Dennō Senshi Porygon, Pokémon

Pokémon creature Porygon was introduced in the show’s 38th episode in 1997. This episode sees Pikachu stop a cyber missile with a lightning bolt attack. The bright flashing was onscreen for seven seconds total and caused immense harm in many viewers across Japan. People experienced headaches, nausea, dizziness, and blurred vision, but that wasn’t all. Viewers reported temporary blindness, convulsions, seizures, and fainting as well which was deeply concerning. This affected 685 viewers and resulted in the episode being pulled from screens permanently.

Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto, more commonly known as GTA, is popular but controversial video game series that involves car theft and joyriding. Following its popularity, there was an upsurge of copycat joyriders. One of the most worrying cases of this involved an eleven-year-old who decided to take a joyride in a stranger’s car, despite his youth age and complete inexperience behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Fortunately no people or property were harmed, but the effect of media like this can have a real impact.

A Clockwork Orange

Director Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange received an X-rating for its harsh scenes of violence, which later inspired copycats, including a British teenager stomping a homeless man to death and a Dutch girl being gang raped by men singing Singin’ In The Rain. Other such incidents were reported, leading to a moral panic in the press and threats made against Kubrick and his family. This prompted the director to withdraw the film from exhibition in the UK, where he and his family lived. It wasn’t until Kubrick’s death in 1999 that A Clockwork Orange was re-released in Britain.

In My Feelings, Drake music video

When Drake released the music video In My Feelings, the internet loved it, and soon the video was memed beyond belief. Some ill-advised social media trends ensued, including people doing the dance from the music video whilst letting their car roll in the background with no one inside controlling it. This clearly foolhardy fad resulted in several would-be social media stars suffering severe injuries as well as causing property damage, because they were unable stop their free-rolling cars in time.

Friday the 13th franchise

80s horror franchise Friday the 13th centred on Jason Voorhees, a serial killer in a hockey mask. In 1988, the series spawned a copycat killer. A 19-year-old boy who was absolutely obsessed with Friday the 13th and Jason Voorhees donned a hockey mask and large black boots, and brutally stabbed a girl a year younger than him. This prompted massive controversy, with questions asked about the effect the films might have on audiences. After 1989’s Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, studio Paramount would not produce any more new films in the series.

The Passion of the Christ

Directed and co-written by Mel Gibson, 2004’s The Passion of the Christ centres on the final days in the life of Jesus Christ, and proved controversial for its graphic violence. At least two people are known to have died watching the film. A 56-year-old woman in Kansas suffered a fatal heart attack during the notoriously brutal crucifixion scene. A month later, a 43-year-old Brazilian man lost consciousness during a screening and died, despite a medical professional being nearby.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn

Many people who aren’t too keen on the Twilight films, but most did not experience seizures at the cinema watching one of them. However, when Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 was released in 2011, several people reported seizures as a direct result of the film’s climactic birth sequence, which uses rapid editing and flashing colours. It was determined that the darkness of the cinema made flashing colours onscreen appear more like strobe lighting, triggering episodes of photosensitive epilepsy.

Child’s Play franchise

Since the release of the original Child’s Play in 1988, the franchise centred on possessed killer doll Chucky has been linked to a wide number of real-life crimes, including murders. Australian serial killer Martin Bryant said Child’s Play 2 was his favourite movie. He watched it obsessively and quoted Chucky a lot, before going on a killing spree and murdering 35 people. This is only one killer of five who committed similarly heinous murders of innocent people that were later connected to their obsession with or watching of films in the Child’s Play franchise.

Saw III

Saw III is the third film in the infamously gruesome horror movie franchise, noted for placing characters in life-threatening traps or escape rooms which leave them only the slightest chance of escaping unharmed. 2006’s third instalment in the series had a large number of people becoming physically unwell in the cinema. The film does have some gory and gruesome scenes, but five people in British cinemas along had to be helped out of the movie theatre by paramedics.

Tom Green “Dead Guy” stunt

In a 1994 episode of The Tom Green Show, comedian host Green performed a prank that he called “dead guy” on a cable TV show, which involved him lying down on the pavement without moving. Years later this prank was in the inspiration behind social media trend “planking,” in which people lay flat in different places in public. This resulted in many injuries including people being hit by bikes. Most seriously, 20-year-old Australian Acton Beale fell to his death after planking on a seventh-floor balcony in May 2011.