Off topic, but it bothers me when people decry spoilers for an older movie. As if everybody is supposed to have watched every major film in the history of Hollywood up to the last N years.
"Spoiler alert for anybody who hasn't seen this movie from 1980: the dog did it!"
> they were just as immersed even though they knew the outcome. In follow-up questionnaires, they also reported the same levels of engagement and enjoyment as those who didn’t know the ending.
I'll spoil the links: 28 male college students aged 18-24 who were paid to do a job while watching a 30 minute episode didn't report enjoying it less if they were told the ending.
Somehow I feel their conclusions might be a bit overly broad.
Surely, as this is a purely subjective experience, what matters is not if spoilers don't affect enjoyment in general, but whether they affect enjoyment for me?
One of my favourite films, Stalker as a scene referred to as "the meat grinder". I knew how it went before I first watched it, and have always wished that I didn't. In general, I find it much more enjoyable to go into a film with as little foreknowledge as possible.
Haven't seen the movie but assuming it's like the roadside picnic book that scene is what made the story worth it for me besides the concept.
Nevermind I took a quick look at the plot and although the concept is close it seems different enough, at least at the ending.
I guess I should watch it already after postponing it for years.
This study makes the assumption that inmersion equals enjoyment.
The questionnaires were only used with the study that tested intact, scrambled story and non-monetary incentive. They were not used for the study that tested spoilers (at least I can't find it). Instead they assumed that inmersion equals enjoyment because of the results of an earlier study by them.
All studies were performed using a highly suspenseful short film with a high capacity to engage and a simple spoiler: Telling them if the characters were or not hurt in the movie.
This could well be one of the genres more prone to engage you even if you know the outcome. Even more so with a non specific spoiler like that.
I can't find individual data of the study to search for outliers. In my experience some people don't care or even seek spoilers while others avoid them like the plague.
"Spoiler alert for anybody who hasn't seen this movie from 1980: the dog did it!"
Ugh.