Looking to generate a big opening gate for horror film "Saw IV," studio Lionsgate opted for a related tactic. Instead of a fade-to-black, Lionsgate called on two age-old TV staples, hoping to arrest channel-skippers: the test pattern with the collection of multi-hued bars that once signaled the end of a broadcast day, and the black-and-white fuzziness on the screen that occurs when a TV crashes.

At some level, the maneuver has roots in preventing the trigger-happy impulse to switch the channel as soon as a commercial break begins.

Leading up to the October premiere, Lionsgate was able to work with several networks--Comedy Central and the CW among them--to dominate a particular pod with three five-second and one 15-second spot. Initiative serves as the studio's agency.

As the show moved to break on, say, CW's "Supernatural," a test pattern immediately went up. That was followed by fuzziness and another quick test pattern shot--then a dark and blurry clip showing just a masked, creepy clown-like character from the film.

A regular ad for another marketer followed (Verizon Wireless in one case), then came another five-second snap with the ghoulish creature, along with haunting background sounds. The curious-spot-after-curious-spot wanted to build intrigue--maybe even generate questions about who was helming network controls.

After that came another run-of-the-mill ad, followed by a third "Saw" quick hit. (A Jeep spot ran during "Scrubs" on Comedy Central.)

And following one more standard spot for another marketer (Tide in one case) came a typical 15-second promo for the film that included a shot of the masked beast--presumably answering any viewer questions about what was going on--along with scenes from the film and the opening date.

Did the ploy work? One post on YouTube, where the pod still can be viewed, says: "I saw this TV at like 12:30 at night, it REALLY caught me off guard and it scared the crap out of me."

The final judgment is at the box office: "Saw IV" (Lionsgate now opens a new film in the franchise annually around Halloween) opened with a $31.8 million haul, according to boxofficemojo.com. That led the weekend.

But it failed to top last year's "Saw III" debut of $33.6 million.

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