10 Movies That Used Insane Gimmicks To Get Attention
7. Mark Of The Devil Gives Out Barf Bags With Every Ticket
Yet another movie that claimed to be the scariest thing ever, Mark of the Devil advertised itself with the tagline "Positively the most horrifying film ever made" and calling itself "Rated V for Violence," a rating they totally made up. To further gain attention for being so relentlessly nasty, every patron actually got a barf bag with their ticket.
Yes, according to the producers there was just no way the movie wasn't going to get you to throw up. Sounds fun, doesn't it? All the word-of-mouth generated by this stunt really helped the film stand out. Sometimes the gimmick really oversells the final product, but that's not the case here. Mark of the Devil, which follows an 18th century witch-hunter, is unbelievably violent for its time, containing beatings, rapes, beheadings, eyes being impaled, and even a sequence of a woman's tongue actually being ripped out of her head. Suddenly, the idea of someone needing to vomit during the movie doesn't seem too far-fetched.
So is Mark of the Devil worth watching today? If you're into the idea of being grossed out beyond belief, it lives up to the hype. The barf bag stunt sounds like a dumb trick a studio would tack on when they realize a movie sucks, but in this case, it really was a public service.