robert Eggers with an outside-the-box marketing “stunt,” it was with the best of intentions. However, as the filmmaker describes to his directing peer Ari Aster in the new A24 podcast, Deep Cuts, sometimes these sorts of stunts have a way of getting out of control.
Eggers is talking about one of A24’s marketing tactics to help promote the filmmaker’s debut, “The Witch.” The film, which starred Anya Taylor-Joy, before she was the star that she is now, is obviously not the easiest thing in the world to market. The period thriller is written entirely in the manner of speaking that was common in 17th century New England among puritanical folk. That is to say, the dialogue isn’t the easiest to understand. On top of that, “The Witch” doesn’t have the jump scares that are so prevalent in thrillers and horror films of the modern era. And of course, the film didn’t have any recognizable stars that would help sell it.
All that to say, A24 had to get creative to spread the word about Eggers’ film.
So, as a marketing initiative, A24 approached the Satanic Temple, a religious/activist organization, for an endorsement, given the film’s subject matter. The thinking is that if a “satanic” group endorses the film, surely it’s scary and “evil.” Eggers explained to Aster that he didn’t want the studio to do this, as he wouldn’t want them to approach Christian groups either. However, that didn’t stop the distributor.
The stunt led to one country completely wanting to stop Eggers from coming because of his supposed satanic views.
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“The woman running the film office said, ‘We don’t want Robert Eggers coming to Poland because he’s a Satanist.’” Eggers said. “We had to spend a week convincing them I wasn’t a Satanist before I could go scout in Poland.”
Of course, it all got worked out, but it goes to show you that not all marketing stunts are created equal. Aster, another A24 alum, recently has seen the distributor try a stunt to help market his “Midsommar,” with the release of the Bear in a Cage toy.
You can hear the full exchange between directors in the podcast below. It’s well worth a listen.
