1. The Walk (2015)
Reports of guys vomiting in the men’s room because of its dizzying depiction of wire-walker Philippe Petit’s journey between the Twin Towers in 1974. The perspective of Petit more than 1300 feet in the air trigged vertigo sufferers.
2. Van Diemen’s Land (2009)
The film’s the first killing scene has caused fainting and vomiting among its audiences. The film follows Tasmania cannibal Pearce’s 1822 escape from the penal settlement. The director, Jonathan Auf Der Heide, said he was surprised people had reacted so strongly as he tried to avoid the gore.
3. The Passion of Christ (2004)
A woman died of a heart attack while watching the emotionally-tense crucifixion scene.
4. The Lion King (1994)
Tiny Simba learns to fend for himself after his father is trampled during a stampede. The tragedy is too intense for younger viewers that they had to be temporarily relocated to the lobby until they calmed down.
5. The Exorcist (1973)
Filmgoers fled screening rooms; one fainted in the lobby. “I just found it really horrible and had to come out,” one says. “I couldn’t take it anymore.” By the time the film premiered in London, ambulances were parked outside.
6. Irreversible (2002)
Panned for its depiction of brutal assault. The director Gaspar Noé admitted to using a 27 hertz frequency of bass that can’t be picked up by the human ear during the movie’s first 30 minutes. Known as infrasound, it’s been known to induce panic and anxiety in a manner similar to vibrations created by earthquakes. Paranormal Activity (2007) used a similar technique.
7. Freaks (1932)
Its large cast of actual circus performers with a myriad of deformities was unsettling. MGM insisted on editing the film after a woman claimed she was so aggrieved during a screening that she suffered a miscarriage.
8. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
It is notable for the people it pulled from their seats. When Michael Madsen’s character began an unsolicited ear amputation of a hostage during an industry screening, the late Wes Craven (creator of The Last House on the Left and A Nightmare on Elm Street) fled the theater.
9. 127 Hours (2010)
Audiences found themselves bearing witness to James Franco wedged in a cave and amputating his own arm with a pocket knife. Many, many people fainted; some vomited; one person fainted, was hauled away in an ambulance, an returned to the theater to declare the film “excellent.”
10. Blair Witch Project (1998)
The docu format, with actors jogging or falling over with a camera in hand, prompted waves of people getting motion sickness in aisles, lobbies, and bathrooms. In Massachusetts, a theater manager made announcements before screenings to please vomit outside of the screening room.
11. V/H/S (2012)
In Sundance Film Festival, one ran out of the door, collapsed and began to suffer seizures, while his girlfriend vomiting in the lobby. They are treated by ambulance staff but didn’t go to the hospital. Manager later tweeted that the couple were ok and they “wanted to go back into the theatre”. The film follows a group of criminals who find a variety of homemade VHS tapes containing supernatural moments in a creepy old house.
12. RAW (2016)
Multiple movie goers pass out at screening of cannibal horror film. Justine (played by Garance Marillier), a young vegetarian veterinary student, gradually turns to cannibalism after undergoing a grisly hazing ritual at school.