‘Homicidal’: The horror movie that offered viewers a refund if they were too scared
Even the hardiest of horror movie fans have had a few moments from their years of experience in the terrifying confines of the cinema where they’ve questioned whether they’d really be able to make it through whatever awful and shocking depictions flash before them on the screen.
But it’s rare that such fans are ever offered the chance to get a refund if the film in question was too scary. However, that’s pretty much the case with William Castle’s 1961 horror thriller movie Homicidal, which focuses on a murderous young woman in a small town in California.
The film, as was often the case with Castle’s works, featured a unique gimmick in that the audiences were entitled to a refund if they got too scared. As the movie approached its climax, a voice-over told viewers that they had 45 seconds to leave the cinema if they were too scared to watch any more of the narrative.
Only around 1% of the patrons decided to take up the offer of a refund, so Castle decided to put the spotlight on such cowards and make them visit Coward’s Corner. The gimmick was said to work well, with cinemas marking upwards of $20,000 per week with only around $100 going back out in refunds.
Director John Water once wrote of the Fight Break and Coward’s Corner in his book Crackpot. “He came up with Coward’s Corner, a yellow cardboard booth manned by a bewildered theatre employee in the lobby,” Waters wrote. “When the Fright Break was announced, and you found that you couldn’t take it anymore, you had to leave your seat and, in front of the entire audience, follow yellow footsteps up the aisle, bathed in a yellow light.”
The director continued: “Before you reached Coward’s Corner, you crossed yellow lines with the stencilled message: ‘Cowards Keep Walking.’ You passed a nurse (in a yellow uniform?… I wonder) who would offer a blood-pressure test. All the while, a recording was blaring, ‘Watch the chicken! Watch him shiver in Coward’s Corner!’ As the audience howled, you had to go through one final indignity – at Coward’s Corner, you were forced to sign a yellow card stating, ‘I am a bona fide coward.'”
Waters admitted that very few people were “masochistic” enough to go through such a process, although he also pointed out that Castle’s movies and their gimmicks were often too elaborate and complicated for him to see any real success.
Check out the trailer for Homicidal below.
