Usually when you go to the movies, the protocol is to turn off your cell phone. But director Tsutomu Hanabusa is hoping that his audiences keep theirs on. For the upcoming installment in the long-running Ringu horror series, Sadako 3D 2, a new free downloadable smartphone app will be available for moviegoers which will deliver extra content to audience members in the form of “vibration, flash and sound special effects,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
This certainly sounds like fun for fans and calls to mind producer William Castle who in the 1950s and 60s used a number of gimmicks like this to ballyhoo his low-budget horror films, most notably wiring random theater seats to give audiences a jolt during screenings of the Vincent Price-starring The Tingler.
The Ringu series launched in 1998 and its story of a haunted videotape that cursed its viewers to death within seven days launched a number of sequels as well as an English-language remake which had its own sequel.
So far, the app will only be available to Japanese audiences when the film opens on August 30. If it doesn’t make its way over here, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Hollywood producer seizes upon the idea for a film of their own.
