User blog:Affectos/Theater Gimmicks

It's amazing what you'll find online when your bored.

Somehow, I came across the different gimmicks that different films have used to make the film more...interesting, and some seem ripe for artifacts

Percepto
"Percepto!" was a gimmick where Castle attached electrical "buzzers" to the underside of some seats in theaters where The Tingler was screened.[4] The buzzers were small surplus airplane wing deicing motors left from World War II. The cost of this equipment added $250,000 to the film's budget. It was predominantly used in larger theaters.

During the climax of the film, The Tingler was depicted escaping into a movie theater. On screen, the projected film appeared to break as the silhouette of the Tingler moved across the projection beam. The film went black, all lights in the auditorium (except fire exit signs) went off, and Vincent Price's voice warned the audience "Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. But scream! Scream for your lives! The Tingler is loose in this theater!"[5] This cued the theater projectionist to activate the buzzers, giving some audience members an unexpected jolt, followed by a highly visible physical reaction.

--Wikipedia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FQm30eQn7I#t=69

--Into to The Tingler

The Punishment Poll
Another of Castle's gimmicks took audience participation in film to a new level. In 1961's Mr Sardonicus - about a man whose face becomes frozen in a grotesque smile while robbing his father's grave to obtain a winning lottery ticket - audiences were given a card with a glow-in-the-dark thumb printed on it. At a pivotal part in the movie, the director himself appeared and asked viewers to vote on whether the titular character should be allowed to live or die, by holding the card up or down. Although two possible endings were made available in each screening, legend has it that no audience ever voted to spare Sardonicus, meaning the film's "happy" conclusion was never shown.

--The National

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJjK9njAwu0

--Link to the voting scene

Emergo
A skeleton attached to wire floated over the audience in the final moments of some showings of the film to parallel the action on screen when a skeleton rises from a vat of acid and pursues the villainous wife of Vincent Price's character.[6] [p. 16] Once word spread about the skeleton, kids enjoyed trying to knock it down with candy boxes, soda cups or other objects at hand.

--Wikipedia

Strange...I guess there could easily be a William Castle Artifact, I think some of these are deserving of their own. I'm smiling to myself as I remember when I was younger the 'Honey I Shrunk the Audience' ride at Disneyworld, and the puffs of air that simulated 'rats'. Strange...I could've sworn I saw them running on the ground....great now I'm looking up Disney Rides and Hidden Mickeys. I need to get back to college...