Saw (2004) marketing

This is a poster for giving blood to tie in with the release of the first Saw in 2004, starting a series of blood drives that have coincided with the release of subsequent Saw films. This marketing ploy for selling the movie was reported by the New York Post's Sara Stewart before the film's release on Halloween. She writes that this was a nationwide blood drive and that they were stopping in New York outside at the AMC Loews Kips Bay to conduct a drive from 11am-6pm, in which the first 50 doners get free tickets to a sneak preview of the film (Stewart 2004). This poster illustrates well the appeal of torture horror movies as the loss of blood through a blood drive adminstered by a nurse is likened to a sexual release, suggesting that watching Saw and such-like movies is a way of releasing sadistic pleasures by seeing someone tortured. The tagline for the poster "How much blood will you SHED for her?" and the attractive nurse covered in blood suggests the loss of blood is pleasurable in this context because a Nurse is helping you lose blood. Perhaps this marketing poster may explain the popularity of the film and the torture genre.

How do you feel when you see this poster? Are you disgusted or attarcted by the prospect of losing blood?

Reference

Stewart, Sara. 2004. FED-EECHS-Horror flick "Saw" goes Postal to generate Buzz. The New York Post, October. 24, 2004, 93. Retrieved from nypost.com.