Basically, my mom is old enough to have been a young teenager when the first Exorcist film came to theaters. She loves to tell the story of when she was lined up outside the theater waiting for the screening and her line was laughing, cracking jokes, just happy to be there. Then the people from the previous screening left the theater. Looks of abject horror on their faces, blank expressions, not even smiling or talking amongst themselves, just looking like they’d been through actual trauma in there. My mom and her friends stopped laughing after that. They almost reevaluated their decision to see the movie.
I’m here because I thought of this story and wanted to know, what’s the modern day equivalent of this experience? Sometimes it feels like we’ve seen it all, but what’s a modern film you saw in theaters that left you like this walking out?
Disclaimer: I want to leave out movies like A Serbian Film. Even though it was quite shocking on first viewing, I doubt many people saw it in theaters. A little too niche for what I’m talking about. I mean a modern wide release horror in theaters that actually had this effect. Only thing I can think of would be the Terrifier movies? I read the articles of people passing out and vomiting mid screening. Maybe that and the Human Centipede?