This weekend, many entertainment nerds checked their phones to discover a rather eerie textthat felt like something out of a horror movie. The text of this mysterious outreach read, “Hello YOUR NAME the phone is ringing again. Are you going to answer?” (Or, in my case, “Hello Rotem the phone is ringing again. Are you going to answer?”) After it was done threatening me with a phone call, this text message added a video with an unsettling black and white cover image which featured three pictures of young boys. No further context came with this video message unless I pressed play. It’s also worth noting that the text came from a totally ordinary phone number that brought up nothing when googled.
Uhm Was this absolutely terrifying? Did I think that if I pressed play, I’d see some sort of horrifyingly gory video and then a ghost would come out and tell me I had seven days to live? YES. Absolutely. In panic mode, I swiped and deleted the message. And so, it turns out, did many of my co-workers. It’s only when I took to the internet that I realized that his terrifying text FELT like a horror movie because it was from a horror movie. Yes, I had been text-menaced by The Black Phone 2.
In context, I can now see how the copy of The Black Phone 2‘s scary text does indicate it’s from the movie. “The phone is ringing again, etc.” But it seems like my survival instincts, and those of the people around me, are pretty strong. Because my answer to “Are you going to answer?” was decidedly no. Although retrospectively, I appreciate that The Black Phone 2‘s text campaign made me feel like I was in a horror movie. At the time, it was a totally unnecessary jump scare on a Friday night! I can applaud the immersive nature of The Black Phone‘s outreach, but I do wish a follow-up text had come a little sooner.
Happily, it did eventually come, and The Black Phone 2 supplied some necessary context by sending its trailer and poster via the same number it sent the original text. But for a minute there, I really thought a murderer was watching me. But I guess it’s better than if The Black Phone had committed a true act of horror and called me on the phone.
Content shared from nerdist.com.