the film's first trailer was released on february 5, 2015. forrest wickman of "slate magazine"'s opinion was that the trailer made the film appear to be too similar to the original film. james hibberd of "entertainment weekly" said that the trailer "retains and amplifies several elements from the original", and praised that "the modernizing doesn’t result in, say, the family’s daughter being kidnapped by ghosts in snapchat". brad miska of bloody disgusting stated that "while every fiber of my being wants to reject it, [the film] actually looks pretty insane", and praised the trailer's final shot. ben kuchera of "polygon" also opined that the trailer appeared to be similar to the original film, but that it "looks great, as a horror movie".