Production company A24 is recreating the weird little dolls from its film Hereditary and letting audiences bring them home—without telling them.
In the upcoming horror film Hereditary, a girl named Charlie makes disturbing dolls out of craft items and trash. The film’s production company, A24, is using Charlie’s unusual creativity to their marketing advantage by offering real-life dolls on an Etsy page.
The dolls aren’t actually for sale—despite the page saying Charlie sold 18 of them—but have been sent to a number of online creators and journalists as promotional items.
After a midnight screening of Hereditary in March, audience goers woke up the next morning to find one of Charlie’s dolls left on their doorstep. Recipients claimed that the dolls must have been hand-delivered—adding to the creepiness factor—as they did not have any postage.
Man @A24 play too much 😭 After seeing the TERRIFYING @HereditaryMovie at a midnight screening last night (and checking every shadow of my room before going to bed), I woke up with THIS waiting outside my hotel room. Y’all play WAAAAAAY tew damn much 😭 pic.twitter.com/sKHQuuuIWa
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) March 13, 2018
Got home to find this creepy @HereditaryMovie shit on my front porch! No postage!!!! Someone hide me! pic.twitter.com/MpO1iQ6Rv4
— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) March 12, 2018
Since Hereditary focuses on a twisted family, A24 is also offering a calendar of “Evil Grandmas” on its official website.
Evil never grows old. #Hereditary-inspired wall calendar EVIL GRANDMAS now available for pre-order – https://t.co/tMJFOzdriN pic.twitter.com/fVQ5IM5SlN
— A24 (@A24) June 4, 2018
A24, it seems, will go to any lengths to market the “evil” aspects of its films, going so far as to partner with the very real Temple of Satan to promote The Witch in 2016.
Creepy dolls have become a horror genre staple thanks to the likes of Child’s Play and Master of Puppets, no doubt causing audiences to develop pediophobia (a fear of dolls) if they hadn’t already.
Adding dolls to the film marketing strategy helps bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. Readers might remember seeing eerie little stick figurines at the movie theaters ahead of The Blair Witch Project, for example.
Last summer, horror fans were invited to find 13 Annabelle doll replicas from Mezco Toyz hidden around the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum in New York’s Time Square. Those who spotted all 13 dolls got the chance to win tickets to an advanced screening of Annabelle: Creation. Fans can still take home the Annabelle replicas through Mezco Toyz’ website or insert the possessed doll into photos through the film’s official website.