Episode 201 - The History of Horror Taglines

This week on Lunatics Radio Hour we're talking through the fascinating history of horror taglines. We get into the history of film marketing, the evolution of taglines and some of the most iconic of all time.

Sources

• 10 Greatest Horror Movie Taglines, Ranked Collider Article by Chris Williams
• Fangoria article by Justin Lockwood: How Much Shock Can You Stand? Top Horror Taglines Across The Decades
• An article from the Museum of The Moving Image on The Silent Film Era

Get Lunatics Merch here. Join the discussion on Discord. Check out Abby's book Horror Stories. Available in eBook and paperback. Music by Michaela Papa, Alan Kudan & Jordan Moser. Poster Art by Pilar Keprta @pilar.kep.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Lunatics Radio Hour Podcast. My name is Abby Brinker. I am sitting here with Alan Kudan.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Movie taglines are one of the most recognizable parts of film marketing. A tagline is a short phrase used on posters, advertisements, trailers, and in promotional materials to quickly communicate the idea of a movie to audiences who are deciding if they want to buy tickets.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

This time the monsters are real.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Exactly. For horror films, taglines have played an important role in creating anticipation and establishing the tone of a film before audiences ever see it. A tagline does not need to explain the entire story. It needs to establish the threat, create curiosity, or suggest a feeling. From the theatrical advertisements of Universal's classic monsters to the minimalist phrases used to sell modern horror films, taglines have helped define how audiences discover and remember scary movies.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Okay, Abby. So I assume you've done

Horror Taglines and Quick Quiz

SPEAKER_01 1:20

a good a good bit of research on horror movie taglines.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Certainly.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

I've I've got a quiz for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Where I'm gonna say the tagline and you guess the movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Okay, hit me.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Here's the first one. The night he came home.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Halloween.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Well done. Make your last breath count.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Gravity?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

It's Scream.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Oh, okay. Interesting. A lot of these films have like three or four taglines.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Who will survive and what will be left of them?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Oh, we talk about this one today. Is it the Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Good job. If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, it's uh Nightmare and Almston. Oh stop. Okay, you're gonna Okay, that one doesn't count. Okay, this is great. I I don't know. I don't think you know this one, but I remember this tagline.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Whoever wins, we lose.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Is it like a saw one?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

No, it was it's Alien versus Predator.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Oh, okay. Oh, all right. I have one for you, Alan. I have two for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

All right. Okay, great. Hit me.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

In space, no one can hear you scream.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Alien.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Be afraid, be very afraid. I don't know. The Fly from 1986.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

So some taglines have become part of popular culture, sometimes even becoming more recognizable than the movie themselves, which I'll say, be afraid, be very afraid is one of those. The history of horror taglines is also the history of how studios learned to package fear and turn a concept into an event. Today we are looking at how horror movie taglines have developed over time, how studios used them to sell fear, and some of the most memorable examples in horror history. A few sources. First of all, IMDB to fact-check all these taglines. Also, an article from Collider by Chris Williams, 10 Greatest Horror Movie Taglines Ranked, a Fangoria article by Justin Lockwood, How Much Shock Can You Stand, Top Horror Taglines Across the Decades, and an article from the Museum of the Moving Image on the Silent Film Era.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Okay, I got two more.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

And then I'll stop. Great. If this movie doesn't make your skin crawl, it's on too tight. I don't know. Good old Black Christmas, 1974.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Alright, and you this next movie is a I'd say this one's a family classic.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

A terrifying tale of sluts and bolts.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Sluts and bolts? Is it like Frankenstein's bride or something?

SPEAKER_01 3:35

You're close.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Oh, is it um oh oh oh, the one I talked about with Kate Frankenweenie?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

No, no, no, Frank and Weenie is a very different movie. You're thinking of Franken Hooker.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Frank and Hooker, is it that? Yes. Yes, Frank and Hooker, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Frank and Weenie is the little dog animated movie.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

A terrifying tale of sluts and bolts.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Unlike screenplays or directing credits, taglines are rarely written by a single credited individual. They are usually created as part of a film's marketing campaign by advertising agencies, studio marketing departments, and creative teams working with distributors. Historically, studios would hire advertising companies to design posters, newspaper ads, and promotional campaigns. And the same teams responsible for the visual identity of a film would often develop the tagline. In the early days of Hollywood, these phrases were frequently written by publicity departments and advertising copywriters who specialized in creating attention-grabbing language. But all this happens right in the marketing phase of a film after it's been shot, and pretty much it's pretty final on the edit. There are exceptions where filmmakers contribute ideas, but in most cases, the tagline is considered a marketing asset rather than part of the creative production of the movie. Because of this, tagline writers don't usually receive on-screen credit.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

That's mean.

The Uncredited Art of Taglines

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I know, but I think they just we're gonna talk about one uh tagline person today because he has a prolific history, but generally it feels like uh a quiet art, an unglorious art.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Okay, if you are the kid that goes and grabs the coffee to bring it to the guy that wears the VFX capture suit, yeah, you get credit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Yeah, but this all happens like post-film, right? Credits are locked.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

I see what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Hot dang. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

You just have to be like, I came up with that, by the way. So I looked into this a little bit because I was curious like how film marketing has sort of evolved over the years, right? Like, how has it? Well, we're gonna talk about it and how trailers kind of come into this too. So trailers and taglines have always worked together as two different forms of movie marketing. The first known movie trailer, come with me on a little tangent quickly, is generally considered to have appeared in 1913 for the Broadway musical The Pleasure Seekers, though it was not a trailer for a feature film in the modern sense. The trailer was created by Nils Granland, an advertising manager for the Marcus Lowe's theater chain. Grundland produced a short promotional reel using footage from rehearsals of the Pleasure Seekers and showed it in theaters before other films. The idea was simple. Give audiences a preview of something coming soon and convince them to return. The word trailer, do you know where it comes from, Alan?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

I'm actually thinking about this. There's no s it's such a s unique concept to movies. I mean, I guess later expands to other things, but like that's where it started with theater. Wait, in theater?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

So the first trailer ran in movie theaters, but it was for a Broadway show.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

But do you know where the the word trailer comes from?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

No.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

It comes

How Trailers Changed Movie Marketing

SPEAKER_00 6:39

from the fact that these promotional reels originally played after the movie or trailed it.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

So oh, so you said it's like hang around?

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Well, exhibitors quickly realized that audiences would just leave. Yeah. So by the late 1910s and early 1920s, trailers were moved to the beginning of programs. The first trailers were very different from today's fast-cut, spoiler-heavy previews. They were closer to just like ads, right? So they used text cards explaining the story. They highlighted the stars and the spectacle, they relied on dramatic narration, but they were made by the theaters and exhibitors rather than a dedicated like marketing team for the movie. So it was the theater trying to get you to come see another movie.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

That's a lot of resources that they would need to put that together. They would just recut footage and yeah, like so what but they're taking their copy of the film and chopping it up and adding shooting titles? I guess so, yeah. There's a lot involved with that.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yeah. One of the earliest surviving examples of a trailer for a feature film is often cited as the 1914 trailer for the life of a general, which promoted an upcoming release. By the 1920s, Hollywood Studios began taking over trailer production, and by the 1930s, companies like National Screen Services became major forces in creating and distributing trailers to theaters. For horror specifically, trailers became a huge part of the genre's identity. The classic tradition of selling fear in a few minutes, from Dracula and Frankenstein to modern event trailers, grew out of this early 1913 experiment. The idea that the anticipation of a movie could be as powerful as the movie itself. So a tagline is designed to communicate a movie's concept in just a few words, while a trailer obviously expands that idea into images, sound, and story. But many famous horror trailers use the film's tagline as a voiceover line or closing title card because it reinforces the movie's identity. For example, the alien trailer ends with the famous phrase, in space no one can hear you scream, combining this like visual suspense, right, with the core idea of the movie.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

You know, there's another one.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Oh, that's funny. I thought you were making some kind of astronaut joke. Before trailers became the dominant way audiences discovered movies, posters and newspaper ads were the first glimpse of a film. In the silent era, especially, a single image in a few carefully chosen words had to convince audiences that a movie was worth their time.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Isn't it weird that all old movie posters were just like hand-drawn?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

So cool. So much artistry back in the day. I mean, not that there isn't now, right? But it's just different. It's like more labor.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah, but there's like every so often this this image pops up on Reddit of just like this compilation of like the movie poster where it's like all the heads making like this triangle with like some ships in this in the foreground. Uh it's it's this format that's been recycled again and again and again.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah, yeah. Horror benefited from this because fear could be sold through suggestion. A strange creature, a mysterious woman, a forbidden secret. Movie advertising began developing in the silent film era. Early horror films relied heavily on posters and newspapers to explain what audiences could expect. Films like Nosferatu from 1922 and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from 1920 were marketed around their unusual stories, strange visuals, and supernatural elements. In the 1930s, Universal's monster movies helped establish many of the conventions still used in horror marketing. Films like Dracula from 1931, Frankenstein also from 1931, and The Wolfman from 1941 were marketed as major events. Advertisements emphasized the actors, the monsters, and very importantly, this idea that audiences were seeing something they had never experienced before. And kind of was true in this case.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Sure. I mean, how many people have seen a creature from the Black Lagoon?

SPEAKER_00 10:41

None. Early horror taglines were often longer and more theatrical than modern ones. They focused on spectacle and mystery rather than this simple kind of like phrases that we know today, right? So for instance, the cabinet of Dr. Caligari from 1920. You must become Caligari, or the most amazing story ever screened. A lot of them are like this: the most amazing macabre story you've ever heard of.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Tell your friends.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

That's one tagline.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Frankenstein from 1931. The man who made

Silent Era Posters to Universal Monsters

SPEAKER_00 11:19

a monster, and then a few others. A monster science created, but could not destroy. And finally, The Walking Nightmare That Frightened the World.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

I thought he was pretty easy to destroy.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Well, you you want them to go there and you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

They hit him with the with the fire.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

They hit him with the fire. One of the biggest innovators in horror marketing was director and producer William Castle. Castle understood something that would become central to horror advertising. Audiences were not just buying a movie ticket, they were buying the experience, which I think is still true today. In the 1950s and 60s, he turned movie promotion into like an event, right? It was a gimmick. And a lot of these blurred the lines between marketing and the movie. So for instance, for House on Haunted Hill from 1959, Castle promoted the film with a gimmick called Emergeo, where a glowing skeleton would fly over audiences during screenings. For The Tingler from 1959, he introduced Percepto, which involved vibrating devices placed under some theater seats to simulate the sensation of the creature moving through the audience.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Oh my.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

He even created the fright break for h for homicidal in 1961.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

What's the fright break?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Where frightened audience members could leave the theater during the film's most intense moments and receive a refund.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Oh, that's lame. I I thought you were gonna say it's like an emergency break that just pauses the You had to pull when you're too scared.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Castle's approach showed that horror marketing was not only about explaining a movie, it was about creating a story around the movie before audiences ever saw it, right? But it was really just like an attraction almost, right? It was like a sideshow, a freak show. It was a haunted house. His campaigns helped establish a tradition that continues today, where

William Castle and Selling the Experience

SPEAKER_00 13:03

horror films are often sold as experiences rather than just entertainment. I think um there's a few films that have done this really well, right? Like Blair Witch Project did this, Paranormal Activity did this.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

What are the taglines for those?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

I'm gonna tell you both of them, and you have to tell me which you think is which.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

This is gonna be very easy.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Okay, ready? Yes. One is scary as hell, and one is don't see it alone. And to be fair, the one that's scary as hell doesn't really have a tagline, but that's the closest thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

It's paranormal activity.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

No.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Blair Witch.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Blair Witch is scary as hell. It doesn't really have one.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

It's very confusing.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

And paranormal activity is um don't see it alone. But the reason that Blair Witch doesn't have one is because it was really the first viral marketing campaign in film and really one of the first films to have a website. And so the filmmakers set everything up at festivals and things as if those actors were actual people and it was missing. That if it was a a documentary, essentially. And so that didn't have a tagline because the marketing was not set up as like a horror film marketing at the start. It was set up as like a documentary about missing, you know, this horrifying real footage.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

That makes sense. Oh wow, okay. La last one for the next few minutes. Sure. Okay. The dark side of nature.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Annihilation.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Scarier.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

The happening.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Twister.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Oh, you know what? It's actually funny. I was just talking. Um, I'm gonna be on a podcast in a month. That's I think the episode's gonna come out in a month, but we were talking about Twister today because it came out. The craft came out like a week before Twister. Um, and Scream also came out that year. So what a year for horror.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

I mean, I wouldn't really call Twister horror.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

No, but it's just such a great movie.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

How much shock can you stand was a tagline used to promote a package of three movies billed as Nerv Rama. Horror Hotel from 1960, Slime People from 1963, Slime People, and Creature from the Haunted Cave from 1959. During the drive-in and exploitation horror era, movie theaters often promoted packages of horror films with exaggerated, playful slogans designed to grab attention. Double, triple, or even quadruple features were frequently marketed with over-the-top phrases that promised audiences a wild experience. Some became memorable because of their ridiculous wordplay, like the tagline for the bloodsuckers and the liver eaters. So shocking it will sliver your liver.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Sliver your liver. Sliver your liver.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

You heard it here, folks. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

I think it means that your liver starts to shimmy a little bit. I think it's like a little scared.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

If you sliver something, maybe you're saying you're removing slices? Like slivers?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Just starts to you're basically f a filleting. Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

From fear.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

The liver.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

The liver. By the 1960s, horror marketing began focusing on suspense and audience experience. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho from 1960 is an important example. Hitchcock created a marketing campaign built around protecting the film's secret. We talked about this a lot in our both in our

Drive-In Hype and Hitchcock Rules

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive and in our Psycho Deep Dive. Audiences were encouraged to arrive on time because late viewers would not be admitted after the film began. Because Hitchcock wanted the audience to experience the setup and the twists from the beginning. Do you know Psycho's taglines, Alan?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

I sh I should. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

A boy's best friend is his mother. Yep. The screen's master of suspense moves his camera into the icy blackness of the unexplained is another. What? And it is absolutely required that you see Psycho from the very beginning. So the campaign focused less on explaining the story and more about creating this curiosity because everyone was like, why? What happens where I can't enter late, you know? Rosemary's Baby from 1968 used a similar approach. Its tagline, pray for Rosemary's Baby, does not explain the plot. Instead, it creates a question, like, what's happening to this baby? Why do I need to pray for it?

SPEAKER_01 17:04

That's a great example of a question.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

The curse of the crying woman from 1963, which is a La Yorona story. The tagline is She was beautiful, desirable, and not altogether human. The Innocents from 1961, Do They Ever Return to Possess the Living? And A Strange New Experience in Shock. Eyes Without a Face from 1960. Beautiful women were the victims of fiendish facials. By the 1970s, horror marketing began shifting away from simply presenting monsters and towards creating a feeling that audiences were witnessing something dangerous, disturbing, or even forbidden. The decade was filled with films that challenged social boundaries, and studios often leaned into controversy as part of their advertising. It's like, um, you know, all attention is good attention. What is that saying? All press is good press.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Instead of saying, come see a scary movie, campaigns suggested, are you brave enough to experience this? The best example is William Friedkin's The Exorcist from 1973. The film's marketing focused heavily on its reputation as something audiences had never experienced before. The campaign emphasized reports of audience members fainting, walking out, or being disturbed by the film. Again, this is something Paranormal Activity did later when it showed reaction shots of the audience, right, watching the movie.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

The movie presented almost as a test of endurance. The tagline for The Exorcist was accompanied by phrases like something almost beyond comprehension is happening, which was creating this idea, right, that like you could only understand if you went to see it. So this approach connected with the fears of the era. In the 1970s, it was a time when horror increasingly explored threats coming into ordinary homes, right? So violence that was invading safe or normal spaces, right? Movies like The Exorcists, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Last House on the Left were marketed not only as films, but things that audiences might not be prepared for. The controversies surrounding these movies often became part of their appeal, right? Because if somebody saw Last House on the Left, which we're going to talk about in a second here, and they were really disturbed by it rightfully so, in the eyes of the filmmakers, that created this buzz that they wanted. Turn bones and flesh into screaming savage blood death. That was the tagline for the corpse grinders from 1971.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

What is the corpse grinders?

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Something I'm not interested in seeing. The hand that rocks the cradle, dot dot dot, has no flesh on it. Was from 1971's Whoever Slew Auntie Roo. And The Last House on the Left from 1971 represents a moment in time that we should not gloss over. The tagline was to avoid fainting, keep repeating. It's only a movie, it's only a movie, it's only a movie. And can a movie go too far? And Warning, not recommended for persons over 30. The Last House on the Left remains one of the most controversial and complicated films in horror history.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

I don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Because of the tension between its intentions and its execution. I also do not like it. But it was made by two horror greats, directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham, the film was designed as a reaction to the violence Craven saw in news coverage and the darker side of human behavior. Its story follows two teenage girls whose murder leads to a cycle of revenge when the attackers unknowingly seek shelter in the home of one of the victims' parents. The film explores ideas of innocence, brutality, and what happens when you push people to the extremes. However, its legacy is complicated by its graphic violence and its exploitation style marketing, and of course, the way it sometimes seems to sensationalize the very horrors that it's trying to criticize. The movie has been praised for confronting uncomfortable subjects and influencing the evolution of modern horror, particularly revenge narratives, but it has also faced criticism for its treatment of sexual violence and its use of cruelty as entertainment. I, for one, find it

1970s Shock Marketing and Controversy

SPEAKER_00 21:04

to be incredibly difficult to watch and not a film that I support because of, you know, because of what I'm saying, right? There's a 17-minute rape scene in the movie. It's too much. It's it's I I understand the intention of the filmmakers was, but you know what I mean? It it didn't land as an audience member.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

As someone that loves the Saw franchise, uh Last House on the Left is too gratuitous for me.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Because it's also too real.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

It's too grounded in in the realm of possibilities.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

It's like you're sitting there watching this horrible human thing happen to a human for 17 minutes. And like, of course, you know, you want the revenge to come from that, but like we didn't need to sit there for 17 minutes and watch it.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah, it's it's so uncomfortable. Okay, I got one for you.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Okay. Let's uh clear the air.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Heads will roll.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Uh is it like um Alice Alice in Wonderland?

SPEAKER_01 21:56

No, it's Sleepy Hollow.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Oh, I was thinking of the Queen because she always says With their heads. Who will survive and what will be left of them? Do you know that? Because you quizzed me on that at the beginning of this episode.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Oh, that's Texas Chainsaw.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

That's Texas Chainsaw. Jaws from 1975 changed the way audiences viewed summer movies and helped establish the modern blockbuster, which we've talked about before. It's marketing focused on a simple fear. The ocean is dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

I know this one.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

The taglines are, Alan.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

That's for Jaws 2. What? Jaws 1, you'll never go in the water again. And see it before you go swimming. They were both effective because they connected the movie to something audiences experienced in everyday life.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Sure, but Jaws 2 is not good.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Yeah, but it had a good start.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

It's not that bad. Jaws 2 is reasonable. Jaws 3, however, very unreasonable.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

I'm thinking I'm gonna propose next summer, next July, we do a Jaws franchise watch through.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

You're gonna, it's so bad.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

I think it'll make me feel better about my fear of sharks.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

John Carpenter's Halloween, which again helped define the slasher genre.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

The night he came home. It's effective because it presents Michael Myers as this unknown threat. The use of he creates mystery and makes the killer feel larger than a normal person. And of course, from the 70s, also in space no one can hear you scream from Alien. What was also so effective about the Alien Tagline is that it told audiences that it wasn't just science fiction, that it was going to be horror, right? Because we talked about this a little bit in our space horror series, but this was kind of a new meshing of genres at the time. That's a good point. The 1980s saw an explosion of horror movies, especially slashers, and with so many films competing for attention, marketing had to quickly communicate which made each movie different. This led to the rise of the high concept horror tagline, a short phrase that could explain the entire hook of a movie in just a few words. West Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street from 1984 is the perfect example. The tagline, if Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all, immediately explains the movie's central idea: a killer who attacks people in their dreams. The danger is terrifying because sleep is something that everybody needs, and it suddenly has become unsafe. Other 1980s horror taglines worked because they transformed kind of like again, things that we all need or understand into threats. Child's play from 1988 used He Wants You for a New Best Friend, taking this innocent language of childhood friendship, right, and turning it into something unsettling. Alan, do you know, uh, do you recognize this one? Man is the warmest place to hide.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Uh, I do. That's the that's John Combiter's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Very good. From 1982, which hints at the film's paranoia and the terrifying idea that the monster could be anyone. These taglines were effective because they did more than just advertise a movie. They explained the rules of the horror. They told audiences what made this monster different and gave them one simple idea to remember before they entered the theater. Okay, Alan,

Blockbusters and High-Concept Horror Hooks

SPEAKER_00 25:07

let's see if you know this one. You'll wish it was only a nightmare.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

I want to say something, a nightmare on Elm Street, but we already did it.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

No, it's like probably the biggest horror franchise we have not talked about today.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Leprechaun.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Friday the 13th.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

It's again, it's just like that one is like sort of disconnected from the plot. It's just like, you'll want to come see this. It's very scary. True. By the 90s, audiences were very familiar with horror conventions. Movies began acknowledging the rules, right? So in 1996, we had Scream. The tagline, someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far. The tagline reflects the film's self-aware approach. What movie is this? Welcome to the Witching Hour.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Well, it sounds like it's gonna be a witchy movie.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

That's all I got.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

It it's the tagline for the craft.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Okay, this one you've gotta get because this is a very Allen movie.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

And then I'm gonna stop quizzing you. No accidents, no coincidences, no escapes.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Uh what is it? Final destination.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

That's right. Final destination, and we are now in the 2000s. Modern horror marketing has changed dramatically. Today audiences often discover movies through streaming platforms, social media, and viral campaigns, even short form videos rather than traditional posters, right? And of course, certainly not newspaper ads. Because of this, taglines are not always as dominant as they once were. A trailer is much more powerful with or without a tagline, right, than a poster with one. However, the best modern horror taglines still follow the same principles that made classic examples successful, right? They introduce a threat, they establish the rules of the horror, or they create a question audiences want answered. For it follows from 2014 the tagline, it doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it doesn't give up, communicates the terrifying simplicity of the film's monster. Get out from 2017 used the tagline, just because you're invited doesn't mean you're welcome. The phrase works because it takes an ordinary social situation and turns it into something threatening. And more recently, with Smile from 2022, the film used the tagline, once you see it, it's too late, which kind of exactly right tells you what's going on in the movie without um without ever even stepping into the theater. That's true. Even though the way audiences find movies have changed, the purpose of a horror tagline remains the same. A gray tagline creates curiosity, suggests danger, and plants an idea in the audience's mind. It kind of builds up this anticipation and this fear

Modern Horror Taglines in Streaming

SPEAKER_00 27:37

before the movie even starts, right? So it makes movies seem scarier than they are. And I, for one, take a lot of um personal issue with some of the way trailers and things are cut because there's I don't know, I think I like to go into a horror movie as much as possible blind.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Any movie, really.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

And when you see like a great example, and I'm gonna spoil this for the other people right now, but skip ahead if you haven't seen Abigail.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

I've not seen Abigail.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

A great example is Abigail from a few years ago. Alan's gonna cover his ears quickly here. Because the plot twist is that she's a vampire, and you see that in the posters.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

That's a plot twist? Yeah, like there's a never seen the movie, and I know that.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Right, exactly. That's my point. Where I wish that I understand they want it to be scary and they need to show that stuff so that the trailer is scary, but sometimes it just like takes some of the fun out of watching it. Movie taglines may only be a few words, but throughout horror history, they have played a huge role in shaping how audiences experience fear. From the theatrical promises of early horror movies to William Castle's larger than life gimmicks to the unforgettable phrases of films like Jaws, Halloween, and Alien, taglines have evolved alongside the way movies are marketed. While audiences now discover films through other ways, right, the goal remains the same. Create curiosity and make people want to experience the fear for themselves. A great horror tagline does not tell you everything, it leaves just enough unknown that your imagination starts filling in the gaps. And sometimes the scariest part of a movie begins

When Marketing Spoils the Scare

SPEAKER_00 29:08

before the lights even go down.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Alright, I I gotta say, yeah, but this is a fun little mini topic.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Yeah. We're gonna go out on a lightning round.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Okay. I gave moments again and again, and you just kept shooting me down.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Okay. Before you die, you see.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Before you die, you see. Uh what was the movie where they're coming back to life? No. I don't know. The ring. The ring. What am I thinking of?

SPEAKER_00 29:43

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Uh it's the m- the the doctors that were killing themselves and come being resurrected. Oh, the frighteners? The frighteners, yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

They're here.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Uh dead alive.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

The poltergeist. The poltergeist. Poltergeist, just poltergeist. Trapped in time, surrounded by evil, low on gas.

unknown 30:02

Ha!

SPEAKER_01 30:03

That is Army of Darkness.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

You'd know that one. Sometimes dead is better.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Oh, um Pet Cemetery.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, good job. Something has found us.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Homeward bound.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Cloverfield. This one I can't quiz you on because the name of it's in it, but my sister had this poster on her wall growing up, and so it's fun to look at this. If you've got a taste for terror, take Carrie to the prom.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Uh that's Carrie.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Okay, last one. You're gonna you're gonna get this one. They're back from the grave and ready to party.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Ready to party.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Ready to party, baby.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Going with Return of the Living Dead.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Yes, that was amazing. Good job, Alan.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Thank you. I mean, there's the whole scene in the graveyard where they're they're kind of just having fun where they're Yeah. They get on the horn and say, you know, s horn. Yeah, send more cops or something.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Well, that uh that brings us to the end of our quick little exploration of horror taglines.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Well, my turn to quiz you on one and one only.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Okay. Uh oh.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

There will be no leftovers.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

It's gotta be a cannibalism one. Is it Texas Chainsaw 2?

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Nope, that is Thanksgiving from 2022.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Oh my god. That's a good tagline for that movie, actually. I hate to give uh give him any bones, but that's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Why? That movie rocked.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Uh, it was a little oven scene was too much for me. As always, thank you all so much for being here. We will see you next time. Stay spooky, stay safe. We'll talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.