Movie Marketing Madness: Risen

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risenThere are only so many takes you can have on the story of the birth of Christ – or stories of Christ in general – without veering into offensive territory. While some of those may skirt (or worse) that line the vast majority of such movies and TV shows wind up being quite the opposite, bland and, if possible, overly-deferential to the point that you wonder why this version is necessary when the original still holds up pretty well.

Risen takes a new twist on the events surrounding Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection by turning it into procedural. Joseph Fiennes stars as Clavius, a Roman centurion. When the body of Christ goes missing from the tomb it’s been laid in Clavius is tasked with hunting it down, mostly because if there’s no body then Christ’s followers may actually have a point about him being the Son of God.

The Posters

There was just one poster for the movie. Fiennes is shown outside of but looking back into an empty tomb, which we can clearly imply is the one Christ is no longer in. An ancient city is in the background and a crowd is gathered around Fiennes as if they’re anticipating something. So that establishes the setting and look of the movie while the copy at the top invites us to “Witness the manhunt that changed the course of human history.”

It’s not bad. It’s nothing special but it’s not bad. As I said, it conveys the basic story and setting pretty well and will attract both those who are looking for Biblical epics in particular and historical epics in general. The focus on Feinnes makes it clear whose story we’re following, which also presents a story that revolves around someone specific.

The Trailers

The first trailer opens by introducing us to Clavius and explaining his service to the Roman Empire. We see him at Christ’s crucifixion before he’s given orders to keep things under control. Eventually when the body disappears the government gets worried about the implications that has and he’s ordered to find it, investigating Christ’s followers and making sure there isn’t actually a Messiah that they’re dealing with. Finally, we see that the search for the truth is going to lead to a crisis of faith for Clavius himself.

The second trailer starts by showing Clavius is already a feared hunter of Christians before being present at the decision to crucify Christ. He has the body sealed in but is then told it’s vanished, sending Clavius on his quest, which takes him throughout the city and countryside. He breaks in on the believers and interrogates witnesses and again trailer ends with some manner of doubt being raised in the centurion’s mind and heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxgm2TJr2m0

Online and Social

The official site for the movie starts off by popping open the second trailer. Closing that the first section of material in the navigation menu at the top is “About,” where you can find a brief Story synopsis as well as a list of Cast & Crew. “Video” just plays the second trailer again. “Share” just has a section of four still photos from the movie and “Poster” is just that.

After that you’re taking to a whole other site that is meant to provide resources to learn more both about the movie and the events it depicts. There you can find information on group ticket sales, downloadable images that are perfect for sharing both on social networks and other websites. It also has sections like “Endorsements” that contain quotes from various pastors and other evangelical leaders that are specifically meant to make the movie palatable to religious audiences. “Ministry Tools” gives those same kind of leaders more information with which to sell the movie to their congregations.

risen pic 1

In case it’s not clear, that second site is very much mean to reach the evangelical Christian audience. These are the people who made The Passion of The Christ and other movies into successes and so the studio wants to give them all the tools they need to turn out and turn out in groups. Resources like this can make the message of the movie easy to insert into Bible studies, present in church narthexes and elsewhere and so constitute an important part of the film’s marketing.

There were also Facebook and Twitter profiles but they were mainly used to share inspirational and easily-shareable images overlaid with Bible verses and not information about the film itself. Again, part of the goal of reaching that Christian audience by getting them to share a nice Bible verse that just so happens to have movie branding with their Facebook friends.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

No advertising that I’m aware of. I’m likely missing something but it’s clear the emphasis is on word-of-mouth here by giving people the tools to talk about the film and not spend cash on paid ads whose audiences might not be at all interested in the subject matter.

Media and Publicity

Nothing of note here either. There appears to have been minimal coverage about the movie mostly in Christian publications but nothing that amounts to someone approaching a real press and publicity effort.

risen pic 2

Overall

As a Christian (though I’ll reject the “evangelical” qualifier before that) there’s a lot to like about the campaign. It presents a movie that while it isn’t Biblically accurate (there’s no account of an investigation like this) it certainly isn’t blasphemous and appears to be true to the Biblical events it depicts. That’s saying something since it’s a bar not all movies like this are able to clear.

Again, the campaign here sells a movie that mixes the religious aspects of the story with setting up not exactly a who-done-it but certainly something that amounts to CSI: Jerusalem. It’s not going to appeal to everyone but the studio has certainly done what it could to to appeal to the religious-minded who will either help the movie achieve success or reject it and doom it to a fate as a niche misfire.

By Chris Thilk

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist with over 15 years of experience in online strategy and content marketing. He lives in the Chicago suburbs.