The Hidden Effects Of The Movies

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

'A quiet evening at the beach, the soft lapping of water on the shore, an ominous, Pavlovian tinkle of a bell on a buoy, two repetitious tuba notes signalling ill portent, the dark presence of something stirring in the water, just below the surface, it wants to eat you, NOW!' (From my critique of Jaws.)

In March 1895, the French Lumiere brothers revealed their motion picture invention to the public with a short film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. 'On December 28, the entrepreneurial siblings showed a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time.' (This Day In History). From that point on the world would never be the same.

One of the first films the two brothers screened was of a train arriving at a station. The reaction of the audience when they saw a very realistic train burst out of the screen, heading straight towards them, was dramatic, to say the least. People jumped out of their cinema seats and ran out of the cinema, screaming in panic. With this one showing of a motion picture, this powerful new medium had clearly demonstrated its ability to affect a viewing public. Ever since this event, film producers and creators have sought new ways to provoke a reaction among the audience.

In a previous article, I discussed how Hollywood alumni such as Stephen Spielberg used what is called the Pavlovian Principle to provoke fear. Here, I am going to talk a little about the subject of subliminal manipulation.

Once again I am obliged to mention the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. The Master's most commercially successful film is Psycho. It is a story about how a disturbed motel owner murders a female guest in the shower. The shower scene is an iconic piece of cinematic history.

Hitchcock was something of a pioneer of subliminal effects. By way of example, take a look at the two following screenshots of Norman Bates (Antony Perkins) as he is arrested and taken to prison.

Looking at the second shot, we can clearly see how a death mask has been overlayed, to make Bates look even more sinister. It is important to note that in actuality, the audience never consciously sees that mask. However, it does register at a subconscious level and has the effect of making the viewer feel very afraid. To add to the effect, it has been asserted that the words blood, knife, and murder were also used subliminally in Psycho, to heighten the feeling of fear in the audience.

Another movie that was accused of extensively using subliminal manipulation was The Exorcist. 'Some viewers suffered adverse physical reactions to viewing the film, fainting or vomiting...' Recalling that very first audience reaction to a train arriving at a station in the Lumiere Brothers' seminal film of everyday French life, many members of the Exorcist audiences actually ran out of the cinema into the street. In fact, audience reactions at Exorcist screenings were so strong that some cinemas had a small fleet of ambulances waiting outside the cinema!

This does bring the use of subliminal manipulation in film into question. Of some degree of concern is the way in which a film can subliminally provoke an adverse reaction that results in any sort of harm being done to members of the public.

Obviously, a panic-driven crowd rushing for the exit doors could result in people being trampled upon and sustaining a variety of physical injuries. Another concern is the potential for film scenes to be so visually disturbing that they create psychological trauma. From a more sinister perspective, it would be quite possible to provoke members of the audience to commit serious crimes, such as physical assault, and even murder.

On a somewhat less seriously offensive level, the audience could easily be manipulated to buy something as harmless as an ice cream. A film runs at 24 frames per second. It would be quite easy to make a cut and insert one or more frames showing the message 'Buy an ice cream now.' For some, or all, of the above concerns, subliminal manipulation in film is illegal in certain countries.

To be on the safe side, the next time you go to the cinema, take a sick bag, just in case.