UNITED STATES—There is nothing that annoys me more than anything than when people talk during a movie. I don’t know if it’s the movie buff in me or the fact that people don’t get immersed into the actual movie. This is probably why I will always be an advocate to watch movies in an actual theater than at home. When you are at home you can never get close to the atmosphere of an actual movie theater, no matter how you attempt to tell yourself that you are.
Why is that? Well for starters, you’re more inclined to fall asleep at home watching a movie if you’re tired than if you’re at an actual movie theater, where money came out of your pocket. Well, let me think about that because I have fallen asleep briefly on 3-4 occasions while at the movie theater. That was mainly the result of the movie (s) being so boring that even my brain that never seems to sleep wanted to go to sleep.
Back to my point, I was at home this weekend attempting to watch a movie since my schedule has been so chaotic I have not watched an actual movie in a very long time, particularly “A Quiet Place II.” The first movie was a treat, because you were so scared to make a single noise while watching thinking the creatures would be alerted by your sound. I was watching the movie with family and all I heard were people talking left and right. I’m screaming in my head, please “shut-up already.”
It is so hard to watch and focus on a movie, when everyone is talking. You cannot get immersed in the movie because you keep hearing people talking and that talking causes major distractions to say the least America. This went on for about a good 30 minutes, before the actual silence is golden rule came into play. However, that means 30 minutes of the movie that are crucial to setting the stage for the narrative. I think when you are watching a movie at home you are prone to always have people talking or interrupting the movie because distractions are likely unless you’re watching the movie alone.
There is always that person who is a chatter bot. What is a chatter bot? One who asks EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE QUESTION AS THE MOVIE UNFOLDS? Who is that? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? Where are they going? Why are they doing that? Etc. Those are the absolute worst because it is like you should just fast-forward the movie to the end because you will NOT be able to watch and enjoy at all. Now, I will admit there are certain movies that see less silence than others, musicals, drama and comedies.
With comedies you might laugh, but musicals and dramas your focus is on the movie. However, horror or thrillers tend to be the worst when it comes to talkers. Rather at home (it’s bad), at the theater it can be worse. You have people shouting at the big screen and that’s fun and all at times, but when someone is over the top with it, that constant interruption impacts the perception and how you interpret the movie.
When you are watching a movie there is a reason they have the rule silence is golden because it prevents interruptions from your focus on the movie. The more you are interrupted the more you lose focus on the movie. This is why cellphones are bad at home or at the theater because people are always checking them. If you’re going or planning to watch a movie, turn off the phone, put it on silent, make sure that pesky light is not flashing because that annoys my soul in a dark theater people.
Be aware of the people in the room and do your best to not have side conversations, make noise and just take out the power of the actual impact of watching a movie where your sole intention is focused on the movie itself. Perhaps we need to go back to the old days of cinema back in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and even the early 80s where the notion of going to the movies was America’s favorite pastime and it was an experience, where being quiet at the movie was a norm you didn’t have to keep reminding people to “shhhh!”
