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‘The Impossible’ makes spectators get literally sick
Thursday 18th October 2012 | Annalisa
Vomits, fainting and convulsions are bombarding Spanish cinemas these days thanks to The Impossible. Last J.A. Bayona’s film, is causing such an impression that people are forced to leave the cinemas, not because the movie is crap, as some might say about Battleship or Katy Perry: Part Of Me 3D, but because it makes them literally nauseous and sick. Spectators argue that the impossible is not to get dizzy. However, the movie did break all-time Spanish box office records with 10.3 million euros and 1.4 million tickets sold. That, surely, is proof that we are all a bit masochistic.
It’s hard to believe that in 3D madness times, action movies and gore films, a movie about a natural disaster can cause such an impact on the spectators. But the recreation to 2004’s Tsunami, with hyper realistic water scenes and special effects that only studios like Warner can afford, is going through the screens and getting directly in under spectators´ skin. Now, instead of going to horror movies to prove their bravery, teenagers are challenged with watching The Impossible and staying till the end without puking.
Amongst one of the worst cases, was a man who during the projection, started to have spasms and woke up to go to the toilet and faint. They needed to call an ambulance and be brought to the hospital. The doctor who attended him clearly recognized that the cause of the symptoms was The impossible, saying: “another who comes from the God damn Tsunami”. Apparently this was worse than a Take That concert during the 90’s, with dozens of cases of people fainting and having anxiety crises.
They are not sure what could be the reason for this phenomenon, but for now there are two theories. The technical failure one (as usual), which affirms that there must be something wrong on the distributed copy of the movie: a use of photograms higher than the standard, the change of shots in constant movement, the combination of colours and sounds, the light impacts or a possible insertion of subliminal contents.
The other theory is a psychological one. Spanish psychologists are analyzing this phenomenon and have also arrived to several conclusions. The most probable is that the spectators are suffering a somatization provoked by the anguish of some scenes and which can create a condition of post-traumatic stress to a visual and audio level. These effects are increased by an over empathy because spectators are sensitively connected with what’s going on in the screen. Instead of “forbidden for those under the age of 18”, they should advertise “only appropriate for cold blooded people with no sense of empathy at all”. So if you are the kind of person who desperately cried watching Titanic, follow the psychologists’ advice and abandon the cinema at the minimum symptoms of dizziness, because the effects of such an emotional impact can last for days and cause sleep disorders.
By Laura Vila
