The Crazies: A Downward Viral

Update: The link to the Ogden Marsh Sheriff’s Department has been fixed.


If you have been following the viral campaign for The Crazies, you may notice a few odd things. A few things that do just not seem to fit. A few things flat out wrong. This campaign seems to have hit the ground running, blasting out of the gate, and not even knowing what turn to take. Maybe even unprepared for their next step.

There are so many issues that show up throughout the many pages of viral that I want to list them out for you and see if maybe you can agree, or give us your thoughts on why such seemingly simple issues keep popping up.

OgdenMarsh – The first of many sites brought on to discuss the history and whereabouts of the film. It started out great. Simple little site, makes you feel cozy about the small town in Iowa. All was going well. Links to site appeared as ads, and news articles. Perfect! Then, we get an update, informing us to re-elect the Mayor, the local business is turning 75, and what’s this? A new site! Why, it’s OgdenMarshSheriff!

Guess what? Site doesn’t work. To this day it still does not work, and the link was removed. And for a bit, the new picture link for SaveOgdenMarsh (the one of Kim Jonson) went to DP Chemicals!

DP Chemicals – This was exciting news when the site was released because it gave us the possibility of hacking into “Patrick’s” profile and retrieving his messages. Here’s the problem. The password hack got us into Jessica’s profile. Who the hell was Patrick?!?!

Here’s another thing about DP Chemicals. I know the term “Research and Development” is wildly used, but your page for Research, and your page for Development, they shouldn’t be the same. Take a look.

The other part that leaves you hanging on the site is the press page, which is still “under construction”. When you have people claiming on Twitter that they feel sick, and they live in a town with a chemical plant, there’s at least one story. Or when a local woman is protesting right outside your plant, and posting articles in the local gazette, you may want to stand your ground with the press.

OgdenMarshSheriff – Now, we get to my favorite. I mentioned the non-working site of OgdenMarshSheriff a little while ago. And yes, as I write this, it’s STILL not up. So why are all of the bloggers, including us, all of the sudden writing about the site being up? Well, for starters, it kinda is. Actually, the site that is working, is OdgenMarshSheriff. Yup, Odgen. How do you misspell the name of the town that the movie takes place? Did they forget the fact that they purchased the site with the correct spelling?

Look, we all make typeos, it happens. But when it’s as publicly viewed as a viral campaign, you can’t help but wonder if the one that let that slip through still has a job.*

SaveOgdenMarsh – This site actually hasn’t done anything wrong. I just felt like putting it here so I’m not ALL negative.


All in all, even with the hiccups, this is still an interesting viral, and with more than a month away from its release, it could get a lot better. We’ll just have to wait and see.


For more info on this viral and the film, take a look at our page for The Crazies, due in theaters on February 26th.


*if MovieViral had any part in the canning, we greatly apologize.