Movie Theater Will Be Hypnotizing Viewers to Relive Films for the First Time

While outlandish popcorn buckets are all the rage, a Dutch movie theater chain has a new idea for getting movie goers into seats. The theater is offering to hypnotize film fans so they can experience their favorite film for the first time again.

Netherlands-based Pathé cinemas signed up 30 participants for its Pathé REWIND experiment, which will take place on November 9th at a theater in The Hague. With REWIND, those 30 people will be exposed to the powers of hypnotherapist Victor Kraemer before watching films like The Matrix, Se7en, La La Land or Interstellar. The idea is that the hypnosis will wipe fans memory of the films, and they’ll be gripped to their seats like it was their initial viewing experience while reliving plot twists like the nature of reality in The Matrix or what’s in the box in Se7en. 

That’s the idea, at least. However, Pathé is making no promises, positing the REWIND experience as an experiment in which the results are yet to be known. Kraemer is touted as a 30-year veteran of hypnotherapy in a press release from the theater.

“Who wouldn’t want to see their favorite film again for the very first time?” Imke van Schaaijk, a Pathé spokesperson, said in the press release. “We know that this wish is shared by many film lovers.”

With hypnosis having a reputation for being either helpful therapy or total snake oil, this might very well be an actual red pill or blue pill situation.

Anyone looking for the thrill of a movie twist could also just go see a new film.