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In "Terror in the Haunted House" (1958), young Sheila Wayne (Cathy O'Donnell) is swept off her feet by Philip Justin/Tierney (Gerald Mohr). S Soon she's living in his childhood home and suffering from nightmares that drive her to the edge of sanity. C Also released as "My World Dies Screaming" (1961), "Terror" uses what was considered a revolutionary approach to filmmaking—the incorporation of subliminal messaging to heighten the story's dramatic effect. Dubbed "psychorama" and "precon" (for "preconscious"), the approach involved flashing images or words so briefly on the screen, viewers wouldn't consciously perceive them. I (We should add "in theory," because half the fun of watching this film is catching the flashing skulls and whatnot.) E
One company active in developing and marketing psychorama was Precon TV. They claimed to intend to use the method to deliver civic-minded messaging, such as "Don't Litter" and "Drive Safely," but skeptics suspected that the ability to manipulate viewer's subconscious minds could be used to turn wholesome free-willed Americans into drooling zombie minions. N Precon advocates trotted out research that (they claimed) proved that people were no more likely to adopt subliminal messages than they were other types of messages. C They also trotted out research showing that subliminal messaging could establish psychological associations between neutral content and emotion-evoking ideas (Popular science, April 1958). E
In other words, advertisers using psychorama might make you feel about a department store's spring collection (neutral content) whatever you felt about a fluffy bunny (emotion-evoking idea). R Or, as in the case of a horror movie, a director could link the story of a woman brought to live in a house she thinks she's seen only in dreams with words and images that make you feel like shrieking. O
This potential was sufficiently creepy for the public to resist having undeclared acts of precon perpetrated upon them. C Shortly after the release of "Terror," subliminal messaging was banned by the National Association of Broadcasters. But that wasn't the end subliminal messaging. K It wasn't until 1974 that the FCC issued a statement that the technique was "contrary to the public interest" and accusations of media specialists trying to mess with our minds still pop up from time to time, as in the famous debates over the imagery used to promote Camel Cigarettes. S
