The Top-10 Best Movie Theater Gimmicks
Throw a rock, and you’ll hit a film showing some blockbuster action flick or CGI-animated kids’ movie in 3-D. Indeed, 3-D films are so common these days that many audiences are beginning to tire of them; during more than one preview, I’ve heard audiences audibly groan when a preview promises a 3-D presentation. We’ve become savvy to the cheap gimmickry of it, and have finally realized that we don’t necessarily need a cheap gimmick like 3-D to keep up coming back to theaters. What we need is better movies.
But this current “Avatar”-inspired wave of the third dimension is hardly the first time Hollywood has rallied behind a theaters-only gimmick to get people away from their home entertainment. There was a time when people would watch the relatively new television technology in deference to feature films, and studios would pack theaters with 3-D films, behaving as if it was the Next Big Thing in entertainment, in order to get people out of the house. Something similar, of course, has been happening with internet use, and Hollywood, being as creative as they usually are (that is to say, not at all) is now dusting off 3-D.
As a gimmick, 3-D is first rate. As a serious and important step forward in The Way We Watch Movies, not so much. What will bring us to a film is a well-made entertainment, good stories, interesting characters, and clever writing (the success of turdburgers like “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” notwithstanding). The spectacle is all well and good, but at the end of the day it’s just that: spectacle for the sake of it.
But then, there’s something to be said for a good piece of earnest hucksterism. As William Castle taught us, a film, no matter how good or bad, can be a success if you market it cleverly, and add some sort of “hook” to your marketing campaign. When he made a film called “Macabre” in 1958, he offered (illegitimate) $1000 life insurance policies for anyone who could make it through such a terrifying film. I’ve seen “Macabre,” and, frankly, it wouldn’t scare too many people. But Castle made us believe it would, and that is American film display at its finest.
So in the spirit of all the recent 3-D films we’ve been seeing, and in the spirit of the late, great William Castle, here is a list of ten of the greatest film gimmicks to have been tried in Hollywood.
10) Odorama
from “Polyester” (1981)
John Waters, once called by William Burroughs “The Pope of Trash,” was a huge admirer of William Castle and his all-American film gimmicks, but had not had the chance to really incorporate any of his own gimmicks into his films by 1981; Waters’ films were usually gimmicky because of their chocking content alone. But with his Sirkian melodrama “Polyester,” starring zaftig transvestite Divine and one-time teen heartthrob Tab Hunter, Waters was given a chance to shine, and Odorama was released on an unwitting public.
Even though the film was over-the-top soap opera of an unhappy housewife and her terrible family (and not a horror or sci-fi flick, that so often get the gimmicks), we could still smell along, thanks to a special card handed out at the film’s outset. Periodically throughout the film, numbers would appear on the screen, and you would be entreated to scratch and sniff the corresponding number on your card. As audiences probably knew Waters’ shenanigans going in, they were likely looking forward to something kind of putrid.
According to Waters, the original Odorama cards still have a strong smell to this day (he has to keep his own out in the garage). If you want to experience this at home, you can; special small versions of the cards have been included in new DVD copies of the film.
9) Shock Sections
from “I Saw What You Did” (1965)
Libby and Kitt (Andi Garrett and Sarah Kane) are a pair of average teenage girls, stuck on an average babysitting gig, playing average phone pranks on average unsuspecting victims. One of their victims is not so average. When they call up the bestial Steve (John Ireland), and whisper playfully “I saw what you did!” they unwittingly roused the ire of an actual murderer. Joan Crawford shows up, just to add a little class and a little crazy to the proceedings.
The 1965 William Castle film is playful and fun, despite it horror and promises of frights, and is worth a look. Castle’s gimmick for the film, however, was another one of those ideas that made the film seem scarier than it was: he added what he called “Shock Sections” to the movie theaters where it played. The popular seats in the center of the theater were equipped with seat belts. Y’know, so you could buckle up and enjoy the ride. So you could stay in your seat for the scary bits. Only the truly brave got to sit in the Shock Section.
Simple, yes, but I just know that I would try to get there early so I could race to the center seats and strap myself in. It was a gimmick that gave kids bragging rights.
8) Duo-Vision
from “Wicked, Wicked” (1973)
Not so much a gimmick as a filmmaking device, “Wicked, Wicked,” a 1973 horror cheapie about B-movie luminary Tiffany Bolling being stalked by a man in a monster mask, featured two movies that ran side-by-side. One gave the perspective of the victim, the other gave the perspective of the killer. During the kill scenes, we would see the face of the bad guy on the left side of the screen, and the suffering face of the victim on the right. This is fine as a filmmaking device, but some marketing genius decided to give the device a name, and, for one film and one film only, Duo-Vision was born.
Also in 1973, Brian DePalma was to make his classic “Sisters,” which employed a similar device, this time unnamed, and Duo-vision’s life ended as soon as it started. DePalma would go on to use the device in several of his films, all the way up to “Femme Fatale” in 2002. While it may not be named anymore, I still think that this counts as a gimmick, albeit one co-opted mostly by one filmmaker.
British filmmaker Mike Figgis, however, did, in 2000, try to revive the gimmick legitimately with his experimental digital film “Time Code,” which featured not two, but four separate movies playing simultaneously, each following a different character, and each without edits. Figgis would appear in theaters, and he would mix the films’ sound himself. This is something to brag about having seen.
7) Hypnovista
from “Horrors of the Black Museum” (1959)
The story for “Horrors of the Black Museum,” unseen by most people including myself, sounds delightfully lurid. Evidently a true crime novelist (the wonderful Michael Gough), frustrated by his lack of success, decides to hypnotize a young woman into committing crimes merely so he can write about them. This sounds like one of those old b-movie plots that can be (and probably has been) used several times over the years. According to some of the reviews I’ve read online, this film traumatized many a youngster back in ’59.
The film’s director, Arthur Crabtree, however, wanted to get more than a B cheapie out of “Horrors,” and added a gimmick that made watching the film akin to attending a magic show. He hired a series of actual hypnotists (or, more likely, hard-working actors to play hypnotists) to stand up in front of every show, and hypnotize the audience into feeling more afraid. I don’t know if the hypnosis would legitimately work on anyone, but for me, I’d love the lurid, spooky appeal of being mock hypnotized. I would certainly add the gimmick into my experience of watching the film. In a way, it would work on me.
Hypnosis would be used as a gimmick again in 1976 by Werner Herzog when he made his “Heart of Glass,” where he apparently hypnotized all of his actors before each take. Wow.
6) Smell-O-Vision
from “Scent of Mystery” a.k.a. “Holiday in Spain” (1960)
Famed Academy-Award-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff (“The African Queen,” “The Red Shoes,” “Conan the Destroyer”) directed a whole slew of B-movies in the 1960s, among them this unknown little piece of schlock about a traveling Brit (Denholm Elliot from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) who discovers a plot to kill an American. Peter Lorre appeared in the film as the heavy. Leo McKearn from “The Prisoner” had a small role. “Scent of Mystery” is, by all accounts, an underwhelming film, and is known only for its gimmick.
Its gimmick, you see, was “Smell-O-Vision,” which was a massively technical system that outfitted theaters with enormous tubes and fans designed to blast scented air out into the audience at key moments. How cool would it be to see a picture of a Spanish beach, and you get to sit in a theater smelling the sea air, the suntan oil, the cigarettes? In theory, Smell-O-Vision is a neat idea.
It’s a pity, then, that it didn’t work. The tube-based system for delivering smells was frightfully ill-designed, and the scents would be unsmellable to people sitting in certain areas of the theater. Some would nearly pass out due to their close proximity to the smell blasters. The smells would be horrifying, and misplaced, and the theater would end up smelling like a weird mixture of all the planned smells. Too bad. It’s a neat idea. Maybe its time is still coming.
5) Emergo
from “The House on Haunted Hill” (1959)
Another Willaim Castle film (and we’ll see at least one more on this list), “The House on Haunted Hill” featured Vincent Price as a wicked widower who invited a group of friends to stay the night in a haunted house. Anyone who lasted until dawn would win $10,000. Where are the eccentric millionaires like that today? I would love to take part in such a challenge.
William Castle had the idea, though, to outdo 3-D with this one, and set up special rigs in the theater to present what he called “Emergo.” I’m still not sure of that word is pronounced with a hard or a soft “g.” Emergo was essentially a skeleton attached to said rig, that would be hoisted across the theater at a key moment in the film. It would dangle precariously above the audience, and the characters on the screen would scream.
When picturing our own local multiplexes, this sounds a bit limp, but when pictures in large, single-screen theaters as it did, Emergo takes on a spooky character all its own. The skeleton would have to travel an awfully long way, making sure its trip lasted a good long time, and gave the audience ample time to be scared/amused/cynical about the experiences. Some local L.A. theaters have been recreating this gimmick around Halloween time. I’d seek them out.
4) D-Box
from “Fast & Furious” (2009)
While it’s a pity that Hollywood currently feels the need to retrofit just about any film they can with 3-D and other gimmick technologies (they’re not designing films to carry the gimmicks like they used to), there are certain big-budget exploitation and genre films that can be cannily retrofitted with certain gimmick technologies. The prime example of this is a new gimmick technology that’s not in widespread use yet, but is the perfect thing to watch a middling car chase film like “Fast & Furious” with. I refer to the notorious D-Box technology.
The D-Box is a moving, vibrating, dipping swerving theater seat with hydraulic lifts, designed to toss the viewer about in their seat over the course of a film’s action scenes. It’s the same technology used on “Star Tours” at Disneyland. This can, I admit, cause nothing but headaches when you’re trying to concentrate on the screen, but it does have the spirit of a good old fashioned carnival ride, which is in keeping with the spirit of the film gimmick. Film sucks? Worry not. You can sit in the moving seat and get an amusement park ride instead.
If you have the opportunity to see a film in a D-Box seat, I would ordinarily encourage you to pass it up entirely. But D-Box gets a spot high on this list for its pure gimmickry, and for its potential. If an ambitious B filmmaker decided to make a goofy genre film with the D-Box in mind, they might have a chance at recapturing the soul of William Castle for a modern age.
I don’t know why it’s called “D-Box.”
3) 3-D
from “Man in the Dark” (1953)
So few people have seen “Man in the Dark.” It’s a stupid crime flick involving brain surgery and rehabilitation. It is, however, notable as the first major feature film to be released in 3-D. At the time, the technology was criticized for being unclear and unimpressive. That same year, however, would see the release of 3-D first big hit “It Came from Outer Space,” which I have seen in a theater, and was impressed by. 1954 would see Universal’s classic monster flick “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” which, some have said, kicked off the decade-long first wave of 3-D feature films. For years, all good moviegoing kids would have a special pair of red-and-blue 3-D glasses in their homes.
I don’t need to describe the way Hollywood has been leg-humping 3-D into the ground these days. Indeed, the technology has become to sophisticated that theaters have felt the need (or the greed) to charge extra for the 3-D glasses (which you can keep if you’re feeling larcenous). And while most films are better without 3-D (as they have been retrofitted after the fact), there are a few recent 3-D film that use the technology to their advantage. “Step Up 3D” did it well. “Drive Angry” did it well. Any film that has no illusions about how gimmicky and exploitative it is will use a gimmick well.
If you have a choice on the latest kids film or action blockbuster, go for the 2-D. “Transformers” doesn’t need to have sticky-outy scenes. If you’re seeing something fun, go ahead and pay the extra. To mention him again, Werner Herzog made a documentary film in 3-D. I think that one might be worth the glasses rental.
2) Psychorama
“Terror in the Haunted House,” a.k.a. “My World Dies Screaming” (1958)
This is a gimmick so insidious, it was actually banned by the government. “Terror in the Haunted House” is a gentle, cheap, and kind of forgettable film about a woman (Kathy O’Donnell), forced to live in a spooky house she’s had nightmares about, being terrorized by ghosts, or who might be going mad, or who might just be trapped in a dumbed-down ripoff of “Gaslight.” It’s the kind of film that not good enough to be remembered with any clarity, but not back enough to be fodder for “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”
But what it did have was “Pyschorama.” Psychorama was the film technique of cutting in single frames of “subliminal horror” during the fright scenes, ensuring that the audience would be terrified, even if they missed the image. We all saw Tyler Durden do it in “Fight Club,” but there was at time when a minor studio release tried it legitimately.
I couldn’t find any word as to the actual effect Psychorama had on audiences at the time, but I do know that the use of subliminal images were considered too manipulative by the Fed, and were banned from movies and TV altogether. To this day, the use of such tricks is not allowed, although a savvy viewer can spot other subliminal tricks used all the time.
Thanks to Rhino Home Video, “Terror in the Haunted House” can be enjoyed in the comfort of your home, and, thanks to the almighty pause button, you can catch the single-frame images and make them liminal. The images are actually a lot goofier than you’d think. There are silly painted monster faces and demon heads that look like they were copied from a 7th grader’s sketchbook. They have captions like “Scream now!” and “Die! Die! Die!” The good folks at Rhino also clearly have a sense of humor, as one of the home video frames says “Buy Rhino videos every day!” Those cut-ups.
1) Percepto
from “The Tingler” (1959)
I adore “The Tingler,” and recently made a claim that it can be considered one of the Great American Movies. I stand by that claim. Of the gimmick films, “The Tingler” is the granddaddy of them all, and was also made by William Castle, perhaps the greatest showman in Hollywood’s history. If you’re at all interested in horror movies, and you haven’t seen “The Tingler,” your education is officially incomplete. The story is simple. A pathologist (Vincent Price) is using LSD as a control substance in his fear experiments. He finds that when someone is afraid, a centipede-like creature bodily grows on their spine. When you scream, the creature is killed. He wishes to capture said creature and store it in a cage. The film’s tone falls somewhere between a low-rent Hitchcock thriller and an episode of the old “Batman” TV series. Scary,,fun, campy, and sometimes legitimately disturbing, “The Tingler” is an undisputed classic.
But Castle added to “The Tingler” with a series of two gimmicks. For one, he had covered cages placed in theater lobbies. The cages had tape recorders inside, so you could hear the eerie clicking and buzzing of The Tingler emerging from within. Only the brave dare peek under. Once you sat in the theater, you’d get the ride of your life, as certain select seats were equipped with vibrating buzzers, effectively giving certain viewers a little goose during the film.
Yup, Castle officially buzzed the asses of a generation of teenagers. During the film’s ifamous finale, Vincent Price would declare that “The Tingler is loose in the theater! … Scream! Scream for your lives!” The lights would go out, the seats would buzz, and the entire theater would shriek in camp ecstasy.
If I had a time machine, one of the first places I would visit would be the premiere of “The Tingler.” What a beautiful experience it must have been.
Witney Seibold is a writer living in Los Angeles. He watches old movies, reads old books, and is, himself, getting old. When he’s not writing nostalgic articles, he is adding film reviews to his ‘blog Three Cheers for Darkened Years! He is also one half of The B-Movies Podcast on Crave Online, an honor he shares with one William Bibbiani. He was also recently tapped to write a series of articles for the same website called Free Film School.
