Scary AF 'Rings' Prank Terrifies Customers Shopping for TVs

To promote the new 'Rings' film, Paramount staged a hilarious prank of Samara jumping out of a TV and freaking out unsuspecting people.

January 25, 2017

Here's a sweet idea for a prank to generate buzz for the upcoming Paramount movie Rings. If you've seen the original, you get the point. The ghost girl Samara—played by the actual Samara stunt woman, Bonnie Morgan—crawls out of one of the display TVs and makes the customers think they're about to be killed. In turn, the customers crap themselves.

See, here's an example:

And another:

Thinkmodo, a viral marketing agency, were the minds behind the prank, and they have experience in this particular field: they previously helped out on the Carrie remake and The Last Exorcism Part II. Thinkmodo's co-founder, James Percelay, explained to AdWeek that the idea worked because thinking you're about to be killed by a ghost is a lot scarier than watching yet another preview on a movie screen.

"It's about taking things from a movie and putting them in a real-life context," Percelay said. "There's no separation like there is in a movie trailer. You're watching it going, 'Oh my God, I go to TV stores. This could be me.' There's this connection that takes it out of Hollywood and puts it into your local Best Buy."

It's safe to say that the idea was extremely successful, as the video racked up over 200 million views on Facebook plus, like, more than two million on YouTube? I don't know, these numbers are always going up.

Check out a trailer for the movie below:

It'll be in theaters on Feb. 3.