by Sloan Salinas, c21 Spring 2026 Intern

From the title of this blog, you are probably about to ask me, “what could someone possibly learn about marketing from watching horror movies?” And the answer is: surprisingly a lot.

The thing about movies — of any genre — is that, if you look past the surface-level plotlines, you often find motifs, metaphors or morals that can easily be applied to any part of life. Horror movies are no different. However, given that the genre may be what some consider to be an “acquired taste,” many people miss out on the fun ways that horror movies can connect to pretty much anything you want them to. In this case, that includes the marketing industry.

So, as a year-round horror fan (who also happens to be part of the marketing industry), I am here to give you a few examples of marketing tips from the horror genre.

Take advantage of trends, but try to make them your own

In the age of social media, the concept of trends and the desire to go “viral” is something that companies have been learning to capitalize on. When a dance, song or challenge is trending, it is not uncommon for thousands of people to jump on the bandwagon during the height of its popularity.

“Trends” also exist within media, though they are more often referred to as “tropes” — every genre has their own set.

When it comes to the horror genre, one trope has never seemed to lose popularity: zombies. Since their onscreen debut in 1932, zombies have been the textbook example of “viral,” both literally and figuratively, making hundreds, if not thousands, of appearances in movies. With so many iterations — so many “strains,” if you will — you may ask yourself, “how have we not gotten bored of these guys yet?”

The answer is quite simple: no two movies raise the undead in the same way.

In movies like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, zombies are slow and lumbering. In others, like World War Z and Train to Busan, they are terrifyingly fast. In some movies, it takes days for someone to turn into a zombie while in others, it happens in seconds. Every take on the zombie film stands out in its own way, ensuring the survival of the “trend” (though not always the characters).

When it comes to marketing, taking advantage of current trends and being memorable are not mutually exclusive. The videos that truly go viral are the ones that differ from the majority in some way, while still remaining recognizable as being part of a specific trend. Virality often comes when people add a new spin to familiarity.

Trends and tropes both exist for a reason: they consistently get an audience. If you can find a way to get that audience looking at you, do it.

Know your audience

When it comes to marketing campaigns, one size does not always fit all. One of the most important things when working in marketing is knowing who your target audience is. Once you figure that out, you can tailor your campaigns to appeal to those specific demographics.

The horror genre is known for playing off people’s fears, both in-universe and in real life.

In-universe, the most effective antagonists in horror movies are ones who use their targets’ fears against them. In movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and IT, Freddy Krueger and Pennywise terrify the films’ protagonists with personalized dreams/visions meant specifically for them.

In real life, horror movie creators often use society’s fears to create a concept that extends outside the fictional realm and into the audience. Movies from the 50s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Them! used America’s fear of a hidden threat from Communists, while more current ones like M3GAN and I Am Mother explore the concept of AI-gone-deadly.

When movie characters have to face something that is not just “scary,” but rather something from their exact nightmares, it creates a more terrifying fight for survival. When we as the audience can relate closely to the object of fear in a movie, it creates a more impactful viewing experience.

In marketing, the most effective campaigns are the ones that know who they are trying to reach, whether that is people within a specific age range, cultural demographic or even just people who all have the same hobby. The more personal something feels, the more likely someone is to interact with it.

Never underestimate word of mouth

Marketing campaigns can be executed in a multitude of ways: radio ads, televised commercials, billboard signs, social media posts; it’s a list that could go on and on. However, there is one way that often seems to be overlooked: word of mouth.

In horror movies like Candyman and The Ring, the antagonists are supernatural forces based on urban legend, whose killings cannot start without our protagonists — or the ill-fated unnamed character who dies a few minutes in — doing something, such as saying a name or playing a tape. Because they seem so reliant on outside factors, you would think that it would be simple to put an end to these figures’ rampages, right? Wrong.

It is not as simple as it sounds, because even if our main protagonists manage to defeat the antagonists’ physical forms, they can never manage to defeat the stories that keep them “alive.” People in those universes will continue to tell scary stories to their friends, daring them to do whatever actions correspond with the legends.

With marketing, the idea is relatively the same: if you can get people talking about whatever it is you are marketing, they will tell their friends who will tell their friends and on and on until everyone is talking about your story, product or service, even long after your ads have finished running.

A perfect example of this exact phenomenon can be found in horror marketing.

In the late 1990s, in what is still considered to be one of the best movie marketing campaigns, the team behind The Blair Witch Project brought the legend of the movie's unseen antagonist into the real world through fake testimonials, missing posters of the cast, articles, journals and links spread in chatrooms on the still-nascent internet.

In the months leading up to the movie’s release, the team was able to generate so much anticipation that, by the time its theatrical run ended, The Blair Witch Project grossed over 4,000 times its original budget — just from getting people talking. Today, 27 years later, people still rave about The Blair Witch Project’s marketing.

Truthfully, this article could keep going. As someone who watches at least one horror movie a week, I have a surplus of horror-based marketing tips stored up.

Good Boy: trust your instincts, Heart Eyes: consistency is not predictability, Scream: keep an eye on your competitors, The Menu: not everything has to be over-the-top and overcomplicated; the list goes on.

The horror genre will always be something of an “acquired taste,” so if this post is the closest you will likely ever get to delving into the horror genre, remember horror movies may be scary, but the marketing industry does not have to be.