Six Flags' sharp, shocking short

Halloween is clearly the time for all ad land horror-aficionados to crack their knuckles and put out some video nasties, but most of the time the films tend to skew towards comedy or water down their nefarious leanings. Not so Six Flags...

Following on from last year's nightmare-inducing Tick. Tick. Tick., the theme park chain, and its agency TMA, have yet again gone longer-form to chill its customers, and they've introduced a new monster to do it.

Named Smiley - think 'plant-based Michael Myres' - the horrific antagonist of Come Out and Play stalks his victims looking for... something. Whilst we'll save the third act intention for the viewing party, we can safely say that Natural Selection directors John Suits and Harris Wilkinson know how to lay on the spooky, particularly in our eerie ghoul's inhuman movements and gait.

“This is branded entertainment with one goal in mind: to make Six Flags THE Halloween destination," explains Suits. "That’s why we shot it entirely within Six Flags parks. By showing off the mazes, the rides, and the scare zones, we give people a sense of the seasonal terror that awaits. And we anchored it with one simple invitation: ’Come Out and Play.’”