Chapter 117: Black Friday

"I'm back!"

Pushing open the door to his apartment on Long Island, Luis Gonzalez called out to the kitchen as he dropped his briefcase, exchanged his shoes for slippers, and slumped into the thick leather sofa in the living room. After a long day of work, he looked worn out, the fatigue of work and life still weighing heavily on him.

He was a Latin American immigrant who had dreamed of the American dream since he was a child. After finally succeeding in coming to New York, he had achieved some success through hard work, but he soon realized that it wasn't the paradise he had imagined. Mortgage payments, car loans, health insurance premiums, property taxes, and a host of other expenses left him gasping for breath. Losing his job would mean bankruptcy.

This pressure forced him to be cautious and submissive at work. As a Latinx in a predominantly white company, it wasn't easy.

Fortunately, he found a suitable outlet to vent, or else he wouldn't have been able to endure it.

After dinner and a brief chat with his wife, Luis sat down at the computer, something he did every week. He browsed the latest horror movies online, looking for ones he liked. On weekends, he would go see them with other enthusiasts.

He had joined a horror movie enthusiast group on Long Island, where a group of them would gather almost every week to watch movies, chat, and exchange recommendations.

This was Luis's biggest hobby and his primary stress reliever. Whenever he saw white people being gruesomely killed on screen, he felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.

As usual, Luis opened a forum-style movie website and clicked into the horror movie section.

After a few days of absence, there were many new posts. Some were discussing when the next installment of "Scream" would be released, others were revealing that Lionsgate, a horror movie expert, was preparing to make a new blood-soaked horror film, and some were posting a list of horror films scheduled to be released in theaters in the next month, along with specific release dates.

Suddenly, one post caught Luis Gonzalez's attention.

"Counting down the most unbelievable murder methods in history! Bloody! Terrifying! Not for the faint of heart!"

The title of the post seemed to be screaming at Luis Gonzalez, saying, "Hey, you horror movie lover, click on me quickly, I'm exactly what you want to see."

Luis immediately opened the post, and the first image appeared. The picture was not very clear, as if it had been taken secretly, but the content made his eyes widen.

It showed a white girl struggling to walk amidst a pile of syringes gleaming with cold light. She wore a bizarre headgear on her neck, with countless needles piercing her body. Where the needles pierced, her skin swelled and blood oozed out. As she moved forward, more needles were bound to pierce her. Even though Luis Gonzalez had seen countless horror movies, he felt a shiver down his spine.

This was more than just death! It was absolutely terrifying torture!

At the same time, he felt a surge of curiosity. What movie was this? How could it have such sadistic and thrilling torture methods?

His wife walked over at this moment, glanced at the computer screen, and quickly turned her head away. "Damn! What is this? It's so twisted!" she said, then walked off. Luis Gonzalez just smiled; his wife didn't like horror movies.

However, his curiosity and interest had been completely aroused. Just by looking at the first image and the description of the countless needle pits below, this post seemed to have some real substance to it.

He continued scrolling down, and more images of murder contraptions and victims appeared. Like the first one, the pictures seemed to have been taken covertly, accompanied by simple text descriptions.

"Can you escape from these unbelievable murder contraptions?"

Above all the pictures was a sentence, and thinking of the countless needle pits above, Luis Gonzalez couldn't help but shudder and quickly shook his head to look below.

"Thorn Maze: The victim, naked, is locked in a vast underground maze. If they cannot escape within three hours, the exit will be permanently sealed. Along the path to the exit, there are sharp thorn nets everywhere. Not to mention exploring and navigating, even the slightest movement will result in being cut open, with every step leaving behind a trail of wounds and screams…"

The picture showed a fat man hanging from a thorn wire fence, covered in countless wounds, especially on his abdomen, where it wasn't fresh blood dripping, but stomach fluid…

Seeing this, Luis Gonzalez instinctively touched his own stomach.

Under each picture was a message left by the poster.

"Saw this film at a screening in Los Angeles yesterday, and it left a deep impression on me. It's too shocking and impactful. I couldn't help but take a few covert shots, and I've posted them here. I won't say much more. Horror movie enthusiasts, this film is called 'Saw'!"

"'Saw'?" Luis Gonzalez thought for a moment, realizing he had never heard of this movie before. It must be a new film yet to be released.

He had been hooked by the post, so he quickly logged onto a search engine, typed in "Saw," and found a series of related information.

Directed by Murphy Stanton. Who was that? He had never heard of him.

Starring James Franco? The name seemed familiar, but he didn't seem to be a famous actor…

Luis Gonzalez browsed through the information briefly, focusing on the release date he cared most about—July 13, 2001, a standard Black Friday!

Closing the webpage, he returned to the search engine page, realizing that there was quite a bit of related content. He clicked on a few links, some were articles, some were images, but they were mostly praising the film.

"So terrifying…"

"I literally threw up from being scared…"

"It's the first time I've seen someone cry from being scared at a screening."

It seemed like this film was really terrifying!

Luis Gonzalez nodded slightly, imprinting the date he had just seen deeply into his mind. He picked up his phone from the side and started calling some members of his horror movie enthusiast group.

"I've found a great movie that hasn't been released yet. Here are some pictures. Take a look. It's really scary."

"Shall we go see a movie together next Friday? I've found a great film."

In just over ten minutes, Luis Gonzalez had made plans with nearly ten people. Some had seen related images or text on other websites and agreed that just the pictures alone were memorable, so the finished product might make them wet their pants in fear.

The timeliness and shareability of internet information transmission were unparalleled by other media. After the post appeared on a large movie forum website, it garnered over a hundred thousand views in just five days, all representing potential audience members.

Forums, movie statistics websites, portal websites, and even some large grassroots organization websites—all had content related to "Saw." Although the work done by Murphy was fake, it still attracted the attention of this employer, making him feel that the money spent was worth it.

This was particularly notable given the downturn in internet-related industries following last year's Nasdaq stock market crash. The internet sector hadn't fully recovered, and without that context, this amount of money might not have achieved as much.

Although from the views and replies on some posts, it was evident that "Saw" had already attracted considerable attention from horror movie enthusiasts, the actual impact would only be seen after its release.

While Murphy was drumming up interest for "Saw," Fox Searchlight, as the distributor, had also begun its marketing campaign.

Compared to internet-driven marketing, Fox Searchlight's methods were more conservative and traditional.

They put up outdoor advertisements, placed posters in local media, aired trailers during late-night TV slots, and even held a press conference. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints and the lack of recognition for the film's creators, it didn't generate much buzz...

Everything Fox Searchlight did was standard fare for an independent film. On the emerging internet, they merely created a simple official website as a matter of routine.

The project's marketing budget was there for all to see, and no one could expect $260,000 to create a sensational effect.

Moreover, with "Saw" being rated R and the public nature of traditional media, the truly attention-grabbing scenes couldn't be used as promotional hooks.

As time passed, after two weeks of small-scale promotion, Fox Searchlight finally released "Saw" in theaters. However, both the investment and the scale of promotion were limited. Neither the theater companies nor Fox Searchlight could afford to allocate too many resources.

Like all independent films, "Saw" could only premiere through limited screenings, without any premiere events.