Movies

'Mother!' Viral Marketing Reveals Jennifer Lawrence's Secret, Plus Watch A New Clip And 4 TV Spots

mother viral
By Ben Pearson

We're only a few weeks away from the release of Darren Aronofsky's mother!, and in the wake of the film's enigmatic trailers, Paramount is slowly unspooling information about the horror thriller that stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem.

A new batch of viral marketing has divulged a major revelation about Lawrence's character that the posters and trailers have kept secret until now. Take a look at the movie's newest poster (complete with a hidden message printed on it!), check out some new TV spots, and uncover one of the film's big secrets below. Warning: a potential spoiler lies ahead.

First up, take a look at a few TV spots that aired this past weekend during the Video Music Awards.

Here's where the real fun begins. Aronofsky stopped by Reddit to unveil a new poster:

Mother Kaleidoscope Alpha

It wasn't long before a creative fan realized that there was a viral website hidden on this one sheet:

Here's a closer look at the website that becomes visible in a vertical line between the reflections of Lawrence's character: http://www.youllneveranswerthedooragain.com

Mother SS 2

That site is full of kaleidoscopic imagery that changes as you move your mouse (or phone), and when you align the symbols at the top of the page to form the film's title, these are some of the images you see:

Mother pregnant

If you're having a little trouble figuring out what you're looking at, I don't blame you. The image is of Jennifer Lawrence's character (FYI: her character in the film is never named), and her belly reveals that she's pregnant. When the word "mother!" comes into focus on that viral site, a white circle appears in the middle of the page; click it and you can watch a clip from the film in which Michelle Pfeiffer's character talks to Lawrence about having children. Dots, consider yourselves connected.

The new clip and TV spots showcase the same eerie vibes that we've seen in previous marketing materials for this film, and knowing that Lawrence's character is pregnant makes the parallels to Rosemary's Baby even stronger than they already were. And it's not like Paramount is trying to shy away from those comparisons: a previously-released poster is clearly inspired by the one for Roman Polanski's psychological horror thriller:

The trailers imply that something extremely unsettling is going on with Bardem's character, and all of these connections make it seem like we may be witnessing a secret cult. But Aronofsky seems to have a few tricks up his sleeve. "The best thing about this film will be the surprise of it," he said recently. "It's an intense journey and it's definitely the biggest roller coaster in the park. Only get on it if you really want to do the loop-the-loop."

mother! opens in theaters on September 15, 2017.

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