There's tons of hype surrounding the Chris Rock devised ninth Saw movie, titled Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, but that doesn't mean the franchise should forego some of its old marketing tricks to boost interest from the fans.
Part of what has kept the interest in Saw 9 building is the secrecy behind the project and some of the big names attached, including Saw 2's infamous needle pit, which is certainly promising, especially since Saw fans would be likely disappointed by anything less than a lack of violence. After all, as many promotions for the film have said in the past: "there will be blood".
Though launching earlier than its typical October release month, likely to avoid competition with Blumhouse's juggernaut Halloween sequel, there's still plenty of time to bring back some of the film's more memorable marking promotions, some of which were ahead of the game for the time, as Saw rose to prominence in the early 2000s.
Why Spiral Should Bring Back Saw's Jigsaw App & Viral Marketing
Other than the franchise's blood drive, other marketing endeavors served to capture the grisly, macabre nature of the Saw movies. Trailing alongside the release of Saw 6 in 2009, marketing associates with Lionsgate released a Jigsaw voice changer app called Jigsaw Your Voice. This allowed the to transform their speaking voice into the voice of John Kramer (Tobin Bell), aka Jigsaw, the main villain in the franchise. The app's feature included recording up to sixty seconds of your voice, a soundboard where s could hear classic lines from the film, four pre-sets where you could match your voice to Jigsaw's, and additional settings for pitch, speed, and tempo. The app allowed s to e-mail their recordings to family, friends, or even those who they might deem deserving of a good scare. The app's later version allowed s to store multiple recordings at once for future use.
Since this is slightly outdated with modern technology having come a long way since 2009, it's possible this could be incorporated into a platform like Snapchat. Other social media opportunities are a likelihood for this avenue as well, since social media itself has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. The blood drive - where fans could donate a pint of blood for free tickets to the Saw movie - began in 2004, with the release of the first movie. This has been a long-running staple of the marketing behind the films, and fits the overall aesthetic since much of the themes around the Saw movies are about personal sacrifice.
One other marketing campaign that might be more difficult to bring back, as it hinges on Tobin Bell - who has not been associated with Spiral - are the sales of posters that are made with real blood. These posters were printed using Bell's actual blood, and the sales of said posters benefited the American Red Cross, just as the blood drive did. The studio printed 1,000 posters and some were sold on the Lionsgate website for $20, while others were sold to movie theaters and other venues. These would be nice for any fan to own as a souvenir, and are highly collectible given their direct attachment to an actor. While Spiral: From The Book Of Saw is only a few months away from its May release, there's still time to issue these, and other creative marketing to amplify the already booming interest.
