Paramedics called to Toronto Festival screening of violent thriller Revenge

In what seems to have become a macabre tradition at film festival screenings, paramedics were called to the premiere of new thriller ‘Revenge’ when an audience member had an adverse reaction to scenes of violence.

‘Revenge,’ the feature debut of writer-director Coralie Fargeat, screened this past Sunday as part of Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness category, which as the name might suggest covers the more extreme and bizarre end of the festival’s programming.

Reportedly, one gruesome scene in the film sees a character have to pull a very long piece of glass out of their foot – and it is thought that this scene proved too much for one viewer, although it is reported they since made a full recovery.

French filmmaker Fargeat tells Indiewire, “I didn’t know if it was someone making [a joke] in the room, then I see the paramedics in the cinema. Apparently, from what I’ve been told, a guy had a seizure. But I think he’s fine!”

TIFF’s official synopsis says ‘Revenge,’ a French/Canadian production, presents the “perennial rape/revenge thriller in a strikingly hypnotic style.” Matilda Lutz takes the lead as Jen, a woman who is sexually assaulted by her the hunting friends of her millionaire boyfriend.

As you might expect, she takes vengeance, leading to a “cathartic climax of outrageously bloody retribution.”

Similar scenes were reported at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, when two viewers reportedly fainted watching ‘Raw,’ Julia Ducournau’s cannibal drama (also said to have prompted over 30 people to exit the cinema, with several vomiting and/or passing out, at the same year’s Gothenburg Film Festival in Sweden).

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