Full Immersion

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Full Immersion

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By Ben Elliott

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When studios get spooked by emerging technologies — like when television exploded in popularity in the 1950s — they respond with spectacle. To get people out of their living rooms and back into theaters, they’ve historically leaned into immersive innovations to make the movies feel like “more.” While widescreen formats like Cinemascope and vibrant Technicolor changed cinema forever, others gimmicks, like red-and-blue 3D glasses or William Castle’s vibrating “Percepto!” seats, were more novelty than game-changer.

60 years later, when HD TVs and streaming services started keeping audiences at home, studios dusted off the same playbook. In 2009, Digital 3D made a huge comeback starting with Avatar, while 4DX screenings — with moving seats and water sprays — continue Castle’s legacy of sensory overload. And premium large formats like IMAX have become so central to a major movie's success that studios will adjust release dates just to claim those screens.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975

But while Hollywood’s immersive experiences are engineered from the top down, art houses and independent screens take a more grassroots approach: audience immersion fueled by passion and participation. Just look at The Rocky Horror Picture Show, still going strong after nearly 50 years thanks to its ever-evolving “shadow cast” screenings, where audiences perform, sing, and shout along.

Mamma Mia!, 2008

This Saturday, This Triplex is throwing our own interactive bash with our Mamma Mia! Celebration, a full-throttle embrace of ABBA, sequins, and summer love. It’s a chance to sing, dance, shout, and bask in the joyful absurdity of it all — not just as a viewer, but as a part of the show.

Immersive screenings like this not only offer us a chance to engage with our favorite movies in new ways, it allows us to become creators. We make something new when we shout at the screen next to a hundred other fans and throw confetti in the air: a powerful movie moment that exists beyond the confines of the silver screen.

Showtimes

Showtimes Freakier Friday | 1:00PM, 3:30PM, 6:00PM, 8:30PM The Life of Chuck | 1:15PM, 4:15PM Highest 2 Lowest | 1:45PM, 4:45PM, 8:00PM The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg | 7:00PM

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