In her new horror project, Kiernan Shipka faces untold horrors: staying up too late and doomscrolling on the phone.
Hatch, the sleep wellness brand, has released the new ad “Goodnight, Phone” — a trailer for a faux horror movie that, thanks to scream queen Shipka’s haunting performance, feels like the real thing. Directed by Meredith Alloway and screening on YouTube and in AMC and Cinemark theaters just in time for Halloween, the Hatch Restore campaign recreates the all-too-universal experience of trading shut-eye for endless algorithmic content.
“I saw that it was this faux horror movie, and it struck me as so smart and so clear,” Shipka, 25, tells PEOPLE exclusively of signing on to support Hatch’s mission.
Plus, there was plenty of her own experience to draw from. “There is nothing, I feel, more personal than the doomscroll to me,” Shipka says with a laugh.
“I’ve so been there. It’s hard. So many of us can relate to that pull that the phone has. I always feel like I look at my screen time at the end of the week and I go, ‘What? Really? Was I really on my phone that much? That’s maybe not amazing.’”
The ad stars Shipka as Ava, who after moving into a new house with her partner (played by Jake Cannavale) succumbs to the comforts of her smartphone’s addictive apps. Her screen’s content begins manifesting in real life in terrifying ways, with each swipe bringing more waking nightmares.
Unaffected by the lure of doomscrolling, however, is her partner — thanks to his Hatch smart sleep clock on the nightstand.
Hatch is
Kiernan Shipka on Her Hatch Ad Campaign, a Faux Horror Trailer (Exclusive)
