1st 'Mockingjay' Teaser Has a Scary Twist

If you thought that the Mockingjay propaganda posters were going to be the creepiest part of the Hunger Games viral campaign for the upcoming movie, then you were very, very wrong. Propaganda is the name of the promotional game for Mockingjay - Part 1 — as well it should be, considering this is the film in which the revolution really heats up and the stakes have never been higher. The first Mockingjay teaser has been released and it's not a trailer for the film. No, that would be too easy. Instead, it's a short clip of President Snow addressing the nation of Panem and it has an unpleasant surprise.

At this point, it should no longer be a spoiler alert that Peeta was kidnapped by the Capitol at the end of Catching Fire. In this video, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta stands loyally at President Snow's side, staring blankly off into the distance and once into the camera while President Snow makes his chilling speech. Like any good dictator, Snow peppers the speech with innocuous, inaccurate phrases hiding their sinister undertone.

"Ours is an elegant system, conceived to nourish and protect..." says Snow, though anyone who hears even a smidgen of what the Hunger Games are about can tell you differently. "Your hard work feeds us, and in return we feed and protect you." The camera pans out to reveal Peeta standing next to him for the second half of Snow's speech, in which he takes a tone toward the almost blatantly threatening. "But if you resist the system, you starve yourself. If you fight against it, it is you who will bleed."

This statement is made even more heartbreaking to those of us who know that Peeta has been tortured and brainwashed into the complicity we see in the video. Snow's message goes out not just to the viewing audience, but to the characters of the film who knew Peeta well and know that he is being used as an example of what happens when you fight against the system.

Luckily, as we all know, this is hardly going to slow down the revolution, but in the time between now and November this teaser is definitely going to keep more than a few people awake at night. Watch the teaser below.