Your most "visceral" experience at a movie theater.

[R_J_K75]

I recall coming out of Rocky 1 or 2 all fired up and jumping around shadowboxing. My dad bought my brother and I boxing gloves thinking it would be cool, until I kept getting bloody noses.

My brother and a good family friend, drunk on Southern Comfort, got into a fist fight, dropped each other because they both punched each other at the same time like Rocky 1 or 2. Where Rocky and Apollo both punch each other at the same time. I can still see it now.

 

[R_J_K75]

As @Clint_L said, the Exorcist. I first watched that when I was 6 or 7. Scared the hell out of me. A year later my mothers boyfriend rented a few laser discs, one being Texas Chainsaw Massacre, scared the hell out of me. Following Year, my father took me to see Children of the Corn, scared the hell out of me. The 80s we're great. You'd get locked up these days for that.

 

[Clint_L]

As @Clint_L said, the Exorcist. I first watched that when I was 6 or 7. Scared the hell out of me. A year later my mothers boyfriend rented a few laser discs, one being Texas Chainsaw Massacre, scared the hell out of me. Following Year, my father took me to see Children of the Corn, scared the hell out of me. The 80s we're great. You'd get locked up these days for that.

lol yeah standards have changed. I was maybe 10 when I saw Exorcist.

Another film that gave me a visceral reaction, as an adult, was Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. I hated it but I’ve never forgotten it.

 

[Mannahnin]

Ooh, Von Trier reminds me of Dancer in the Dark!

I've had strong reactions to a number of his films- Dogville and Breaking the Waves were intense, The Boss of it All is hilarious and I think anyone who's been scarred by him should see it for contrast.

But Dancer in the Dark is the hardest I've ever cried at a movie. Though, heck, it was at a friend's home, not in a theater. But holy crap did I ever sob.

 

[Mad_Jack]

I accidentally, got kneed in the stones once doing the Eddie/Columbie scene in Rocky...

That felt pretty visceral, lol.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I freely admit to being one of those people that got legitimately choked up when Cap picked up Mjolnir.

I yelled lol

It was a very good payoff.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Recently I and my wife had very visceral reactions to Sinners. One of the best films I’ve ever seen. Every beat hits just right, but everyone who has seen it knows what moments hits deepest, and it involves lots of people dancing while a main character performs. I cried a little. It was just that beautiful.

Then later a sort of twisted mirror of that scene creates such an exquisite sense of dread and wrongness, that it makes vampires feel like cosmic horror.

And the moment in the car where the old man tells his story and starts singing to keep from crying, and the other two just go along because they know, they don’t need it explained.

And of course the shootout. We all cheered like it was Christmas. And then cried.

 

[Tonguez]

Pool scene Fast Times at Ridgemount High (I was 13).

yeah I had a crush on Pheobe Cates for my teenage years too but more relevantly I'm reminded of the "father died climbing down the chimney" speech in Gremlins - the image of santa with a broken neck rotting in a chimney stuck with me for a long time afterwards, its the most horrifying part of Gremlins

 

[Theory of Games]

I'm ... not sure the article's author knows what "visceral" means? If the target was "shocking" or "unforgettable", recently seeing what ticket prices have become in the last 2-3 years was easily the most shocking thing I've experienced at a movie theater

Oh, and when Quint gets eaten by the shark .....

 

[ShinHakkaider]

The ones I can cite definitively where I was a teen (or older) and could fully appreciate the experiences for what they were?

THE TERMINATOR (1984) No one was ready for this. At some point we were watching a B sci-fi movie that became something more and it was solidified when the T-800's endo skeleton arises from the wreckage of the tanker truck and that push in on Sarah's face signifying that NO, this movie ISNT OVER.

ALIENS (1986) This one two punch of James Cameron is easily some of the best pacing in any action/horror/thriller that I've ever seen and to this day the last 20-30 min of this movie (the theatrical edition) is easily and without a doubt one of the most intense movie theater experiences that I've ever had. I remember walking out of the UA Midway on Queens Blvd in Forest Hills Queens that friday afternoon just absolutley WIPED.

DIE HARD (1988) No one was taking Bruce Willis seriously as a movie star at the time. At about the 30 min mark of this movie I turned to my friend Damon and said "Is it just me or this actually GOOD?" He enthusiastically confirmed what I was thinking and the rest of this movie proceeded to just flat out amaze and excite that Wednesday afternoon audience.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) This movie flat out traumatized me. I though that the Omaha Beach sequence was going to be the worst of it. NOPE. The worst of it was being with the remaining characters for the duration of the movie and then being excited and TERRIFIED for them during that final battle in Ramelle. This is one of the only war films that might have broken me emotionally. And I've NEVER been able to fully appreciate the craft at play in this movie because I'm so caught up IN the movie. My screening had a BUNCH of war vets in it at the time including a guy who was explaining to his (I'm guessing...wife?) the use of the bangalores. Yeah, a great movie theater experience but a HARROWING ONE as well.