The Horror Movie That Caused People To Faint In Theaters

Horror is a subjective genre. One person's yum is definitely another person's yuck, and what's too gory for some can read as tame to others. Thus whenever pulse-pounding reports of a person throwing up or fainting in the audience of a new horror picture begin to circulate, fans tend to sit up and take notice. While there have been a number of motion pictures that have caused such violent reactions in their viewers, it's an exceedingly rare film indeed that causes pure revulsion in its paying customers. 

The French import "Titane" seems to have joined that rare echelon of horror movies. It's received some critical acclaim, and it sports a wild concept — and an even gorier execution. Combining themes of automobile obsession, parental alienation, family dysfunction, and good old-fashioned murder, it caused audiences to sit up and take notice when it was released. 

Julia Ducournau's "Titane" won the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival (per IMDb), but it's also got a different sort of acclaim attached to its name — it caused multiple audience members at its Australian premiere to faint. 

Via BGR, the showing took place at the Sydney Film Festival on November 5, 2021, and 13 people in attendance fainted. Additionally, one person had a panic attack, and several members of the audience walked out. Per the Daily Mail, at least one person also vomited. And rightly so — critics described the film as nerve-wracking, while Nate Jones of Vulture declared, "I noticed my teeth were chattering from the adrenaline. They've only just stopped." 

"Titane" is about a woman named Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) who experiences a severe car accident as a child. After being released from the hospital, she embraces her love of cars — literally. Not only does the serial murderess grow up to dance at car shows, she has intimate relations with a Cadillac — an event that will change the course of her life forever.