Hyundai Pays Homage to Classic Horror Movies for Santa Fe Spot

Director Ed McCulloch and Radke put a spin on scary movies for latest Hyundai campaign. 

The goal was to craft a fun little story that highlights the new Hyundai Santa Fe’s Lane Following Assist feature and along the way pay homage to our favourite scary movies.  

Director Ed McCulloch shares more about the project: “We wanted take a few, fun risks with the spot — pushing against viewers’ expectations of a typical auto ad and surprising them with a bit of a twist ending, while also reminding them that the Hyundai Santa Fe is always looking out for them. 

As humans we are interesting creatures. We long for adventure and thrills, but we also need to feel a bit of comfort and safety. You know — Linus dragging his blanket to the  pumpkin patch at midnight!  

For the horror film portion, we wanted it to be a playful send-up of horror movies from the 70s & 80s in which some threatening presence lurks in the shadows along a deserted country road or a remote forest cabin. Think The Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th.  

This was a two day shoot an hour north of Toronto. I had a specific time of day look that I wanted to capture in camera, so all exteriors were shot in a 60 minute dusk window over the two days. 

The interiors were shot at night on a process trailer. Chris Mably and his team rigged small sliders with a paired down Alexa Mini LF to get the angles and movements we needed.   

The horror shots were captured on 16mm film. It was important that we made the horror footage look and feel different from the main spot footage, we wanted to make  sure there was a clear distinction between the two worlds.”