The TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE campaign kicks in

With less than three weeks to go before release, Netflix has ramped up the campaign for its TEXAS CHAINSAW REBOOT. Not only did we get this truly terrifying poster over the weekend, but this morning we got the first trailer. 

This one arrives on February 18th, so if Valentine’s Day isn’t your cup of tea, you can just wait four more days for a classic horror flick. With the film premiering in less than three weeks, that also means Netflix has a very short window to get people excited about the movie. 

We know that Netflix frequently shrinks its marketing campaigns down to just a few weeks. That doesn’t give the streamer much time to build awareness, though the new material will help.

This chart shows awareness for three other horror franchises — SCREAM, HALLOWEEN KILLS, and CANDYMAN — based on distance from release. At the moment, CHAINSAW has an awareness of 28%, though we would expect that to rise in the coming days. Still, it has a ways to go before it reaches the other three titles.

Perhaps we should be thinking about comps differently. After all, the three horror films listed above had a theatrical release. Maybe the way to give CHAINSAW proper context is to compare it to other Netflix titles. 

When we do that, CHAINSAW looks quite good. The film already has higher awareness than THE HARDER THEY FALL and THE POWER OF THE DOG when they were released, and it’s only three points behind DON’T LOOK UP.

The problem here is that CHAINSAW is a known property, so it will inherently have some built-in awareness. So do thesecomps make sense?

We will have greater clarity on exactly where CHAINSAW stands in the coming days. We will be watching to see if awareness for the film can surpass DON’T LOOK UP, and we’ll be watching to see if it can reach the levels of its theatrical counterparts. Stay tuned…