Flashing lights and bright sudden flash or flickering lights are pretty common in movies and shows, from cartoons to documentaries, they’re used to inspire all sorts of emotions and communicate ideas in visual mediums. While it may generate the feeling wanted by the filmmaker, there is a part of the population that these sudden and quick flashes can cause serious harm. The danger isn’t psychological harm specifically, but physical reactions that can be dangerous to the viewer due to physiological problems.
For people who have light sensitivity or are epileptic, flashing or flickering lights are a real hazard. Let’s explore how to avoid them and look over a tool to still enjoy a movie that features them.
What is Photosensitive Epilepsy?
There are different types of epilepsy, ranging from ones causing sudden body or limb jerks (myoclonic) to sudden muscle stiffening, and photosensitive epilepsy which causes spontaneous seizures triggered by light conditions. Around 3% of people with epilepsy have this specific type, generally in children and adolescents, where flickering lights or certain light patterns cause a seizure, which can be very dangerous.
For people with this type of epilepsy, there are a host of tips and tricks to use to avoid a seizure, such as:
- Watching shows and movies in a well-lit room reduces the contrast
- Lowering the brightness of the screen
- Sitting as far away from the screen as possible
- Avoid watching anything for an extended period
- Wear polarized sunglasses
- Using a computer monitor glare guard
- Use a flicker-free monitor
These strategies are helpful, but rob those with this condition of enjoying many films and shows comfortably or with other viewers.
The Role of Strobe Lights in Shows and Movies
With the risk flashing lights and flickering patterns can pose to people with epilepsy or who are photosensitive (experiencing nausea and migraines from certain light patterns, why do filmmakers use it so often?
The main reason it’s so popular is that it is a great way to give a scene greater intensity, think of a dark hallway in a horror movie or a showdown battle between a hero and villain. It also gives images a rhythm, providing greater depth to a scene, especially depending on the frequency and color of the light used; when strobe lights are varied, they deliver different and rich colors, giving different effects to images.
While flashing light is a cornerstone of a lot of visual effects and add specific emotions to a scene, they do cause trigger warnings to be needed before many shows and films, for example:
- Stranger Things, TV Show
- Midsommar, Horror Movie
- It: Chapters 1 & 2, Horror Movie
- Barbie, Comedy Movie
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Superhero Movie
- BoJack Horseman, Adult Cartoon
- Hannibal, Horror/Drama TV Show
- The Incredibles 2
and many, many, many more could be listed.
Incredibles 2 and Seizure Reports in Film & TV Shows
To better illustrate the risk viewers face with strobe effects and flashes, the Pixar film Incredibles 2 caused a stir among people with epilepsy due to the high risk of seizure-inducing strobe lights throughout the film. Reports flooded social media with affected people having to hide their faces in jackets throughout the movie, people collapsing into seizures, and demanding warnings placed before the film and in theaters to prevent more episodes.
Incredibles 2 isn’t the first time there has been a call for epilepsy warnings due to media including strobe lights and flashes. The 38th episode of Pokemon, “Electric Soldier Porygon”, has been banned after 700 hundred children in Japan were hospitalized due to the series of frames flashing. The episode was later edited to remove the scenes with the lights, but the damage had already been done due to no warning placed before the episode.
These examples are only two of many instances of people becoming ill or hospitalized due to not knowing the use of lights in a film or show and nothing to warn them of the risk to their health.
Enjoy Movies Your Way: Skip Movie Scenes with Flashing Lights Using Tag Mode
Warning audiences of graphic violence, difficult topics, and strobe lights that can be hazardous to some people’s health is a start, but it removes a lot of titles from your selection. We at Enjoy Movies Your Way don’t believe that a person should have to skip so many movies and shows due to their health, but instead should be able to watch a movie without a potential hospital trip.
That’s why we have Tag Mode.
With Enjoy’s Tag Mode feature, you can remove scenes with seizure-inducing light flashes and other strobe light effects from the film or show, free to enjoy entertainment safely. We even have a community of taggers that trade their tags, helping other people who are photosensitive avoid anything that could risk their health.
Give our Tag Mode tutorial video a watch and discover how you no longer have to rely on studios but can take charge of your well-being.
