Audiences faint at cinemas

Today cinemas in the region revealed they are having to dish out water to queasy audiences. Staff also are regularly experiencing people fainting and in one case even had to call an ambulance. The cause of the mass hysteria is Saw III.

Above: even the movie poster is disturbing to see

The 18 certificate horror flick is based on the theme of torture, in which a twisted man "teaches" criminals and everyday people the value of life by putting them through terrifying physical pain.

There is plenty of gore, but also psychological twists that have had audiences recoiling.

Paramedics were this week called to the Showcase Cinema in Walsall when a youth passed out.

Audience members also rushed to the aid of one man who fainted during a showing at the Odeon at Merry Hill.

Sarah Sharpe, spokeswoman for Cineworld in Wednesfield, said: "We've had a couple of people who came out from the film feeling squeamish. They had a glass of water and went back in."

In Stafford, two or three people walked out of showings at the Apollo because they could not stomach the violence.

Audiences across the country are also finding the film hard to stomach.

Five cinema-goers needed ambulances and one was taken to hospital afterscreenings in Stevenage, Peterborough and Cambridge on Friday.

East Anglian Ambulance Trust spokesman Matthew Ware said: "As well as collapses, we have had reports of people running screaming from the cinemas. It appears to have sent film-goers over the edge."

But the phenomenon of physical reactions to screen gore is not new.

On its release in 1973, The Exorcist caused mass hysteria, with people screaming, fainting and ambulance crews called to screenings.

By Mike Woods

Read our reviewer's verdict of the latest horror film to hit the big screen