I'm definitely in the camp that views audiences as an integral part of the movie-going experience. A good audience can improve a bad movie or make a great movie even greater. Conversely, a bad audience can mar the viewing of an otherwise great movie, or make an alright movie pretty stupid.
Example, JEEPERS CREEPERS was not a great movie, but the audience in the theater I was in started yelling things at the screen halfway in, which made viewing it pretty fun.
UNBREAKABLE I took an immediate dislike to. It didn't help that the audience was laughing at the dramatic moments, ie. the kid pulling a gun at the table.
My all time favorite audience were the people I saw METROPOLIS (the anime) with. The entire theater was keyed into the movie. More so, they understood the movie and what it was trying to do. It made a great movie that much more enjoyable.
Anyway, that's all set up for my real topic, best audience reactions.
HANNIBAL was, in my humble opinion, crap. Two hours of boring punctuated by several minutes of gore. That said, the end scene (you know which one I'm talking about) resulted in my favorite audience reaction ever. Nervous laughter, cries of disgust, general uncomfortableness. . . I savored every moment of it. You don't get that from your regular movie. Hell, the JACKASS crowd paled by comparison.
So. . . stories?
P.S. After writing this post I read the "Worst Movie-going Experience" thread and realized there must be a lot of cross-over, for which I apologize. (Especially that JEEPERS CREEPERS thing.)
Post Edited (11-08-03 22:58)
GODZILLA 2000 - Seen this at the theater on opening night. The theater was about 1/3 full, but they were true Godzilla fans. I know I've told this story before about how the parents who brought their children to see what they always wanted to on the big screen and there he was with a close up at the end with that famous roar and the city in ruins. Just brought tears to the eyes. It was my greatest theater moment.
The audience applauded in a meaningful way. Great moment.
LOTR movies, old and young, smart and stupid, fat and thin..they all loved the movies and applauded and screamed with excitement. Was a wonderful experience to share.
Fatal Attraction. In one scene Glen Close takes Ann Archer's kid to the fair without telling her. Ann Archer freaks out because she has no idea where her child is. She loses control and frantically speeds off in her car. Tension rises as she looks left and right at the face of every child on the street desperately trying to find her kid. She begins to scream and curse at everyone and everything, her frustration and fear reaching a boiling point when suddenly BAM! She rear ends the car in front of her and is hurled into the windshield. The audience sits for a second in total gaping silence... Then some guy yells out: "Jeesh! Women drivers!" Laughter (men) and angry words (women) erupt in unison.
When I went to a midnight showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". The audience participated in a big way. People were dressed as characters in the movie. I couldn't hear the movie because the audience was telling it word for word. Even with all that commotion halfway through I fell asleep. I couldn't believe how much of a following that this wierd movie had.
last year i went to a screening of donnie darko that was showing at an outdoor cinema at the botanical gardens, the sort of thing you get friends going to and have a picnic and all that fun stuff. people kept 'ooooh'ing and 'aaah'ing throughout the whole thing [especially the 'why do you wear that stupid human suit' line!]
it's great when audience participation makes a film so much better, especially when everyone is totally engrossed in a film.
I can still remember the last words of the movie "Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story" when Linda Lee Cadwell said people still remember the way he died, I prefer to remember the way he lived.
There was a standing ovation, people clapping all over the theater.
As far as the BEST one from my memory? My father and I went to see "Platoon"
in the theater when I was a freshman in high school. As the credits rolled, we heard sobbing sounds behind us - there were 4 men in uniform in tears as we left. That one still sticks with me.
ROCKY - The most electrifying experience I have ever had in a movie theater. Nothing else comes close. The theater was sold out and everyone was on their feet, cheering and applauding during the fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed. The audiences reaction was not forced and they were not doing it to be funny or anything. Everyone was TRULY into it, as if it were a live boxing match. I have never been involved in anything like this since then. (Although, there was a lot of cheering in the theater during the attack on the Death Star in STAR WARS, but it didn't reach the level of enthusiasm that I saw in ROCKY).
Have to say FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING...it was the first showing of the film. I have never seen an entire theater of people completely captivated by a film like that. Everyone was quiet, transfixed by the screen.
I've never really seen the whole audience respond like that. When I went to see Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, my friend and I ended up sitting behind this group of teenage girls. During the first segment, one character describes how the Egyptians used to pull out the brain using a hook before mummifying someone. A little later, the mummy gets one guy up against the wall and then holds up a wire it's bent into a hook and starts putting it in the guy's nostril. All the girls in front of us screamed "EEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!". :)
Yo, Can you give me an example from Jeepers Creepers? It was an okay film, but a lot of people that I know hate the film.
The best experience for me was The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Everyone was cheering when someone got munched on, it was great.
I like it when people laugh at not-funny parts during Godzilla 2000 and Matrix 3 (when Godzilla kills the guy on the building at the end, and in Matrix during when Agent Smith talks to the Oracle. Personally, myself I thought I was watching Scary Movie 3 during that scene).
Few movies i've seen ever really stirred the entire audience that gave such a memorable impression on my memory. One of them was "Schindler's List". It was a packed house and frankly I don't know that when it first came out everyone really knew what to expect...just sitting through a black and white film that was a new release was pretty unique. I forgot the audience was there, I was acutely aware at certain scenes that not a single breath could be heard..a rattle of candy...nothing. When the film ended I sat watching the credits, and turned around to expect the usual shuffle as people got up and left. (no matter the movie some always jump up at the first sign of a credit rolling) And well with this being a pretty long film....
Nobody moved...nobody even whispered. It was the strangest reaction I've ever seen that for a solid 5 minutes of the music playing at the end, not a single person got up to leave or even spoke...some wept, some looked deeply affected while others were perhaps not wanting to break that moment of unity we all had in sharing the same feeling. Eventually some began to get up..not that many really, some sat until the credits were completely over. I saw a few holocaust survivors in the back row - but i've never been to a film before or since where there was that kind of silence.
Those moments to me stand out more than cheers, I mean i've seen a bunch of dumbells cheering and clapping through "The Mummy 2" in mass unison..i guess it depends on the crowd.
Actually.."Natural born killers" had quite an interesting audience reaction as well now that I think about it.. But the most humerous time i've ever had in a movie was when I went to see..ashamed to admit anticipated to see the campy Stephen King movie "Sleepwalkers". That was an absolute riot, at first the audience was interested. Then they realized they had been hoodwinked...and angry jeers began. However, towards the end of the film I think their anger was replaced by sense of humor for just how ridiculously BAD this film was that people were shouting out comments, and nobody cared. When the cop was stabbed in the back with the corncob the audience erupted in applause and whistles. It was very bizarre..but memorable.
Post Edited (11-09-03 21:00)
Godzilla 2000 - nothing but me and a few dozen die-hard fans in the theatre. We had a blast. Cheers and whistles at the end.
slight threadjack - The wife and I went to see Freddy Vs. Jason and the theatre was filled with the usual 16-19 year-old morons who would not shut up. After about 5 minutes of giggling, cell phone foolishness, whispering, a BIG skinhead-looking chap (wifebeater shirt, jump boots, jailhouse tatoos up and down both arms) stood up and bellowed, "SHUT THE F&#* UP!!!!"
Absolute dead silence. Not ever the usual "I wish he'd say that to my face" type bluster. Just a whole gaggle of wide-eyed teens who were sure that they were about to die.
I smiled for the rest of the movie.
Kirk
Cabin Fever- When the old man replies to their question about the gun, the theatre erupted with laughter. I'm surprised the building is still standing.
When Attack of the Clones came out a huge group of people had a party before hand. I was invited and we were told to cosplay (I was a Leia) and we watched all the movies while MST-ing them... There's a trend in Phantom Menace of little!Anakin yelling "Yippee!" at random parts.
Well, we'd seen the previews of the "He's holding me back!" moment, and when we reached that part in the movie about two rows of us yelled, "Yippee!" And the rest of the theater got really involved in it, and any dramatic parts after that with Anakin were punctuated with a "Yippee!" xD
This thread was started last year. Wow. How did it come back, I don't know.
But I'll contribute something again. SEED OF CHUCKY's trailer, right before KILL BILL VOLUME TWO was the biggest reaction I've ever seen. Makes me want to run out and make intentionally bad films. Not saying that SEED will suck...
Ellie wrote:
> When I went to a midnight showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture
> Show". The audience participated in a big way. People were
> dressed as characters in the movie. I couldn't hear the movie
> because the audience was telling it word for word. Even with
> all that commotion halfway through I fell asleep. I couldn't
> believe how much of a following that this wierd movie had.
Now Rocky is where it's at.
The cast and audience is the key to the screening of Rocky.
I perform in TWO shadowcasts in South Carolina. F5 in Easley, www.farleyflavors.com and Back Row Productions in Charleston (www.backrow.org). I play Brad for BRP and fillin for F5.
Shadowcast being a cast of folks who dress the characters and act out the show infront of the playing movie. We add jokes and make it more fun and funnier.
The Callback lines from the audience add the whole extra layer. Characters reacting and the audience reacting to that. Running gags, and such. Most theatres have a basic set they all say - but often at my own shows and seeing others I hear new lines all the time.
I highly recommend that EVERYONE sees RHPS in theatres in this way at least once. It should be required. This link is a constantly updated list of all theatres in the US who play RHPS, whether weekly, monthly, or yearly: http://www.towson.edu/~lwood/theater.html
Damn, Americans are weird when it comes to movies. In Australia nobody claps or cheers or anything like that at the movies, the only thing the audience responds to out loud is if its funny or maybe super scary. That would p**s me right off if people gave a standing ovation to some cheesy line from a movie. I prefer absolute silence. Is it true that people were clapping and cheering during independance day? The only time I had to put up with that sort of thing was during the Phantom Menace, it drove me nuts. I bet after that movie they all thought to themselves "Why the hell were we cheering that movie?"
In the Two Towers when Gollum is having the conversation with himself, the people behind us were laughing at first. Then as the scene starts getting creepier (when you realize he is actually dangerous) the nervousness started creeping into their laughing and then turns to stunned silence.
Many years ago my wife and I were watching the movie Arthur (Dudley Moore) when a drunk who had obviously been watching the movie( one of the Friday the 13th's I think) in the othe theatre stumbles in yelling "Has he killed the kid yet? ". After he yelled this a couple of time, he started calling a friends name, then he looks at the screen and realizes he's in the wrong theatre .
During Gothika, my friend screamed "eww, that's nasty!" when they first showed Halle Berry's husband in it (for people who are confused about that, the guy was really fat, and it didn't seem possible for him to end up with her)
well manos' audience was pritty cool... they all started laughing and making jokes so the crew had to sneak out of the cinema... SIGH i wish i was there... probably to make fun too :P damn that movie is horrible :P a well deserved action from the croud !
That 15 seconds of godizalla standing in the ruins is one of my favorite signal images of all time. It made me weep.
The rest of the movie was reasonable.
I went the monday after opening weekend and it was just my 3 friends an two other people.
this topic comes up every so often. Same movies. Schindlers list: the most unique audience reaction ever, silence and every single person sitting through the entire credits.
Sleepwalkers - i think alot of people had high expectations for this movie for some reason, i remember I did. After the incest and very hokey storyline and moans and groans ensued...people began to lighten up and take it for what it was worth, a b-movie and were in uproarious laughter by the time the sherrif was geting stabbed in the back with a corncob
"I'm definitely in the camp that views audiences as an integral part of the movie-going experience."
Some bad movies beg for interaction and that's great, but I am generally in the camp that thinks if the audience keeps its mouth shut, I'm happy.
One thing really did crack me up watching the movie (Reese Witherspoon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer - remake of Dangerous Liasons). In one scene Buffy is kissing another good-looking girl in Central Park. This teenage kid behind me says loudly and sincerely "This is the best movie I have ever seen in my entire life." His delivery was perfect - the whole audience was laughing well into the next scene.
The best audience reactions come in, when the theater is full, and I have not been to too many of those. The films I see are usually not the "popular" ones, and when I do see a "popular" movie, it is usually sometime after the film has opened, so the audience is usually somewhat sparse by that time. But, one audience reacrtion I do remember . . .
1982. "The Sword and the Sorcerer." Robert Tessier is playing a bald executioner named Verdugo, and Earl Maynard is playing a prisioner named Morgan. At one point in the film Tessier says something and Maynard replies: "What do you want, Potatohead?" At this, half of the audience is ROTFL, which sets up what happens next. As Maynard shortly thereafter pushes Tessier's face into a moving grindstone, so the blood goes spraying, some guy in the audience yells out: "Hmmm!!! That looks good!" Which sends the other half of the audience into ROTFL!
Another one is from an even earlier time . . .
1979. I take the Greyhound bus from where I live into downtown Portland, Oregon to see a film called "Zulu Dawn," which is about the battle of Isandlwana between the blacks and the whites in South Africa in 1879. Now whether it was the subject of the film and/or the location of the multiplex, never before or since have I seen so many Native Americans in the theater. And this is not a stereotype, Native Americans have a war whoop, which cannot be described by most white men, but, you'll recognize it when you hear it. So, anytime any of the whites in the film would be killed by any of the blacks in the film, all the Native Americans in the theater would let out with a loud war whoop. As one of the few whites watching the film . . . Strange, but interesting.
I just wish there were more.
....EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (which I happen to really like). The audience was reacting every way but they way the SHOULD have reacted. Personally, I was getting into the film at the time, and some reactions were p**sing me off.
> "I'm definitely in the camp that views audiences as an integral
> part of the movie-going experience."
I didn't mean that in the way that I want people to be shouting witty (or non-witty) comments at the screen. More just the immediate reaction people have while watching a movie they really enjoy (or really not enjoy). For instance, a theater full of people laughing hysterically generally makes a comedy better. Or the gasps and jumps from people in a suspense/horror audience. Just the common experience of sitting in a theater with people and watching a movie.
I brought the subject up because it seems that so many people focus on the negative aspects of an audience. Or they just want to be able to ignore the audience as much as possible. I've had good and bad audience experiences, and when the audience is good it's usually a memorable occasion.
>One thing really did crack me up watching the movie (Reese Witherspoon and
>Buffy the Vampire Slayer - remake of Dangerous Liasons). In one scene Buffy is
>kissing another good-looking girl in Central Park.
Cruel Intentions, Sarah Michelle Gellar french kissing Selma Blair.
"For instance, a theater full of people laughing hysterically generally makes a comedy better. Or the gasps and jumps from people in a suspense/horror audience."
That's true. I think a loud audience reaction (either laughing, or screaming) is actually kind of liberating... it allows you to laugh louder or scream or groan without worrying that the rest of the audience is disturbed or thinks you're weird. Good point.
...
For me it was the original INDIANA JONES AND THE LOST ARK when Harrison Ford makes it to the German submarine from the cargo ship. The audience all cheered. Biggest reaction I can recall.
There were some wonderful reactions from the audience when I went to see Bad Santa. It was a good movie to begin with, a standard "curmudgeon learns the meaning of Christmas" movie, but wrapped in an utterly revolting shell. I loved it. I also loved it when kids started crying during the movie and had to be escorted out of the theater, and when the elderly and family-minded started hassling the ushers afterward for "allowing kids to see that movie." Guess who bought their tickets, jackass? YOU, not the usher.
What! People actually went to see a film called Bad Santa and thought it would be suitable for kids? What was it rated anyway? Some people are very silly indeed.
Lesson to be learned in life: Always read the fine print.
This wont exactly fit in with this crowd but...
Great audience when I saw "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Everyone was HYSTERICAL.
Bad Santa was thoroughly "R." There's an unrated version to be released on DVD. But it's about Santa, so it's gotta be for kids, right? These must be the sort of people who'd rent "Legend of the Overfiend" for their five-year-old because it's a cartoon.