BBC radio and their website carry news of audience members fainting in terror at screenings of Saw III. Apparently one cinema in Stevenage had to call out the ambulance three times for scaredy-cat audience members who were so overwhelmed they swooned. A spokesman for the ambulance service pointed out that if you are squeamish you shouldn’t go to this kind of film, adding that having to take ambulances three times to this kind of call-out on a busy Friday night when they could be needed for more urgent calls is pretty annoying. I wonder if the same people have panic attacks if they see an Asian girl with long hair after coming out of Grudge 2?
Being cynical part of me is wondering how genuine this is – strikes me if you were a savvy PR agency you could hire some actors to ‘faint’ and generate terrific publicity (not that I am accusing anyone involved here of this, it’s just the cynical side of me thinking out loud about how it could be used). The whole thing is reminiscent of some of the shenanigans surrounding classic B movie chillers from the 50s and 60s where ‘a trained nurse experienced in the effects of terror will be in each auditorium’ or sales of ‘life insurance’ before screenings in case the viewer expired of fright during the movie (I’m sure Vincent Price’s The Tingler was promoted this way, wasn’t it?). For my own part the only thing that makes me swoon this Halloween (ghoulish greetings to all our readers!) is the lack of originality in most modern horror flicks. Not that I have anything against sequels as such, but as I look for a good horror movie for Halloween it looks like sequel or sequel or prequel… Probably good, gorey fun, but it would be nice to see something completely new. But that may make an old cynic faint with surprise.
Tue, Oct 31, 2006
Film, TV and radio, General, News