10 Desperate Ways To Market Horror Movies

3. "See Paris Die!" - House Of Wax

Sam Jackson Snakes On A Plane
Warner Bros.

Hot on the heels of becoming famous for, well, being famous, Paris Hilton's status as a reality TV star was utilised as a major selling point for 2005's House of Wax do-over.

While the standard tagline of the film was "Prey. Slay. Display.", Warner Bros. also began promoting the movie as your chance to see Paris Hilton die - "See Paris Die!" becoming a slogan adorning t-shirts and artwork marketing House of Wax.

This was a desperate play from Warners as they looked to capitalise on the disdain some had for Hilton at that time. And in fairness, a $70 million box office haul for House of Wax would indicate that this approach worked.

Hitting MySpace (hey, Tom!) and physical marketing to stir up interest, House of Wax certainly lived up to its promise; delivering a gnarly pipe through the head of Paris' Paige to kill the character off.

For Hilton, the socialite was fine to play along with the tongue-in-cheek "See Paris Die!" schtick, using her fame to try and lure audiences in for what was an extremely loose remake of 1953's Vincent Price-starring House of Wax - which itself was a new spin on 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.