10 Movies That Used Insane Gimmicks To Get Attention

10. Macabre Gives Viewers A Life Insurance Policy

Plenty of horror movies try to convince you that they're the scariest damn movie you'll ever see, but William Castle's 1958 film Macabre took that to a hilarious extreme. In the trailers, it's explained that the movie is so scary that the studio would be offering a $1,000 life insurance policy in case of death by fright. The trailer doesn't bother telling you what the plot is; it just reiterates over and over that you'll probably die if you see it.

They weren't kidding about that offer. Everyone who bought a ticket to Macabre also received a real life insurance policy from an actual insurance company. Doubling down on that, the auditorium was filled with nurses instead of ushers, and when you left the movie, you were given a badge that said "I'm no chicken. I saw Macabre." It even starts with an announcement warning that the film is so terrifying that the theater requests everyone take care of their neighbor in case of an emergency. 

Was it that scary? Not really. The actual movie, about a man who has five hours to rescue his daughter who has been buried alive, isn't actually that interesting, and it's not even the scariest movie of 1958. The experience surrounding it was pretty brilliant, though, and with a box office gross of $5,000,000 on a $90,000 budget, Castle's trick was a huge success.