The Prince Charles cinema has teamed up with Morphsuits to put an end to obnoxious behaviour with a team of ‘Invisible Cinema Ninjas’ ready to pounce on noisy viewers.
MorphCostumes has provided a solution to noisy and badly behaved cinemagoers by providing ‘invisible ninja’ costumes for volunteers to catch culprits of misconduct in the stalls, the second ‘anonymous vigilante’ act in this month. In a world first, The Prince Charles cinema has hired a group of volunteer Cinema Ninjas dressed in the black all-in-one Lycra suits – practically imperceptible in the dark of a cinema – to put a stop to bad cinema etiquette and tomfoolery such as popcorn throwing, feet on seats and the use of mobile phones during films. The lighting in the cinema and the nature of the costumes has allowed the ‘ninjas’ to catch the offenders red handed.
Anonymous vigilantes
Gregor Lawson, cofounder at Morphsuits commented:
“I’m a big fan of going to the cinema, but there’s an unspoken code of conduct when you’re watching a movie that some people just don’t understand. Then when some fans were discussing being ninjas in their Morphsuits on our Facebook page I had a eureka moment. I thought I’d find a cinema and see if we could bring a light hearted taskforce to the aid of movie fans.”
Morph contacted The Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Square, London with the idea and they agreed to trial the concept, recruiting volunteers from their legions of regular cinemagoers in return for seeing the movie they ‘guard’ for free. The Morphsuit ninjas have a clear brief to tackle any breach of what the cinema calls a ‘code of conduct’ for moviegoers.
Head of PR for The Prince Charles cinema, Paul Vickery commented:
“The ‘Cinema Ninjas’ may sound ludicrous, but they have been a real success in clamping down on those ruining films for everyone else with inconsiderate behaviour. Like every cinema, we were irritated and upset by the minority of people running films for everyone else. When Morphsuits got in touch with us and suggested the Ninja idea, I thought it was a stroke of genius. We recruited some of our diehard fans, who get to watch the movies for free, and we haven’t looked back since.”
The ‘ninjas’ place themselves in the darkest areas of the cinema, only coming out when they spot bad etiquette in the stalls.
One wrongdoer who was caught by the anonymous vigilantes, Abdul Stagg, commented:
“I normally hate noisy people in cinemas, but I got a call from my friend just as the movie started and thought I could get away with taking it. The last thing I expected was two completely blacked-out people suddenly appearing by our seats and give me and my mates a warning to shut up. It was actually pretty terrifying at first, but then I realised it was a bit of a laugh and a great way to make it clear what I was doing was having an impact on those around me. It certainly made me hang up and shut up for the rest of the film.”
Morphsuits are now looking to offer this service to other cinemas around the country, providing suits for free in return for the safe knowledge there are fewer noisy viewers in the world.