The Refinery created a high-volume theatrical social campaign for Warner Bros. Pictures’ Evil Dead Rise, delivering 300+ posts and 30+ original social pieces designed to engage legacy fans, reach new horror audiences, and support the film’s release across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter/X.
The challenge
Evil Dead Rise needed to connect with two distinct audiences.
Longtime fans already understood the franchise’s mix of horror, chaos, gore, and dark humor. They expected the campaign to know the references and respect the history without overexplaining it. Newer horror audiences needed a clear and immediate introduction to the film’s tone, stakes, and intensity.
The campaign therefore had to feel credible to franchise loyalists while remaining accessible to viewers encountering Evil Dead for the first time. It also needed enough volume and flexibility to sustain interest throughout the theatrical rollout across four major social platforms.
The idea
The Refinery built the social strategy around the franchise’s existing fan energy.
Rather than explaining why Evil Dead mattered, the campaign gave audiences content they could react to, share, quote, and discuss. Original social pieces, daily publishing, franchise-aware copy, and platform-specific adaptations helped turn recognition into participation.
The creative approach balanced fan service with discovery. Established audiences received content grounded in the franchise’s tone and mythology, while newer viewers encountered a campaign that made the film feel current, immediate, and difficult to scroll past.
The goal was simple: feed the faithful, convert the curious, and move the campaign from fandom to frenzy.
What The Refinery made
Multi-platform social strategy
The Refinery developed and executed social content for Evil Dead Rise across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter/X.
The strategy accounted for the different formats, behaviors, and expectations of each platform while maintaining a consistent campaign voice.
300+ social posts
The campaign included more than 300 posts supporting the film’s theatrical rollout.
This high-volume publishing approach helped maintain a regular presence across platforms and gave the campaign a steady cadence before and during release.
30+ original social pieces
The Refinery created more than 30 original social assets designed specifically for digital audiences.
These pieces extended the campaign beyond standard promotional content and gave fans more opportunities to engage with the film’s characters, tone, imagery, and franchise references.
Franchise fandom strategy
The campaign was designed to reward existing fans without making prior knowledge a requirement.
Creative and copy drew from the franchise’s signature intensity, humor, and horror language while ensuring that new audiences could immediately understand the appeal of the film.
Platform-specific creative and copywriting
The Refinery adapted campaign messaging and creative for Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter/X.
Each asset was shaped around the platform where it appeared, including differences in format, pacing, audience behavior, and sharing habits.
Production, finishing, and delivery
The Refinery supported production artwork, campaign adaptation, versioning, finishing, quality control, and final delivery.
This production system allowed the team to manage a large volume of social assets while maintaining consistency across platforms and formats.
Why it worked
The campaign treated horror fandom as active rather than passive.
Fans of a legacy franchise do more than watch. They quote scenes, debate details, share reactions, revisit references, and introduce the property to other viewers. The social campaign was built to support those behaviors with a consistent stream of franchise-aware content.
The volume of work also gave Evil Dead Rise a sustained social presence. More than 300 posts kept the campaign visible across the theatrical rollout, while 30+ original pieces created distinct moments tailored to platform audiences rather than relying only on repeated promotional assets.
The campaign supported both audience retention and discovery. Existing fans received creative that recognized their investment in the franchise, while new viewers encountered clear, high-impact content that communicated the film’s personality and genre appeal.
Results included more than 64 million Twitter/X impressions, a total platform audience of 1.8 million, and a 276% increase in Instagram engagement. These results indicate strong reach and audience response across the campaign, while reflecting the combined effect of the film, franchise interest, media activity, and social creative.
By connecting strategy, original content, copywriting, platform adaptation, production, and delivery, The Refinery created a scalable social system that helped support Evil Dead Rise from early awareness through theatrical release.
Campaign details
Client: Warner Bros. Pictures
Title / Brand: Evil Dead Rise
Assignment: Create a multi-platform social campaign that honored the franchise’s legacy while introducing the new film to a broader horror audience.
Project scope: Social strategy, original social content, platform-specific creative, copywriting, campaign adaptation, production artwork, finishing, versioning, and final delivery.
Markets: Theatrical release campaign across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter/X.
Results / Recognition: 300+ social posts, 30+ original social pieces, 64M+ Twitter/X impressions, a 1.8M total platform audience, and a 276% increase in Instagram engagement.