The late, great William Castle made horror movies so much fun, coming up with clever gimmicks that helped his films stand out from all others; for the original 13 Ghosts, for example, “Illusion-O” ghost viewers were handed out to audience members, which allowed them to either view or eliminate the film’s ghosts during select scenes.
Castle may be gone, but his spirit of horror movie showmanship is being kept alive by A24 this week, with the company issuing a fun “heart rate challenge” for select screenings of Ari Aster’s Hereditary, releasing this weekend. But really, anyone who owns an Apple Watch or Fitbit can get in on the challenge, no matter where or when they see the film.
All you have to do is make sure the Health app is installed on your Apple Watch (or other device). When the movie is over, open the app, go to the “Heart” section, and screenshot the 2-hour period you were watching Hereditary. Prizes are being awarded for select screenings the challenge is officially issued for, but again, anyone can have fun with this.
If you’re brave enough to take the Hereditary Heart Rate Challenge this weekend, come on back here to this very article and drop us a comment with your results!
.@A24 is asking folks to bring their Apple Watches to Hereditary screenings in order to monitor their heart rate and I absolutely love this kind of William Castle shit. pic.twitter.com/UQBcUOSk94
— Nathan Steinmetz (@Humanstein) June 1, 2018
— Nathan Steinmetz (@Humanstein) June 5, 2018
I am seeing HEREDITARY a third time tonight and then I swear I will finally write my review — I swear it! Also they’re doing a “monitor your heart rate” gag along with this screening which is some delight William Castle shit #HEREDITARY
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 4, 2018
