Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Movie Theater Gimmicks
by Stacy Conradt - March 23, 2010 - 5:26 PM

q10

You’ve probably noticed by the abundance of funny glasses available at your local Cineplex lately that 3D technology is the latest gimmick to become all the rage at movie theaters. It’s only the first in a long line of techniques aimed at getting movie patrons in theater seats. Here are a few others.

1. Light tricks. Has anyone seen Wait Until Dark? Starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin, horror master Stephen King has called the film’s ending one of the scariest moments in movie history. Perhaps it was the treatment theaters gave to this film that left such an impression on King: in the movie, there’s a part where Audrey’s character breaks all of the light bulbs in her apartment and shuts all of her window blinds so she is hidden in complete darkness. As she goes around the place breaking bulbs, theater employees dimmed the lights one by one and eventually turned them all off completely, plunging the theater into total darkness.

2. Smell-o-vision. There’s a reason this technique was employed on just a single movie – it was expensive to install in multiple theaters, distracting (the smells made a hissing noise when they were emitted) and somewhat ineffective (the smells often didn’t show up until after the thing that was supposed to be odorous had left the screen). Moviegoers were unimpressed and bad word of mouth killed this gimmick almost immediately. Although the movie, Scent of Mystery, was a huge flop, a similar but improved technique has been employed in more controlled environments – Disney uses smells in several movie-like attractions in their parks.

3. Odorama. Leave it to John Waters to pay homage to the kitch factor of Smellovision. When he released the movie Polyester in 1982, Waters gave all movie patrons scratch and sniff cards. When a number appeared on the screen, people in the audience were supposed to scratch the corresponding card. Smells included pizza, flowers, gas, grass and poo. Waters later commented that he was amused that audiences literally had to “pay to smell sh*t.”

4. Seat belts. This was actually a gimmick that was scrapped before the movie’s release. For William Castle’s 1965 I Saw What You Did starring Joan Crawford, Castle released a statement saying that all movie theaters would have a section equipped with seatbelts. The reasoning? So people wouldn’t be scared out of their seats, of course. He intended to follow through on this little marketing ploy until his financial backers informed him that it was just too costly.

5. Punishment Poll. Castle was the poster boy for movie gimmicks – he’d try anything once, no matter how silly or impractical. For Mr. Sardonicus, the audience received cards with glow in the dark thumbs on either side – thumbs up on one side and thumbs down on the other. Near the end of the movie, the audience is asked whether they want to help the main character or let him die. Their responses would determine which ending would be shown. Supposedly, no audience ever voted to let the man live, so the alternate ending was never needed. But one of the actresses in the movie claims a second ending was never shot at all, so the vote was all a sham.

6. The Tingler. Another William Castle for you. Told you this guy was crazy for weird marketing ploys! The 1959 thriller The Tingler was about a little parasite appropriately named the Tingler that affixed itself at the base of people’s spines and could only be killed by the sound of the human scream. Scientists are studying this strange little creature when one of them escapes from the lab and heads directly into a packed movie theater. This is where Castle got his kicks in – select seats in the theaters had little vibrating devices wired on to them, which would go off at random during this scene.

7. Not one, not two, but three different endings. You might remember this one. Back when Clue was released in 1985, three endings were filmed – and all three were used. You didn’t know which one you were going to see until you got to that point in the movie. Eventually, movie theaters started printing that information (“Ending A, B or C”) in the newspaper next to the time listing. Not a bad way to get fans to pay to see the same movie three times, huh?

8. Race Car Chairs. At least, that was the idea. Several D-Boxes, vibrating theater chairs, were installed at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and at another theater in Surprise, Arizona (surprise!) for the release of Fast & Furious last year. The chairs vibrated, leaned, tilted and shook according to the action happening on the screen. I’ve not heard of the D-Boxes being used for any film since Fast & Furious, so perhaps it wasn’t a very effective gimmick.

9. Emergo. You can probably tell by the grandiose name that this is another William Castle brainchild. This one occurred at the end of House on Haunted Hill, the original 1959 version. As a skeleton gave chase to a character in the movie, a glow in the dark skeleton suspended on wires “floated” across the top of the theater. Hey, no one ever said Castle’s tricks were all high-tech. People weren’t always scared, though – it seems as if most of the time, it became a game to see who could pelt the skeleton with the most Milk Duds.

10. Sensurround. Sensurround = really, really loud movie. OK, it was slightly more complicated than that. Theaters had to install large, low frequency speakers in custom cabinets that often required removing a couple of rows of seats. It was used for the 1974 movie Earthquake and a few more films throughout the rest of the ‘70s, but after theaters complained of structural damage, movie patrons complained of being ill from the vibrations, and businesses near the theaters complained of noise pollution, Sensurround was basically halted.

Did you experience any of these little tricks first-hand? What did you think?

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Comments (45)

  1. I got the “D-Box” experience in the Surprise theatre and I was unimpressed.

    posted by Clarence on 3-23-2010 at 5:32 pm

  2. Great post – thanks!

    posted by Ranger J on 3-23-2010 at 5:51 pm

  3. For your home movie theater enjoyment, you can install special vibrator “speakers” to the frame of your viewing chair. Tuned to the lower frequencies of the sound track of your favorite DVD, these in combination with some large powerful subwoofers (ala Sensearound) can put a punch in your viewing enjoyment. I don’t say hearing enjoyment as this is definitely a seat of the pants feeling.

    posted by Prism on 3-23-2010 at 5:59 pm

  4. Wasn’t “Sensurround” supposed to be responsible for the so-called “Brown Note” myth?

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 3-23-2010 at 6:00 pm

  5. I freakin’ LOVE “Clue.” But I’ve only ever seen it on home video or on TV, the version where they’ve stitched all three endings together (I like the last one best, myself). The DVD has them as separate options, though, and I think you can even randomize it for the theater-like experience.

    posted by MH on 3-23-2010 at 6:00 pm

  6. Personally, I still like Cinerama. I saw “Grand Prix” back in the ’60s in that format.

    With the 3-D technology, plus the ultra-realistic effects we can now produce, I wonder if it isn’t time to try it again. Can you imagine what the D-Day landing scenes in “Private Ryan” would have been like?

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 3-23-2010 at 6:03 pm

  7. I saw Wait Until Dark in the theater as a kid. I don’t recall the gimmick (it may well have happened), but the movie scared the living daylights out of me and stayed with me for years!

    posted by Miss Cellania on 3-23-2010 at 6:16 pm

  8. I recall seeing a John Waters stand-up-ish thing where he mentions that one of the Rugrats movies also had Odorama, as an homage, he was told.

    I recently had the displeasure of experiencing “4D” at the World of Coke in Atlanta. Not only do you wear 3D glasses that cause headaches in some (namely me), the glasses do nothing to protect from the water that shoots at you during a boating scene in the Coke Adventures (or whatever crockery).

    Also featured: rigged buttons on the back of each chair that poke you in the kidneys to imitate dragonfly stings, and loud hydraulic chairs to shake the change out of your pockets as the story unfolds on a cobblestone path.

    posted by jenvanleigh on 3-23-2010 at 6:26 pm

  9. I know there is a theater in Austin, TX that used the D-Box seats for several movies recently including Terminator Salvation and The Final Destination.

    posted by Lica on 3-23-2010 at 6:36 pm

  10. I remember when “Clue” came out and you didn’t know what ending you were going to get. I think I saw it twice in the theater and then got the VHS, but I don’t remember how they were arranged on there. I seem to remember something about showing them all in a row….

    I still love “Clue”, maybe I’ll watch it later tonight, it’s so fun!

    posted by Sarah in CA on 3-23-2010 at 6:37 pm

  11. The Tingler was such a dumb movie. Granted, I watched it on cable so no vibrating seats for me, but I can’t imagine any gimmick would make that movie worth paying to see! Good for a laugh, at least.

    posted by Lynnie on 3-23-2010 at 6:43 pm

  12. I remember when “Kentucky Fried Movie” spoofed the whole Sensaround gimmick with a “Feelaround” sketch. An usher stood behind each moviegoer and did increasingly bizarre things to him.

    The “Clue” gimmick was cute, but you had to take the movie as a comedy, not a mystery. When the ending can change like that, there’s no point in watching for clues or trying to figure out the solution first.

    posted by Eric on 3-23-2010 at 6:49 pm

  13. I live in Las Vegas and there’s a theater here that uses D-Box all the time. I’ve seen about 4 or 5 movies in D-Box (incl. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, 2012, and Sherlock Holmes). It’s a pretty cool experience as long as your watching a movie with tons of action in it (i.e. 2012 was great but Sherlock Holmes wasn’t really worth the extra ticket price).

    posted by KM on 3-23-2010 at 7:30 pm

  14. “I remember when “Kentucky Fried Movie” spoofed the whole Sensaround gimmick with a “Feelaround” sketch. An usher stood behind each moviegoer and did increasingly bizarre things to him.”

    Hehe, I remember that too! Hilarious!

    posted by dooflotchie on 3-23-2010 at 7:51 pm

  15. I LOVE the Disney rides that add scent to certain things, like Monsters Inc. When you go through the sushi restaurant that Mike takes Celia to for her birthday, you smell ginger. When you get to the Abominable Snowman he offers you a yellow snowcone and quickly adds “What? No! It’s lemon!” and you smell lemon. Soaring Over California at DCA adds the scent of pine, the ocean and oranges (same ride in Florida is Soaring Over America? PS–it’s all CA in the films ;)

    posted by shirleyfeeney on 3-23-2010 at 8:01 pm

  16. I don’t know if this “counts”,but the D-Box thing was used at Kings Dominion back in 1990 and it became Paramount’s and Days of Thunder was being released that summer. They had just opened the DoT ride,and it was a full on theater experience with the seats vibrating and moving.

    posted by lisaj6112 on 3-23-2010 at 9:04 pm

  17. I saw “Midway” in Sensaround. Like the article said, Sensaround = really, really loud. Didn’t help that the movie was dull.

    posted by Christopher on 3-23-2010 at 9:15 pm

  18. I still have a Smell Card from Polyester. Poo is still not scratched off.

    posted by KrisS on 3-23-2010 at 9:30 pm

  19. I remember one of the Rugrats movies had odor cards. The little number popped up on the screen and you sniffed the corresponding circle.Regardless of the number, my brothers just sniffed the one that smelled like feet.

    posted by Scotti on 3-23-2010 at 10:11 pm

  20. I was coming to mention the Days of Thunder Experience…it was suggested that it was “lifelike” – and perhaps it was – if “lifelike” was herky-jerky and uncomfortable

    posted by David on 3-23-2010 at 10:21 pm

  21. I also experienced the race car chairs at the Days of Thunder filmsperience at Great America amusement park. It was so much more entertaining watching everyone else in the theater jerking around in unison, nobody really paid attention to the film. Plus it was Gay Day, so they played a bunch of Village People songs while we thrashed around in our seats.

    posted by Antinous on 3-23-2010 at 10:33 pm

  22. I love Clue…it was fantastic, still is fantastic. Never got to see it in the theaters, but it still makes me laugh never the less. I like that it has different endings….”Mrs. Peacock was a man!?”

    posted by Tiffany on 3-23-2010 at 11:36 pm

  23. I saw “Gone With the Wind” in Sensurround. “Earthquake” was playing in the next theatre in the multiplex and every so often I would feel this rumbling that was very unpleasant.

    When we performed the play “Wait Until Dark” we had to have people covering the exit signs for the “dark” scene. That was the only way the fire marshal would let us do it.

    posted by jim on 3-24-2010 at 12:20 am

  24. I loved the Tingler, you have to accept that its cheesy, but it’s wonderful. I think the tingling chairs would have just made it even better.
    Interesting bit of trivia, the movie was also the first to show an LSD trip on screen.

    posted by Jill H on 3-24-2010 at 12:23 am

  25. The sad truth about Clue’s box office release is that the advertised multiple-endings trick actually deterred people from seeing it at all, as they felt they weren’t guaranteed a “true” ending. In short, it backfired, and the film bombed. Of course, it has a cult following now, only after the VHS (and now, DVD) release. That said, Clue is one of my personal all time faves.

    posted by Luke on 3-24-2010 at 2:04 am

  26. I saw Earthquake in Sensaround. It was loud, like the article said. It wasn’t anything like a real quake. Just a loud low frequency rumble.

    posted by RossS on 3-24-2010 at 2:21 am

  27. At the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, IL, there is a particularly awesome film chronicling Lincoln’s life. There were points where cannons would go off and vibrate the chairs and fog would eclipse the side screens. Of course, the fatal shot is loud, but no vibration. It was so cool, you really felt like you were in the story. Go see it if you’re near Springfield.

    posted by Kieran on 3-24-2010 at 2:39 am

  28. I’m surprised you didn’t mention Mr. Payback. It was the definition of a gimmick. The audience was given computers and were given the option of voting on what the characters would do. Highest vote wins.

    Apparently, the movie was only 30 minutes long, so they played it multiple times to let the audience see the alternate setups.

    It only played in like 8 theaters, but I remember Dateline doing a huge story on it.

    posted by Kevin on 3-24-2010 at 4:13 am

  29. Yeah, I saw Polyester at the Aladdin Theater in Portland Oregon. Even if you saw a nasty “image” on screen, and didn’t WANT to “scratch”, all around you treated you to “sniff”.
    Is it true Circuses pipe in perfume as a pleasant olfactory hook?

    posted by TigerKat on 3-24-2010 at 8:43 am

  30. When I bought the John Waters DVD boxset there was a reproduction Smell-O-Rama card in the Polyester case. I’ve never used it though, I don’t want to waste it.

    posted by Heather on 3-24-2010 at 8:52 am

  31. I was in a test-audience for the Blair Witch Project several weeks before it came out. We were told that what we were going to see was actual footage from a documentary. While we were waiting to see it there was a museum quality exhibit in the lobby that had pictures of the house where the footage was supposedly found and bios of the people, etc.

    For the actual screening, the lights were turned completely out (including the floor emergency lights that lead you out of the theater) so that when the screen went black (like it did all the time in that movie) you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. In addition to the constant screams, I heard several people crying softly at certain points in the film.

    posted by Kevin on 3-24-2010 at 9:46 am

  32. ReCaptcha was Double-Teaming Screens. Too perfect not to post.

    posted by CPete on 3-24-2010 at 9:55 am

  33. I saw “Clue” in the theater when it was released – the various endings were coded red, blue, and green. I don’t remember if the color codes corresponded to which character did the murder – I didn’t clue in on the color scheme at the time (Pun intended). Does anyone else recall?

    posted by Karl on 3-24-2010 at 10:06 am

  34. Love Clue!

    HATE Odorama! I have experienced this multiple times in the Disney theme parks. It makes me sick to my stomach. I think because I know it is artifical.

    posted by Katie Rose on 3-24-2010 at 10:36 am

  35. I saw Earthquake in Sensurround. It was actually quite intense. Early in the movie there are tremors with very faint sounds from the low frequency speakers that lulled you into thinking, “This is Sensurround? No big deal!” After awhile the big quake hits with no warning. Your muscles tense from the loud low frequency sound vibrating through your body. My date actually left a bruise just above my knee where she grabbed my leg and held on tight throughout the quake. (Never knew she had such a grip before that!) It was definitely one movie experience I never forgot and I really enjoyed it.

    I heard that some theaters hung cloth sacks from the ceiling filled with flour or talc. When the Sensurround when off the vibrations would cause the flour or talc to lightly come down as a dust giving the sense that the roof was about the collapse.

    posted by Steve S on 3-24-2010 at 11:09 am

  36. I was able to catch a double feature of Battlestar Galactica and Rollercoaster in SenSurround in the ’70s; Rollercoaster was great!

    posted by Sorcerer Mickey on 3-24-2010 at 11:54 am

  37. At Dollywood, Heartsong:The Movie is a “multi-sensory film experience, [in which] Dolly Parton takes you on a breathtaking journey through the Great Smoky Mountains as she shares her story about a place very near and dear to her heart.” (copied from the DW website) I don’t remember all the “multi-sensory” experiences, but one of them involves getting very damp in a rain shower.

    posted by Bookworm on 3-24-2010 at 12:33 pm

  38. i actually saw “earthquake” when it was released in 1974 and experienced “sensurround” but as i recall it didn’t really do that much. or maybe that’s because i was a skeptical teenager at the time.

    posted by Nathan on 3-24-2010 at 12:55 pm

  39. 1959′s “Horrors of the Black Museum” (starring Michael Gough, who later was Batman’s butler in the 80′s) was promoted with “Hypno-Vista”. Turned out to be a little “Hypnotism 101″ course before the film, where a real hypnotist tries to hypnotize the audience to feel the horror of the film.

    Thank you for mentioning so many of Castle’s delightful films! He was the master of the gimmick!

    posted by Dinosaur on 3-24-2010 at 1:46 pm

  40. At the “Honey, I Shrunk The Audience!” attraction in Disneyland, there’s a scene where mice escape and it’s supposed to look like they run into the audience. What you feel suddenly are quick, intermittent, bursts of air blow across your ankles. It scared the crap out of me! The next time I went, (I needed to kill some time) I lifted my feet at that part but didn’t bother reminding my mom about it. LOL!

    recaptcha: thumping many (what are the odds?)

    posted by Elise Rivera on 3-24-2010 at 3:19 pm

  41. I’ve seen quite a few movies in D-Box and its a fun little gimmick. Final Destination 3 was alright, but yes, a few theaters (Ultrastar) still use this trick effectively. Can’t wait until they re-release something like The Color Purple… IN D-BOX

    posted by CinemaPaul on 3-24-2010 at 10:50 pm

  42. I remember when they made the theater smell like vomit when Linda vomited in “The Exorcist”? It was gross.

    posted by CaliforniaCbee on 3-25-2010 at 9:48 pm

  43. What about the old fashioned lo-tech experiences? You know, right at the scary part some jerk behind you kicks your seat.

    posted by Elizabeth on 3-26-2010 at 10:42 am

  44. Great List! I heard something about a movie in Germany called “The Last Call” by 13th Street,or something like that, that has the audience out their cell phone numbers into a “bank” of numbers to be randomly selected and the person gets a call during the movie from the protagonist and they get to decide what will happen to them. Pretty fucking awesome. I wish that was in America…

    posted by Chocoholic on 3-26-2010 at 1:53 pm

  45. Excalibur hotel in Las Vegas has a 4D ride. Spongebob has a pickle smell and it snows during Polar Express. The ride doesn’t have the annoying stick in your back.

    posted by Blattman on 3-28-2010 at 1:07 am

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