Whenever people watch horror movies, they always scream for the protagonists to not do anything stupid — like go in an obviously dangerous place because, hello, that’s where the ghouls are hiding. But viewers would never think that they’d have to deal with ghosts inside the theater too.
Now viral is a post by Facebook user Prince De Guzman who watched the advance screening of The Nun in the Powerplant Mall on Wednesday dressed as the film’s main ghost Valak.
Moviegoers were — obviously — surprised to see the demonic nun in the flesh.
Twitter user @agathaimbao captured a video of De Guzman as Valak walking up the staircase in true horror fashion.
Too bad De Guzman trips over a step, leading the audience to erupt with laughter.
“When you fail at Valak-ing,” Imbao wrote.
When u fail at #Valak-ing. Wait for it.. pic.twitter.com/wkq8VRgWbG
— Agatha Imbao 🌸 (@agathaimbao) September 5, 2018
De Guzman told Coconuts Manila through a Facebook message that he was invited by Warner Brothers Philippines to watch the film but said that it was his idea to dress as the character. Apparently, he has always been a horror movie enthusiast.
He said: “I’m really in love with creating monsters and fantasy characters. I love horror movies so much. I collect horror toys as well.”
De Guzman started creating video tutorials two years ago. He said: “I don’t want to give up my passion for creating monsters and SFX (special effects) and prosthetic makeup, so I made tutorial videos on how I create my monsters.”
De Guzman shared that his Valak stunt was a “wonderful experience.” “People were terrified but amazed at the same time,” he shared.
Aside from showing up in a theater as Valak, he also appeared as the character Pennywise at the advance screening of the movie IT last year. The video of him as Pennywise now has over 4 million views.
“Even the director of the movie [IT] Andy Muschietti acknowledged me on Instagram,” he stated.
De Guzman’s photo dressed as Valak, on the other hand, now has over 11,000 likes and 13,000 shares.
One netizen said he didn’t want to watch the movie for fear of seeing De Guzman.
Joked Godwyn Javier: “I don’t want to watch it anymore. We might encounter one [ghost] like that sitting beside us.”
Fiona Ovarb tagged a friend and said: “[I’m going to] back out!! Hahahahaha. I’ll leave you to watch this by yourself, boy!”
AC Hernandez said she might hit someone if she saw De Guzman.
De Guzman’s stunt follows a worldwide trend of films and TV shows using cosplayers to market a movie.
In South Africa, a “real” zombie wandered inside the movie theater in October 2011 while a rom-com trailer was being played. It turns out that it was promo for the second season of The Walking Dead.
Let’s also not forget about that time when The Ring‘s Sadako threw the first pitch at a baseball game in Tokyo to promote Sadako 3D in 2012.
