Where there is no imagination there is no horror. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
In our household a good horror movie coming to the theaters is an event. We are usually on the front lines of opening night. So when Sinister opened last week, we were totally THERE. Of course, so was almost an entire high school. We overheard one of the staff reporting that through social media, he'd gathered this massive crowd of happy faces in skinny jeans.
The group I came with were eager not just for the film but were anticipating my antics. The eye-covering, screaming, feet tapping, hand pinching and comical terror that apparently I bring to a horror event. They were already laughing at the memory of me hiding under my coat for almost all of the Fear Festival. But little did we know, I was to be outdone by the night's crowd.
About a third of the way into the movie the kid about 5 seats down vomited repeatedly and noisily adding a rather authentic but confusing element to the soundtrack. The next 10 minutes were occupied by all the kids in the seats ahead of him repeatedly switching seats to avoid the puke that was rolling down the theater toward them. It positioned a rather animated young girl right in front of us.
Sinister is full of the sort of quick scares that jump off the screen. So when it tossed one toward the audience, the bright blonde hair of our animated theater-mate launched in the air. She threw then entire length of herself across three of four laps of her friends. And during subsequent scares, her legs would catapult straight up, perpendicular to her body. Of course, this all got to be too much for the poor girl and she ran from the theater screaming "I'll be in my car!!" The entire theater erupted in laughter.
In fact, there is a lot of laughter at the screening of a horror movie. Every collected gasp of terror is followed by laughter. We are laughing at ourselves, our friends, the person in front of us. Its a sort of community experience. I contrast it with the movie I saw the week before, the revival showing of Lawrence of Arabia. With Lawrence, it was a personal experience, contemplative and internal. I wouldn't ever describe it as a shared experience, even though I was with the same group that was sitting next to me during Sinister. But Sinister was a shared event. And thanks to those students not one we are likely to forget.
Haha! I loved this post. That is why movies are so great with a crowd. I watched Drag Me To Hell and Paranormal Activity 1 in the theater and they are much scarier there than at home. I think it's the energy of the crowd and the images are larger than life. I want to see Sinister but not if people are puking. Blech. :)
ReplyDeleteHe might have been the kid I overheard saying "I can't believe how drunk I am" before the show started. If that is the case, then that might have had more to do with the puke event than the movie. Although Sinister is a bit on the "slasher" side of horror, so there is as much gore as psychology here.
ReplyDeleteAlso, have you seen Insidious? That was one I saw in the theater. I will forever be teased for running in place while seated during that one.
Yeah I'm betting it was the alcohol. :) Hm. I don't like gore too much. I saw Insidious on Netflix and it still scares me. I imagine the woman at the end of the movie standing outside my bathroom when I have to go in the middle of the night. Yikes! Also The Woman In Black was scary too! Have you seen that?
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen that one yet. Its on the list!
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