Jan. 26--The hit movie Cloverfield may be harder for some to stomach than the prices of the tickets and concession fare.
Some moviegoers say the tale of a giant reptile causing chaos in New York City has made them headachy, dizzy or distressingly nauseated.
At the Loews theater complex in Cherry Hill, a ticket-counter sign warns that the film can create a sense of motion sickness.
It's not the quality of the monster mash-up, it's the shaky shock-umentary camera style -- with tilting and even sideways views, vertigo-inducing ups and downs, and in-focus/out-of-focus effects.
"When the jerkings lasted a while, that's when it was uncomfortable," said Ken Wunsch, 46, of Camden, who said he felt dizzy during the film, which he saw during its opening weekend two weeks ago.
The Paramount film, rated PG-13, earned $46.1 million over the four-day weekend that included Martin Luther King's Birthday. That surpassed the $35.9 million premiere weekend of the Star Wars special edition in 1997, the previous best opening for a January.
Cloverfield is as much about post-9/11 fears as it is about the desire to document everything we see on cell phones and other devices. And what the camera sees and hears -- supposedly shot by a normal man as Manhattan comes under attack -- is gut-wrenching.
Crashing, screaming, running, horror and oblivion. Wait. Calm for a moment or two. Catch your breath. Then crashing, screaming, running, gasping, panting, smoke, "Oh my God! Oh my God!"
Hay Huang, 14, of Camden, saw the movie twice during its opening weekend -- though it gave her a headache, which made her a little sleepy. "I sat there, but I had to look away," she said.
Mark Defeo, 17, of Haddonfield, part of a group of teens who had just seen the film, said he felt dizzy, especially at the beginning, when partygoers were running downstairs from a rooftop. He gradually got used to the roaming camera, he said.
A half-dozen pals, though, said they weren't bugged a bit.
Some people are predisposed to motion sickness, said Steven Galetta, director of neuroophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.
"I got sick watching the trailer," he said yesterday "I'm not going to see the movie, in fact, because I know I'll get sick from it."
In tracking objects, the eyes use five different systems, including the inner ear's vestibular system that's tied to the sense of balance, he said.
So, sharp camera movements -- especially coupled with bursts of light and sudden sounds -- can be disturbingly disorienting. "They're making you shift through all these systems very rapidly, and that's what is causing visual confusion," he said.
What's more, the auditory and vestibular systems share nerve pathways, creating a kind of "excessive feed into the brain stem," resulting in nausea.
As for those who felt headachy, "they probably got motion-induced migraine," he said.
Migraines can make people feel faint -- as can gore. So even as terror escalates heart rates, gruesome graphic scenes can have the opposite effect, he said. And that sensory barrage can be tough, he said.
Moviegoer Al Blunt, 44, of Lumberton, was glad he only got a headache. The similarly "jittery" Blair Witch Project bothered him much more. "I was sitting in the second row and I got really sick, nauseated," he said. He even had to leave the theater for a few minutes until he felt settled again. This time, he sat toward the back.
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Watch a trailer on the "Cloverfield" Web site via http://go.philly.com/cloverfield The site also offers other content about the film.
Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.
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