A very interesting article from SLATE about the film COMPLIANCE. Aisha Harris describes events taking place in a screening for Craig Zobel's film.. According to the SLATE report, it was about a half hour in when audience members began to audibly sigh out and yell things during the film, with one person even walking out of the film..
However, the overriding question of 'how stupid can you be' is interesting. A review from the website BEST MOVIE REVIEWS EVER says that when an audience walks out angry, a director did his job.
Matt Patches writes:
The next few months have a lot of potential gems in store for horror buffs, with the wild ghost tale The Possession right around the corner, the haunted house pic Sinister and a fourth Paranormal Activityscheduled for October. But Compliance is a true taste of horror outside-the-box, where that abandoned cabin closet is a real life person, and the terrifying mystery behind what lies behind the door is pure human emotion.
I haven’t mentioned everything that happens in Compliance. but it’s a tough sit. I suspect you’ve already decided if you want to subject yourself to the movie, as you would to a haunted house ride that takes place inside your skull. If this riveting, repelling film is to be seen, it must be not at home but in a theater, where you are confined in a room, like Sandra and Becky, deciding whether to watch, and how you would react.
But the real question concerning the success of a movie like COMPLIANCE is this: Do people want to get taught a moral lesson? or just go to a movie?
The Sandusky case is fresh on the mind of the collective audience--and people know what happened in that situation when authority went unquestioned for decades.
And this film, one which seemingly lacks blood and gore, may be refreshing. It an account of how horrific people, deep inside their dark hearts, can often be. And how we, sadly, rarely question authority and just 'go with the flow' even if that flows takes us down to the depths of earthly depravity.