Shock, surprise and jarring experiences: why context matters at relaxed screenings

When you’re asked to introduce a screening at BFI Southbank, you’re given one firm instruction on content: no spoilers. This can be rather difficult, for what exactly constitutes a ‘spoiler’? If one wishes to watch a film completely blind, then it is probably worth forgoing an introduced screening altogether. It is true that for most cinema audiences the element of surprise is essential. This is less the case for, say, opera or ballet, for which one generally reads the synopsis in advance in order to help you follow what’s going on. But shock, surprise and the unexpected are, in film, generally deemed to be essential to audience enjoyment.

Shock, surprise and the unexpected don’t tend to appeal quite so much to audiences at a relaxed screening. For many neurodivergent people, it’s essential that they know precisely what they are going to experience before it happens in order to avoid feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed. A jump scare for one person may be thrilling, but for another it can completely ruin their enjoyment of the film. 

During the BFI’s In Dreams Are Monsters season in 2022, Ethan Lyon presented two horror films in a ‘relaxed’ environment: The Fly (1986) and Pontypool (2008). Neither film could be described as ‘relaxing’, but the point of these screenings is to make the sensory conditions in which a film is screened more palatable for a neurodivergent audience. Therefore, as long as the sound was lowered and the lights were kept at a low level, it was decided that the films were suitable.

Lyon chose these films because they tie directly into his academic research, on the theme of autism and horror. In his introductions for the films, he talked about body horror and the overwhelming sensory nightmare that autism can often be. With the context Lyon provided, his choices of films made sense and gave a new context to the films. 

Every relaxed screening at the BFI is introduced by a neurodivergent filmmaker, writer or academic for this very reason – to encourage the audience to consider how neurodivergence relates to cinema, and to find sites of identification and representation in ways that previous audiences might not have seen them. For example, Georgia Bradburn presented a screening of Eraserhead (1977) with an introduction explaining her personal connection to the films of David Lynch, and that the freeform surrealism of his cinema connects with her experience of art and the world.

These introductions are always preceded by a vital description of the measures put in place which make the screening ‘relaxed’ by Maggi Hurt, who oversees the series and its curation at BFI Southbank. This is to ensure that an audience is aware of their environment and what will happen once the film begins. It is then customary for the speaker to work into their introduction a sense of what will happen in the film itself. This may not be to ‘spoil’ the film per se, but for example it can be advisable to warn an audience when there might be a particularly intense scene or a jump scare so they can prepare for it. The introduction eases an audience into the themes and landscape of the film in an attempt to make the transition from reality to the filmic world a less jarring one.

At the BFI, the introduction also ties in to the themes of a discussion which takes place after the screening in the Reuben Library. This is set up as a democratic space in which members of the audience are free to talk about the film in a relaxed environment, led by the person who introduced the screening. This can focus on the relationship between neurodivergence and the film, or can simply be used as a space for audience members to compare notes and express their feelings around the film. 

It is also incredibly useful as feedback – for example, I hosted a screening of Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) as I find its musical world very satisfying, while some audience members found the score and colours very intense. These screenings are an experiment, and they will never work for everyone, so it is vital to provide space for responses to be expressed openly and freely.

Myself, Bradburn, and Lyon have now formed a collective called Stims which will continue to curate the relaxed screening programme at the BFI. This is being launched with a screening of the Australian documentary This Is Going to Be Big (2023), an extraordinary film about neurodivergent and disabled teenagers at a school as they stage a musical about the life of singer John Farnham. It’s a refreshing experience, in which young people feel free to express themselves and simply be neurodivergent without apology, masking or restriction, to be understood and to learn to understand those around them, and to work together towards a creative common goal. 

It is this free environment which Stims and the BFI aim to facilitate, which requires active engagement with an audience through introduction and discussion. These are not so much relaxed screenings, but an open and active cinematic forum.

Explore the Relaxed Screenings at BFI Southbank.