Warning! 'Breaking Dawn, Part 1' can not only cause severe swooning, but seizures! That's no joke for audience members who have found themselves passing out during the intense birth scene. The flashing of red, black and white during the climactic scene is apparently triggering seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy. Brandon Gephart in Roseville, Calif. was "convulsing, snorting, [and] trying to breathe," his girlfriend Kelly Bauman told ABCNews. Gephart blacked out, then came to on the theater floor. He was taken out by paramedics and the rest of the screening was canceled. He's not the only one: A man in Salt Lake City (who didn't give his name for fear of being fired from his job) told his local ABC channel, "I think I blacked out. According to [my wife], I was shaking and mumbling different noises."
Dr. Michael G. Chez, medical director of pediatric neurology and epilepsy for Sutter Sacramento, told CBS 13 in Sacramento, "It's like a light switch going off, because it hits your brain all at once. The trouble with theaters, it's dark, the lights flashing in there is more like a strobe light.
Readers commenting on the ABCNews site also report other seizure incidents, although one wiseacre noted, "I don't think it's the lights. I think it's the script."
[via ABCNews]
[Photo: Summit]
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