A film only gets one chance to make a first impression on you. You’ll never be able to watch it again without knowing everything that is going to happen, so why not know as little as you can before even your first viewing?
Going in cold is the idea of going to watch a film for the first time with as little knowledge as possible about the plot. Different people take it to different extremes; some will read a little about the film, others won’t even watch the trailers. Of course it’s practically impossible in this age of the internet (and excessive trailers in the cinema) to avoid everything. Chances are, despite your best efforts, you’ll know the primary actors, the director and the ties of the filmmakers to previous works (‘from the makers of…’), but you can still remain relatively plot-knowledge free.
This is not the practice of avoiding spoilers – pretty much everybody tries to do that – but of knowing literally anything. This way all of the film’s twists and turns (no matter how small) can be viewed with the freshest eyes that make it much easier for you to be taken along for the ride. If any plot point, no matter how seemingly insignificant, or even just a contextual description of a scene is avoided, the whole film will be a surprise. It is the purest way of viewing, with no preconceptions and less predictability, which can often make for the most absorbing viewing.
Avoiding preconceptions can also be done by evading reviews. Perhaps you might want to check Rotten Tomatoes to see if the film is worth viewing and not completely terrible (and you won’t feel like you’ve wasted your money), or the ‘bottom line’ or ‘verdict’ summaries of some of your trusted reviewers, but by not reading the reviews themselves, you wont put any preconceived criticisms into your head before you can make up your own mind about the film. It may spoil the experience if you inadvertently prejudge moments and elements.
Going in knowing as little as you can will not only mean the film can surprise you in terms of plot, but also in terms of the emotions it may elicit from you. If you know a film is supposed to make you cry, for example, it may lead you to guess where the plot is going, and also may lead to you overanalyzing your own feelings. I’ve found films where I had no idea they were going to be emotional to be much more powerful and affecting. This is obviously harder to avoid for films that have been out for a long time, have had a big pop culture impact or are based on fact– for example, who doesn’t know the end of Titanic is sad…or to be honest, who doesn’t know exactly what happens at the end of that film.
Now, I don’t do this for many films, generally the ones I am most excited for, or that I know will have twists and turns the filmmakers don’t want me to know about. Shockingly, this post was inspired by Dunkirk, which, due to it being a Christopher Nolan film, I tried to go into cold, as I know his films can benefit from it (and I know I’ll want to see it and it will be good without reading any reviews). I couldn’t resist the trailers, but beyond those, the cast and my historical knowledge of Operation Dynamo, I didn’t know anything about the film itself. This is helped with Nolan films as less is given away anyway, but I did not even know about the structure of the film, which made for more awe-inspiring viewing. I did a similar thing with Interstellar (although admittedly I read more about its creation, but avoided anything with plot details), and I believe it truly helped me to be carried along by the film itself.
People less into film will probably do this a lot, unintentionally, but for those who usually like to read up on their viewings, going in cold might be something to try. See how it will affect your viewing, and for films that you know you’re likely to enjoy anyway (because of the filmmakers or subject matter), it’s highly likely to enhance your experience.
