‘Evil Dead’ director Sam Raimi says smartphones should make us cry

Hollywood film director Sam Raimi is at Mobile World Congress today, giving a content creator’s perspective on the future of mobile entertainment. Sound, notes Raimi, is invisible, so “we don’t know what we’re missing” when experiencing a film at home or on a mobile device instead of a fully outfitted theater. Describing the ability of sound to convey emotion at a subliminal level, he asks the audience, “when was the last time you cried at something that was presented on a mobile device?”

While screens on smartphones and tablets have grown ever denser and more attractive over the years, Raimi’s comments identify the relative stagnation that the mobile audio experience has found itself in. He’s not without sympathy or support, either, as the discussion panel he was part of was also attended by concurring voices from Telefónica, Dolby, and Qualcomm. No one had an immediate answer to the Evil Dead director’s pleas, but it’s at least encouraging to see that both carriers and component suppliers are aware of the need to upgrade a seemingly neglected part of the mobile experience.