“The Strangers” marketing campaign got a little too strange.
Around 11:30 p.m. PT Tuesday night, TikTok shut down Lionsgate’s page after a promotional livestream for the studio’s upcoming horror-franchise prequel “The Strangers – Chapter 1” was found to have violated the social media platform’s terms of service.
The video was removed. In its place, a TikTok alert read: “We do not allow showing or promoting dangerous activities and challenges. This includes dares, games, tricks, inappropriate use of dangerous tools, eating substances that are harmful to one’s health, or similar activities that may lead to significant physical harm.”
A Lionsgate spokesperson did not respond to IndieWire’s request for comment on the stream being taken down.
The Lionsgate TikTok page has been restored. On it are five videos promoting the film, but no livestream.
“The Strangers – Chapter 1” livestream showed a masked person — the Scarecrow from the film — with a sign that said “Is Tamara Here?” (It refers to a character in the movie.) The upcoming film is part of a franchise spurred by the 2008 film about a couple whose vacation is upended when a group of murderous people try to break into their rental house.
The film is directed by “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master” and “Die Hard 2” helmer Renny Harlin. “The Strangers: Part 1” is the first in a planned trilogy of prequels that were filmed as a single four-and-a-half-hour long movie; each installment will be released separately. Madelaine Petsch stars.
The synopsis reads: “After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.”
The film is billed as “the chilling first entry of this upcoming horror feature film series.”
Lionsgate’s executive VP of global distribution Geobert Abboud told Variety that the mega-trilogy was designed to cater to audiences.
“In terms of how audiences are consuming content, the thing that was interesting was you can make three movies at once and deliver them in a quick manner. A lot of people don’t have to wait,” Abboud said. “We’re not necessarily trying to make theatrical a bingeing media, but the idea was to release a film that we were confident was going to work theatrically, as well as number two and three that can follow up pretty quickly with another experience versus waiting a year or two years to get that sequel.”
The Lionsgate-led marketing campaign for “The Strangers – Chapter 1” has included grassroots efforts, including costumed killer characters attending Coachella and being captured by Ring camera footage at strangers’ doorsteps. Some clips have gone viral online.
Tony Maglio contributed to this report.
