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Eli Roth is doing what he does best — killing people.
The “Hostel” director is “killing” social media stars in a live, unnamed murder mystery that’s only airing on Snapchat. Set to star are Vine celebrities Logan Paul (8.1 million followers) and Simone Shepherd (3.1 million), YouTuber Lia Marie Johnson (1.7 million subscribers) and Instagram model Nick Bateman (3.3 million followers), among others.
The premise sounds like “Clue” meets “Scream”: they’re invited to a dinner party at a mansion and are murdered one-by-one. Viewers who add @CryptTV on Snapchat have 24 hours to collect clues to share on social media before the story vanishes. Debuting on Sundays, the weekly series is produced by Roth’s digital horror network CryptTV.
It helps that Roth tapped social media stars who have amassed several million followers collectively to draw an audience to such a niche offering. Although numbers of how many people follow CryptTV on Snapchat aren’t publicly available, the network has 1,900 Twitter followers and 28,000 followers on Facebook. Eli Roth has a much larger following with 268,000 Twitter followers where he’s heavily promoting the show by retweeting fans.
So far, the reaction to the campy show has been positive.
Awesome use of social: follow @CryptTV on Snapchat & check out @EliRoth‘s murder mystery story. #andthentherewerenone pic.twitter.com/lFWbApQggs
— Brandon Painter (@Bpaint) July 20, 2015
i relate to @AcaciaBrinley so much on @CryptTV just because of the whole wanting ice cream while there’s a murderer loose.
— ░ (@emilybello_) July 20, 2015
“she was hot too” @itsNickBateman @CryptTV pic.twitter.com/iLMerGTyzV
— luiza (@somerhsario) July 20, 2015
I may be a few hours behind, but @CryptTV has started my workday off great. NOW I JUST NEED TO KNOW WHO DIIIDDD ITTTTT #tellmemeow
— Patrick Alfes (@UpTopPat) July 20, 2015
Omggg @CryptTV snapchat was soo good!! Blow my mind
— kitty (@noturslave) July 20, 2015
Roth isn’t the first person to produce an exclusive series for Snapchat, but his is certainly the most innovative. As for others, Steven Spielberg’s daughter Sasha stars in the Snapchat show “Literally Can’t Even” that was recently renewed for season two by the app’s original content channel. And Sofia Vergara is starring in a reality show on Fusion’s channel, which isn’t available in the U.S..
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