A Dutch cinema chain is testing an event that uses hypnosis to make audiences experience familiar films again “for the first time.” Pathé plans to hold a special screening called REWIND on November 9 at its Buitenhof theater in The Hague, according to reports.
The outlets describe the same basic concept: viewers would be hypnotized before watching movies such as The Matrix, Se7en, and Interstellar, with the aim that they temporarily forget details so the films feel new during the screening. Vice and Consequence both frame the effort as an experiment rather than a standard entertainment format, but they differ slightly in emphasis—one highlights the idea of revisiting a “first-time” viewing experience, while the other stresses the hypnosis-and-forgetting premise and lists example titles.
Both accounts indicate the trial involves a limited group, with Vice mentioning 30 participants, while Consequence focuses more on the films included and the intended effect of hypnosis ahead of the show.
