The 43-second clip began streaming on YouTube's "promoted videos" portal on March 15: grainy documentary footage discovered by some schlubby video diarist named Eric that hints at murder, a disease outbreak and some massive government cover-up.
To date, "Case 1017," as the clip has come to be known, has been viewed nearly 1.9 million times, penetrating the more conspiratorial corners of cyberspace with unnerving speed -- a kind of clickable mystery wrapped inside an enigma that has gotten the technorati searching high and low for the big reveal.
Well, it's finally here. As has been widely speculated on blogs, chat rooms, bulletin boards and various movie URL comment sections, however, it turns out the clip is part of a viral marketing campaign for the sci-fi thriller "Quarantine" that Sony's plucky genre division Screen Gems plans to release on Oct. 17 (10/17 -- get it?). Today, after weeks of buildup, "Eric's Video Blog" posted a teaser trailer for the film -- a remake of the experimental 2007 Spanish horror movie "[Rec]."
"Quarantine" follows a TV news reporter and cameraman on assignment covering a Los Angeles Fire Department battalion. A 911 call concerning unexplained screaming brings the first responders to an apartment building, where they discover a woman with a mysterious infection. When a number of residents there are savagely attacked, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantines the building, leaving everyone inside to fend for themselves . . . or to try to escape.
The "Quarantine" clip is another reminder of how, in this brave new world of Web marketing, rules differ radically from other traditional media. "People don't want to be marketed to, they want to be marketed around," Marc Weinstock, Screen Gems' president of marketing, explained of the ploy. "This isn't like a Tide detergent commercial. They don't want it to be in your face. They get a satisfaction from figuring it out on their own."
What takes place in "Case 1017" fits into a wave of cloak-and-dagger awareness-building schemes that have swept Hollywood in the wake of YouTube sensation LonelyGirl15. Similar viral campaigns involving apocryphal websites, concocted "news" footage and do-it-yourself videos have helped stoke fan ardor for movies dating as far back as 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" and more recently "Cloverfield," and are helping build anticipation for this summer's Batman sequel, "The Dark Knight."
