I guess today is unofficially “Spawn of William Castle” Day at UGO.
Dread Central has word that a li'l indie TV company called 13th Street has plans to release what they call “the first interactive horror movie.” According to their promotional trailer, 13th Street will release Last Call theatrically and invite audience members at every screening to put their cell phone number into a pool of numbers to be randomly called by the film’s programmers. This will put one lucky audience member in touch with the film’s protagonist, who will ask that viewer where to go, what to do, etc.
It sounds cheesy as sin but it’s a fantastic gimmick that carries on the tradition of William Castle’s fourth-wall-breaking films, like The Tingler. For The Tingler, Castle had special vibrating devices strategically planted throughout movie theaters and when the titular monster, which looks like something between a piece of tripe and a centipede, appears onscreen, some unwary audience member gets a jolt. If only more filmmakers aspired to make their viewers less passive. I’m sure that I'm not the only one excited to see the person in the audience at Last Call just start talking gibberish at the film’s protagonist, just to see what happens. Chaos reigns, as they say.
