"Please do not text during the movie because it makes everyone... Psycho." In a new anti-texting PSA, Alfred Hitchcock (by way of Anthony Hopkins, star of the upcoming Hitchcock) warns theatergoers against violating the tacit code of conduct implicit in any movie theater — using your darn phone during the film — or else.
It's a bit left field, but fun — and, more importantly, a message worth spreading throughout the land. I loathe movie disruptors of all kinds (talkers, texters, knee jigglers, seat kickers) with a burning passion and these mindless miscreants have only multiplied with the ubiquitous rise of cell phones and technology and ADD attention spans. (Check out venerable blogger Dennis Cozzalio's infuriating account of the dunce-headed woman he encountered texting during a recent screening of Frankenweenie.)
The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin has stepped up to defend moviegoers' rights in the cell phone wars — that is, the rights of those paying customers in a theater to not have to deal with the obnoxious few who chatter or use their phones in a movie. Their epic anti-talking PSA became legend last year (below); Drafthouse theaters play an assortment of custom-filmed videos to remind audiences to kindly shut the hell up, or risk being kicked out.
The new video by the makers of Hitchcock (which despite being sent around by the film's PR reps appears to have been captured on a cell phone camera and uploaded to YouTube by a random fan, problematically enough) reminds me of Lars von Trier's short Occupations, which I first saw via the Drafthouse folks:
Occupations - short film by Lars von Trier by vahea
So, yeah. Shut up and turn off your phones. Hitchcock may not have been the first to lobby for theater etiquette (he died a few good decades before texting became a thing) but the contribution is most appreciated. If Hitch was still around, I'd like to think he'd have scared the 4G out of a movie texter or two.