Coming from the broadcast trailer to the website, I found an artful integration and the same unsettling mindset-- complete with spine-chilling transitions and beautifully dark imagery.
I liked the use of social networking, allowing a MySpace and Bolt profile. The ability to add creepy stories of your own was a great way to engage the user. I found myself dodging across the country to read the tales, enjoying the goose bumps that stories like this bring about. I did enjoy the look into the personal life of Jess, although some of the content felt a bit contrived (movie stills through a digital camera viewfinder, for example).
However, there seemed to be a fundamental flaw, and that was how the site switched me in and out of the narrative. Yes, this is a movie, but the site could have been more compelling with a choice and consistency. If you utilize narrative content such as a MySpace page, a camera, voicemail and photos, then don't offer trailers, actor bios, et cetera. Keeping the site "in character" and immersing users in a spirit world would have been a much more compelling approach. The time I spent wanting to be engaged in narrative far outweighed my desire to find out the lead actress was previously in "Panic Room."
I very much liked the site, but think with a closer look at the narrative details, the site could have become much more powerful tool.
-- J. Barbush, associate creative director, interactive, RPA
I like horror movies, and personally feel this genre is the hardest to make websites for. Trying to create a spooky environment online is not as easy as it seems, because fear is such a visceral emotion. In the past, I've seen sites for horror movies that actually make me laugh in their efforts to frighten.
This site, though, does a pretty good job of being scary. The use of the full screen (but thankfully short) video between transitions is nice. The clips really show off some of the creepier scenes from the film-- the legs under the bedspread are especially freaky. The sound is eerie without being overpowering or distracting (and easy enough to turn off if you find it so).
The site has all the expected content, but also a few deeper experiences. The "Jess' Belongings" section has links to her MySpace and Bolt pages, and chatting with her via AIM is somewhat interesting. The pictures in her digital camera are the same from the Gallery, which I think is a missed opportunity to create more empathy with the character. I'd like to see pictures that feel more personal and can't be seen anywhere else on the site.
I also enjoyed reading the "user submitted ghost stories" from around the country, although some are barely legible due to typos and limited vocabularies (a risk I suppose you take when seven-year-olds are sending in their stories). The "Supernatural Test" visual slider is a slightly more interactive (though equally disturbing) version of "Where's Waldo," and I looked through every picture.
At the end of the day, what the site doesn't do is what makes it work for me: it doesn't make the movie feel silly, trite or boring.
-- Chris Gatewood, creative director, Freestyle Interactive
Thanks a lot, iMedia Connection! I am kind enough to offer my time to review assorted sites and media and you return the favor by asking me to look at something that TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT!!!
Sony Pictures' "The Messengers" looks horribly, horribly scary and I will admit that the trailer alone is enough to give me nightmares, so I probably won't be seeing it in the theaters. (I'm sure it's a great movie, but if you need me, I'll be hiding under the bed.)
That said, the site is pretty cool, in a completely scary, creepy, don't check it out at night alone sort of way. All the requisite wind and creaking staircase noises are present, along with some odd high pitched whines that, I found from reading up on the site a bit about the paranormal, can contain messages from beyond. The site has, as one would expect, plenty of information about the movie, the cast, et cetera, and offers wallpapers, downloads and ringtones. It also contains a webisode (one of my least favorite web terms) about the film's directors, the Pang Brothers. What I learned from this is that it is their first feature film in the U.S., and that I could really get a lot more done if I had a twin brother working alongside me at all times.
I thought the section that allows you to offer up your own story of the paranormal was the most interesting and completely appropriate, as that is how these ghost stories really get going. I read a few that all seemed to end with the typical…"nobody has lived in that house for 20 years" kind of thing. Still, it laid out a nice landscape of freaky stuff going on coast to coast. I offered up my own story of the ghosts of the St. Valentine's Day massacre that still haunt North Clark Street in Chicago.
So, I am still not going to see the movie, but only because the site was more than enough to compel me to keep a few extra lights on in my house tonight.
-- David T. Jones, SVP, executive creative director, emerging platforms, DraftFCB
