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The fainting
Penny Lane Is Dead is an Australian horror film set in 1986, and it is very gory, with makeup effects that are excellent from start to finish. The fainting was picked up by horror outlets like Dread Central, and the story has since turned up in articles at least three times.
What caused it
Nobody can know whether the viewer fainted because of a medical issue or because of the gore. The faint did come after a particularly gnarly sequence, so the gore is possible. A problem that was already there is just as possible, and so is something as ordinary as low blood sugar.
Gerald's Game
What turns a viewer's stomach can't be predicted. During Gerald's Game on Netflix in 2017, one viewer at home got so lightheaded at the hand degloving scene that they paused the film, convinced they were about to faint. A movie theater would have made that a much more public moment.
Why can gore make people faint?
Seeing blood or injury can set off a vasovagal response, in which the nervous system suddenly slows the heart and widens the blood vessels. Blood pressure drops, less blood reaches the brain, and consciousness lapses for a moment. Psychology research on blood-injury fear describes an unusual pattern: heart rate and blood pressure first rise, then fall sharply. The same reflex is behind fainting at the sight of needles.
How did Fantasia become a genre film hub?
The Fantasia International Film Festival began in Montreal in 1996. Its early programs leaned heavily on Hong Kong and other Asian genre cinema. Over the years it widened to horror, science fiction, and fantasy from around the world, and it became a launch point for films far from Quebec, including Australian ones. It has been held in Montreal since it began.
Why is degloving such a hard scene to watch?
Degloving is an injury in which skin tears away from the tissue underneath, much as a glove slides off a hand. Gerald's Game, released on Netflix in 2017, was directed by Mike Flanagan and adapted from a Stephen King novel. The story's heroine is handcuffed to a bed frame, and freeing her hand costs her the skin on it. King published the novel in 1992.
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