Movie Theater Will Hypnotize Audiences Into Forgetting Movies So They Can Experience Them for the First Time Again

Imagine getting to watch your favorite movie again with absolutely no memory of what happens. Every surprise, every twist, and every jaw-dropping moment would hit you just like it did the first time. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, one movie theater chain wants to make that happen by hypnotizing its audience.

Dutch cinema chain Pathé is taking moviegoing to a strange new level with an experiment called Pathé REWIND, which aims to use hypnosis to temporarily erase viewers' memories of a movie before they watch it again.

Movie theaters have been trying all kinds of things to get audiences off their couches and back into theaters. We've seen moving seats and environmental effects with 4DX, panoramic screens with ScreenX, and Disney's new Infinity Vision premium format. But messing with people's memories? That's a whole different kind of movie experience.

On November 9th, Pathé will bring 30 participants to its Buitenhof theater in The Hague, Netherlands, to see whether hypnosis can make a familiar movie feel completely new.

The experiment allows participants to choose between four films: The Matrix, Se7en, La La Land, and Interstellar. The group will ultimately watch one movie based on their preferences.

Before the screening, all 30 volunteers will undergo individual online hypnosis sessions with Victor Kraemer, a hypnotherapist with more than 30 years of experience. They'll then receive another hypnosis session immediately before watching the selected film together.

The goal is to temporarily suppress their memories of the movie so they can rediscover its story, characters, and biggest surprises without knowing what's coming.

I get the appeal. Who wouldn't love to experience M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense without knowing the ending? Or watch David Fincher's Se7en and experience that horrifying finale for the first time again? Experiencing the action sequences inThe Matrix for like it was the first time would also be pretty incredible.

Of course, there's one fairly important question here. Can hypnosis actually make someone forget an entire movie?

Hypnosis does have legitimate medical applications, including helping patients manage pain, anxiety, and certain behavioral conditions. However, temporarily wiping out someone's memory of a specific movie is something very different.

The Mayo Clinic also notes that hypnosis can occasionally cause unwanted effects, including anxiety, emotional distress, and sleep disturbances. Those reactions are considered uncommon, but they're still worth considering when you're experimenting with people's memories purely for entertainment.

Back in 1959, horror filmmaker William Castle installed vibrating devices beneath theater seats for The Tingler. There was also Smell-O-Vision, which attempted to bring the scents of a movie directly into the auditorium.

More recently, Lionsgate promoted the Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk with a screening at Los Angeles' Culver Theater where audiences had to walk on treadmills throughout the entire film. Anyone who dropped below three miles per hour was kicked out.

Those gimmicks are strange enough, but at least audiences knew what was happening to them. Hypnosis introduces a whole new set of questions, especially when the objective is to interfere with someone's memories.

How long would the effects last? Would the participants remember the film once the hypnosis wore off? What happens if someone reacts badly to the experience? There's also no guarantee that hypnosis can accomplish what Pathé is attempting.

Pathé REWIND is completely free for the 30 selected participants, although applications closed on October 29th. The theater hasn't revealed which of the four movies will be screened or whether the hypnosis experiment will actually work.

We'll see how it all plays out after November 9th. Personally, I love the idea of experiencing a great movie for the first time again, but I'm not convinced I want somebody poking around in my memories to make it happen.

Still, if this actually works, imagine being able to revisit The Matrix, Star Wars, or even The Lord of the Rings with no idea what you're about to experience! There are so many movies I’d love to experience for the first time again!

Would you let a movie theater hypnotize you to forget one of your favorite films, just so you could watch it again for the first time?