Best Audience Reactions

[Mofo Rising]

There is a lot to dislike about the modern movie-going experience. High-priced tickets, over-priced snacks, screaming children, annoying text messagers, mouth-breathers... However, I think the overall experience of watching something with the correct audience is criminally overlooked. There's just something about watching the same thing with a group of strangers that can not be replicated. It's a bit of a primal experience that I think we overlook, and something cinema excels in.

I've got two I want to mention.

The first is from the movie Hannibal. Hannibal is a bad movie. It misfires on all the things that made people so terrified by The Silence of the Lambs. Worst of all, it's boring. Not a recommended film at all.

**SPOILER**
However, there is a scene at the end that generated my favorite audience reaction of all time. If you've seen it, you are familiar with the scene where Ray Liotta's character is fed his own brains, sauteed, by Hannibal Lecter. The audience went crazy with uncomfortable squeemishness. There was outright disgust, nervous laughter, screaming, and just an overall level of "Holy Hell this is really happening." If I had watched this movie home alone, I would still hold the poor opinion I have of this movie. I would have missed this absolute gem of audience reaction, though. I still treasure it to this day.
**END SPOILER**

The second was a bit more subtle, and it's why I still hold that viewing a film with an audience is a vital part of cinema.

The Japanese anime Metropolis is an odd duck. Great movie, just odd. I was lucky enough to see it in a theater full of people that were fully invested in the movie. The entire audience was just keyed into what the movie was doing. Later in the film, there is a scene where one of the main villains finally gets a bit of comeuppance. It wasn't the show-stopping "I Can't Stop Loving You" moment, it was a quieter moment. But when it happened you could feel the entire audience just shift to a "Hell yes" moment. Which is why I love a good audience. The cinema, and probably more so live theater, has an energy that can't be replicated watching movies at home.

So what are your favorite audience reactions you have seen?

[Trevor]

Great topic, Mofo. 

I have a few, too.

Watching The Silence of The Lambs in a Pretoria theatre in 1991 during the scene where Jodie Foster is in the dark with Ted Levine stalking her, the theatre was dark, not even an exit light on. I became aware of a dim light somewhere and saw that a guy in the audience had his cigarette lighter on, trying to give Jodie some light. 

The best audience reaction ever? Watching the South African film White Wedding at the premiere in Cape Town in March this year. I was reluctant to go see it (even though I was invited) because I thought it was a SA version of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?. Boy, did I get a wrong number and I'm glad I did.

The full house danced, cheered, sang, laughed, clapped and the cast and crew in attendance, including the director Jann Turner, were stunned by the reaction. We gave the film a standing ovation and clapped until our palms were sore. We sang and danced especially to the final song Vulindlela [Clear The Path], a song traditionally used at weddings here and most of the cast and crew of the film were in tears at the end of it. Great film and a great memory: to think I almost passed up a free trip to Cape Town!

www.whiteweddingmovie.co.za

[The Burgomaster]

* The best I ever experienced was during the climactic boxing match against Apollo Creed in the original ROCKY.  The theater was sold out and everyone was on their feet yelling and cheering like they were at a real boxing match.  It was exhilirating.

Honorable mentions that come to mind are:


* The audience cheering when Roy Scheider said, "Smile you son-of-a-b***h" at the end of JAWS.

* The audience cheering during the climactic attack on the Death Star in STAR WARS.

* Uncontrollable audience laughter during the farting scene in BLAZING SADDLES.


I'll try to think of a few more.

[El Misfit]

At the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter, when this thing grabs harry, there's a silence then the thing grabs harry, the crowd who saw it jumped 20 ft!

[Mr. DS]

At the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter, when this thing grabs harry, there's a silence then the thing grabs harry, the crowd who saw it jumped 20 ft!

That scene has gotten everybody I've ever talked to...I'm sad to say it got me too and I have experience in this sort of film scare. 

The best time I've ever had, and I think I've accounted this here, was seeing Dante's Peak in a second run theater.  EVERYONE in the theater was making fun of the film out loud by the end.  My friend and I got a round of applause when we stood up and cheered when the dog was saved. 

Oddest reaction, thunderous applause at the end of The Mask.  I wondered if the audience had just seen the same film as me. 

[hellbilly]

I've watched quite a few movies with either German or American audience over the years. The Germans are very reserved and hardly make a peep. The Americans on the other hand, they enjoy their movies to the max. The "worst" movie I've seen at a Theater was with German audience thus hardly any reactions. Species II was the flick and wasn't a stroke of genius, but neither was part one. There is one rather effective jump scare that managed to squeeze out a not very loud "wow" from a German viewer, and that was it.

[Raffine]

An entire audience of preteens erupting in screams when the title music began for Larry Cohen's killer baby epic IT'S ALIVE (1974).

God bless you, Mr. Herrmann! 

[Ash]

Back in 2003 I went to a midnight screening of X-Men 2 with Brother Ragnarok (an old regular here on this board who hasn't posted in awhile)

It was in a small college town by Waterloo, Iowa and the theater was packed with college kids.
When the X mansion is invaded by Stryker's forces, Wolverine freaks out and impales that guy into the metal fridge.
When that happened, every person in the theater yelled, "YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!!"

That was a fun time.   

[meQal]

I've got two I can think of off the top of my head from recent years.
First was when seeing Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. When Yoda walks in on Count Dooku who has just defeated Anikin and Obi-Wan, a guy in the back of the theater screamed out, "Kick his a$$ Yoda!" the audience went to rolling with laughter.
The second one was during Superman Returns. In the film everything is blowing up and the city of Metropolis was falling apart. Sirens and alarms are going off everywhere. Then the film suddenly stops but alarms are still blaring. It was then that an usher from the cina-plex came in and asked everyone to evacuate the building. The additional alarm that was still going was a fire alarm that had going off due to a small fire in another theater. It sounds frightening but until they stopped the film and told everyone there was a fire, everyone in the theater thought the sounds of the alarms was just part of the movie. Needless to say, it was the first time I ever experienced an interactive film.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Rambo: First Blood Part 2:
Toward the end, a seething and teary eyed Rambo says, "what do I want?  For our country, to love US, as much as WE love IT. That's what I want."   Some guy in back of us yelled "about time too!" and the place erupted in cheers and applause.

Red Dawn: Patrick Swayze reminds Charle Sheen of the difference between "them and us" by slowly raising his antique .45 and saying, "because, we live here!!" and shoots the Russian soldier.  The audience cheered and one guy yelled "don't mess with the US!" and many cheered with him.

The 1968 Night Of The Living Dead (seen at midnight movie.) When Ben walks by the window and the zombie grabs at him, a group of girls behind me let out an ear-shattering set of screams that probably appointed them as the poster kids for hearing loss..

[venomx]

At the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter, when this thing grabs harry, there's a silence then the thing grabs harry, the crowd who saw it jumped 20 ft!

LOL! that's funny my wife did the same thing ... ehhh ... (so did I)

[Pilgermann]

The first is from the movie Hannibal. Hannibal is a bad movie. It misfires on all the things that made people so terrified by The Silence of the Lambs. Worst of all, it's boring. Not a recommended film at all.

**SPOILER**
However, there is a scene at the end that generated my favorite audience reaction of all time. If you've seen it, you are familiar with the scene where Ray Liotta's character is fed his own brains, sauteed, by Hannibal Lecter. The audience went crazy with uncomfortable squeemishness. There was outright disgust, nervous laughter, screaming, and just an overall level of "Holy Hell this is really happening." If I had watched this movie home alone, I would still hold the poor opinion I have of this movie. I would have missed this absolute gem of audience reaction, though. I still treasure it to this day.
**END SPOILER**

While working as an usher I used to walk in on that part to see how the crowd reacted.  Sometimes there'd be tons of laughter, and other times gasps and exclamations of shock or disgust.  It was usually a mixture of all of those things.  Personally, I got a good sick laugh out of it!

* The audience cheering when Roy Scheider said, "Smile you son-of-a-b***h" at the end of JAWS.

Several years ago a local theater had a summer film series of Spielberg films and I went to see Jaws and the crowd then had the same reaction, although I'm sure we'd all seen the film many times before.

  My thought like that . Really I am also not much to see this movies. I am very interested if any beautiful movie.



If You want crazy offer?

I WANT CRAZY OFFER

[Raffine]

If You want crazy offer?

I WANT CRAZY OFFER

ME TOO

I WANT CRAZY OFFER

[Mr. DS]

I've got two I can think of off the top of my head from recent years.
First was when seeing Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. When Yoda walks in on Count Dooku who has just defeated Anikin and Obi-Wan, a guy in the back of the theater screamed out, "Kick his a$$ Yoda!" the audience went to rolling with laughter.

Seeing Star Wars in the theater with fellow geeks was always fun but usually more fun before the movie.  People would be quoting films and having discussion of the utmost geekiness.  I always felt right at home. 

When I saw Halloween H20, there was a woman behind me that pulled the talking to the screen game.  I think she said "GET OUTTA THERE GIRL"  100x before the usher decided to pretend to care.

[Bmeansgood]

Full out applause and cheers when Rocky beat Drago at the end of Rocky IV.  Nothing brought out 80's applause like beating up some Commie!

Also during "I know what you did last summer" some random woman in the seat next to us got scared and grabbed my wife's knee during one scene  My wife screamed, then the woman screamed, and I laughed quite loudly.