'Devil' Baby Marketing Scheme Scares New Yorkers Silly

Some shocked New Yorkers just gave a 20th Century Fox horror movie the best promotion possible.

The marketing company Thinkmodo created an animatronic baby, one so ugly even its own mother couldn’t love it, and set it loose in the Big Apple. The results? A publicity campaign that makes sure virtually any social media users knows about the new film Devil’s Due.

Thinkmodo worked with L.A.’s Creature Effects to create the little bundle of horror, which required three operators–one for the stroller, the other two for the baby’s movement and facial expressions–who stayed well hidden a block or two away while the baby did its thing. To some parents of younger kids, a screaming, puking baby is nothing out of the ordinary, but this wee one goes for the full crazy and knocks it out of the park.

Devil’s Due, a found footage horror film about a woman suffering from an unusual pregnancy, hits theaters Friday Jan. 17.