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Ever had a strange experience in a theater?

When I saw "Bladerunner 2049" i was the only person in the whole theater. No one disturbed me obviously, but it was still an oddly disquieting experience.

I had that happen when I went to see LEAVING LAS VEGAS at the Joy Theater in Tigard, OR with my friend.  No one else in the theater.  The concession stand vendor was so bored and perhaps in need of cash they offered to sell us a bottle of wine!  It was nice being able to openly talk about the movie during or shout out reactions.

I forget what movie I was watching at the time but years ago I was in a theater when the film literally broke. Lights came up, the management asked us to please give them ten minutes or so to fix the problem. Ten or fifteen minutes later, the movie started up again, and a little while later - SNAP! It broke again. The management then gave up, apologized, and offered everyone a refund.

That happened MULTIPLE times at a theater I used to go to-- the WASHINGTON SQUARE theater in Tigard, OR (long defunct).  The film would break/burn or the projectors would fail.  I almost walked out of GOLDENEYE for this reason but they fixed it just in time.  I did walk out of ALIEN3 due to this, and they tried to cheat me out of a refund!  They ended up giving me a free ticket to a showing on another day (when I couldn't attend, naturally) AND my money back.  All for the better; as it turns out, it wasn't very good.

I once ate about half a packet of cola flavoured sweets in the cinema. I thought they tasted weird so I stopped eating them. when I got out into the foyer afterwards I realised each individual one was wrapped and I'd been eating them with the wrapping still on.

I've been the only one in the theater at least two times.  Once for Pathfinder, the other one was the fourth Resident Evil movie.  I want to say there was a third time, but I don't remember the film.

When some friends and I say The Dark Knight, there where a few people in costume.  I know it happens, but it was the first time I saw someone do it.

Finally, there was the time I saw Rifftrax live and the film was Mothra.  One person several rows down from me (I was basically in the back row-he was closer to the front.) he opened his phone.  The young couple sitting a few seats down from me began shouting at the top of their lungs for him to turn it off.  They were way more annoying then anything he was doing.

One issue I had was being in a theater with few people in it and someone had pretty obviously sh-t in his pants duribg the 15 minutes of commercials before the movie began.  I tried to it ire it,  I moved away and finally I followed the few other viewers out and the manager gave us coupons.  The guy ran out the side exit and they aired out the theater and wiped his seat after stopping the show.

I was told there were some people who did stuff like that,  including literally defecating in a theater chair and running out. Some have been caught thru DNA. I was also told it happened more in big cities.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH YESSSS!  :teddyr: :teddyr: :teddyr: :cheers:

I don't know why, but this really hits me in the funnies.  I've microwaved some leftover pizza and wondered what was this oddly plasticky taste. Found out it was wrapped in cling flim. This didn't happen in a theatre, but similar thing.

That's messed up. Something similar happened to me in a department store changing room. I was trying on some jeans, when I heard a strange spattering sound on the polished concrete floor. Under the raised wall in the changing room, I could see through to the far changing booth where there were a man's feet and a spray of descending liquid.

Without thinking, I left my changing room and approached the door of the booth at the end. I knocked on the door and asked if the person in there was okay, then dashed up the aisle to the attendant.

Yeah, at that point I realized I wasn't wearing any pants or shoes.

So, the attendant sees me, this guy with no pants, rushing up and telling him that there's someone in the last booth p**sing on the floor. At first he didn't believe me, but I told him I was serious. He went to the booth and confirmed, then ran to get security.

In the meantime, I put my pants back on and exited the changing room. The door of the far booth finally opened (dude must have had a massive bladder or engorged prostate) and an oldish Asian man in a overcoat emerged, giving us sunny smiles.

As I left, I saw security approach this man. I have no idea what happened after that. Cue X Files music.  :buggedout:

Okay, so my last two posts had nothing to do with being in a theatre, so here are a few.

1. A friend and I went to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in a wonderful art deco era theatre (The Rivoli in Camberwell, for those who are curious). The movie started, but the screen was black. The soundtrack played, but there was nothing on the screen. Someone must have told the attendants, because the sound stopped and someone came to apologize. The movie ran without a hitch.

2. I often remember seeing The Fellowship Of The Ring in the cinema. Apart from being a fantastic film, it was unexpectedly violent and scary in the final battle of Saruman's orc army clashing with humans and elves. When the credits ran and people left, there were a few very small kids being led out by their parents, their faces wide eyed and silent. I wonder if any of those kids are reading this now, and remembering how traumatized they were by Lord Of The Rings.

3. In more recent years, I saw Snow White and the Huntsman. The directorial style was pretty wack, and there was a fair bit of smeared/flared footage which made me wonder if the projector wasn't correctly focused. I went to an attendant and asked if this was the case, because a lot of the movie looked either very slightly out of focus or 'doubled'. They checked, and all was fine. I guess it was just part of the style.

The following isn't my experience, but it sure sounds spooky:

https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2015/03/daily-2-cents-strange-vacation-at.html (https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2015/03/daily-2-cents-strange-vacation-at.html)

"During this spring break vacation around late March of 1977 there was a special showing of the film Bugsy Malone where only children were permitted to attend. It was during the film that I started to feel a bit disoriented. I heard some other children crying and I heard the sound of someone throwing up. At one point in the film I got up from my chair to leave, but I was quickly escorted back to my chair by an usher in a black suit and black hat. I saw one or maybe two more men in black suits at the back of the theatre. After the film was over I felt just fine and I never did complain to anyone about that experience."

And there is a great thread from 2003 about weird cinema experiences here:

http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,31625 (http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,31625)

That happened to me also... it was... NAKED LUNCH (1991) !!!  The film broke... twice!  Honestly, I don't remember no refund, but I think we'd've expected it. 

Later I heard that some people have done the 'take a dump in a movie and rush out' that in some cities they call it a ''sh-t 'n run". Sometimes it's an ex employee,  sometimes it's someone who is some sort of hater on one of the stars,  sometimes someone does it because he/she known an ex is taking a date to the movie. One guy did it at a star trek movie and got caught,  he admitted he did it because he hates ''trekkies'' and wanted to ruin their night.  Man, it opened up a whole new perspective of just how sick come people can be.  I think the guy in my case was a dope head who just lost control maybe due to drugs.

Then there was this...   https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/02/woman-poops-vomits-fifty-shades-theater (https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/02/woman-poops-vomits-fifty-shades-theater)

 

When the perpetrator took a dump, this is what Sven was looking at: 

http://youtu.be/nchNwrLeRqU (http://youtu.be/nchNwrLeRqU) 

Xxxxing @$$hole. If only this board had a block list,  and yeah I'm making even less effort to deal with my typing difficult since you're trying to taunt me over it,  b!tch.

reminds me, someone's phone went off when I saw THE GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING  right at the exact moment in the film where Scarlett Johannsen recreates the iconic pose from the Vermeer painting. and it was one of those really crappy early 2000's-era bleepy bleep bleep ringtones. It couldn't have been timed any better (or worse), people got seriously annoyed...I just thought it was funny.



that's a classic.  I've managed to bake a frozen pizza before with the styrofoam base still attatched, and not realise till I took it out the oven. (didn't eat it though)

 :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle:

When I saw The Silence of The Lambs in the theatre, the management of the theatre turned off all the lights in the place - even the exit lights - during the scene where Jodie Foster and Ted Levine are hunting each other in the dark. A few seconds of almost total dark - no light being thrown back from the screen - and someone stuck his cigarette lighter on, saying "I'm just giving Jodie Foster some light."  :teddyr: :teddyr:

Theatre watch on my own: watching Reservoir Dogs at a student run cinema in Mom's home town.  :thumbup:

My first experience and the film which sent me on to infamy and ill-fortune: I was seven and watching Murder On the Orient Express - marked me for life.

Audience participation: I saw Die Hard in the theatre and the audience screamed at various parts of the film telling Bruce Willis to watch his ass, especially when the late Alan Rickman (RIP) fell out of the window. To see that scene on a curved screen is quite something.

.I sat on a hill outside of Mastic-Shirley, LI with my brother Glenn and watched RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD- watched it at a drive-in with no sound. The next day we went to a grindhouse on William Flyod Highway and watched  it with sound with a bottle of whiskey and a joint we had snuck into the theater at a matinee- There were about 10 people there. It was great.

Trev,  if you liked the original MotOE you should try the. A&E remake with David. Suchet.  It was quite good.

Ye-es!

In 1979 at a showing of Zulu Dawn at a film theater in downtown Portland (Oregon.) Something of a prequel to 1964's Zulu and the battle of Rorke's Drift, as Zulu Dawn dealt with the previous battle of Isandlwana or one of the greatest defeats a British army has ever suffered at the hands of an army of natives.

Because I wanted to see it so bad, because of the cast, which we'll try to get to later, and because of my interest in the Zulu Wars, I took the bus from the town where I was living to Portland (Oregon.)

And whether it was the film or the location of the theater, there was only myself and a few other Caucasians in the audience, which was made up mostly of Native Americans.

And this is not to give into a stereotype, but there is something I can only call an Indian War Whoop, which I can not recreate, but which I certainly heard it enough that day. Indeed, every time one of the white actors died in the film, the Native Americans in the audience would let out with a loud war whoop. It is funny now. Not so funny then, as every time I thought a white actor was about to bite the dust, I look around the theater at the other audience members waiting for them to sound off again.

Good times, that now.

I saw LEAVING LAS VEGAS at the $1.00 theater waaaay back in the 20th century.   There was a group of about 10 or so who rode our bikes and met up there.   Throughout the movie, we were rather quiet.   As the lights came up and the credits started, one of us yelled out: "Lets get a drink!"

We did go to the liquor store right after...

Good times.

Another incident happened to my mother when she saw THE EXORSIST at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California (1973..right?)   This is an old Movie palace that is still operating.  It's a huge ass screen and auditorium that seats 500.    When my mother and her friend went, there was less than 50 people in the theater.  Apparently the other group was predominantly from a Holy Roller baptist church because every one of them stood up and yelled "GET THAT DEVIL OUT!"

When she told me this story, I was sad that she did not take me to see it ...mind you I was 8 at the time.

Watching WILLARD (1970) at the Strand in Paw Paw up in the balcony with my brother Mike. I was 8- he was 10. It was the first movie I saw without my parents at a theater. We were throwing popcorn down at the kids  down below. It was a Matinee- on a Saturday afternoon.

I was watching the martial arts pseudo biopic Ip Man 2 (2010) in a cinema almost entirely filled with Chinese people. There were maybe three or four Australian Caucasians in the whole theatre. The final fight is between the legendary Wing Chun master Ip Man and a fictional British boxer named Twister, who had previously killed another master and Ip Man's friend in the ring, so the tension was high.

Twister is huge and brutal, played by the late Darren Shahlavi. He pounds Ip Man, who gets knocked down and told that he can't kick or he will be disqualified. This is where the craziness started. When Ip Man began to win, the whole cinema began yelling with glee. When Ip Man struck Twister successfully, the audience erupted with applause. Guys, it's a freaking movie, it's not real! WTF! I kept my head still and glanced side to side, watching peoples' eyes bolted to the screen. It was like they were watching a real boxing match and cheering and clapping, but with a odd nationalistic fervour.

This is the final fight from Ip Man 2. Watch it with my theatre experience in mind. You'll understand how surreal and weirdly unsettling it was. I get it when a movie gets a standing ovation, or at the end of Ghostbusters (1984) when the audience clapped in time with the ending theme music, but this was on another level.

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkL-t35mBOk#)

That was a great South African movie with a very troubled production history.

I saw WILLARD in the Spring Lake, NJ theater that same year it was new.  It must have been that summer... walking up to Peterson's for candy... the theater was right next door.  We also saw ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES in that theater!  Thank you Cousin CEE CEE. 

As I said, here is the cast for Zulu Dawn (1979) and while those of us who are not familiar with the British film industry, may not recognize most of the names, they should be familiar for those who are some what more familiar with that industry.

Burt Lancaster -- Simon Ward -- Denholm Elliott -- Peter Vaughan -- James Faulkner -- Christopher Cazenoe -- Bob Hoskins -- Peter O'Toole -- Nigel Davenport -- Michael Jayston -- Ronald Pickup -- Ronald Lacey -- Sir John Mills -- Freddie Jones -- Donald Pickering -- Nicholas Clay -- Graham Armitage -- and Ann Calder-Marshall.

And I am sorry to hear about its troubles. That may be why it got so little play in the U.S. Though, I do believe I have a video copy of it. Though, like so much of what I have/had, it's boxed up and in storage. I also know that the script was adapted and written up as a book by director Cy Endfield. That I also have and again it is boxed up and in storage.

 i've got a version of your experience, only in multiples, lol! the movie is " the ghost and mr. chicken", and i went to the theater FIVE different times, in FIVE different theaters to see it.
   every single time, the danged film caught fire! and once was at a drivein theater too. i was around 5 or 6 at the time.
   later, in my early teens, i kept trying to catch it on TV, EVERY TIME the power would go out, that happened at least a dozen times over the course of 3 or 4 years. i FINALLY got to see the whole thing in the mid 80's( my mid 20's) on a rented vhs tape& machine.
  i swear to you, i held my breath through the whole movie, waiting for the power to go out, or the tape to break, or the machine to burst into flames, lol! STILL a favorite movie! :cheers:

Our family went to see The Muppet Movie at our home town theater (waaaay back in ...79?  80?)   The Sebastiani Theater was notorious for having the film break - not always, but enough to be prepared for it just in case.  Well there was the scene when the film strip melts and goes white.   Everyone in the theater thought it was happening for real.  We all started to get up and walk out.. when we heard the Swedish Chef bork borking.

BTW; the film did not ironically break once.

Did it break in an unironic fashion? :wink:

When we were kids I went to see Ghostbusters with my older brother in one of the local cinema's (The Regal).

All well and good there.

I then went to see it again with my friend Mark. Knowing full well what was going to happen when the Ghostbusters were sneaking up on the ghost in the library I yelled "RAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!!" in Mark's ear at the point where she turned round to frighten them. He jumped out of his seat letting out the second most girly scream I have ever heard in my life.

Mark clearly did not learn his lesson about going to the cinema with me as I was able to repeat this when we went to see Jaws 4 together.

Ha-ha!!!  I've had some GREAT experiences in a theater!
(https://www.tubefilter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/pee-wee.jpg)

BAHAHAHAHAHA!

I had a related experience with Ghostbusters. My uncle took me to see it with my brother, who was probably 7 or 8 at the time. When the ghost appeared in the library, my brother shrieked and had a bit of a meltdown. Uncle had to take him out of the cinema, and I watched the rest of Ghostbusters alone! Thank you for sparking that memory.

When I watched Shutter Island right at the climax of the movie the film stopped and burnt out. It was a good 30 seconds before the house lights came on and a few minutes after that that somebody came to apologise but before that happened it seemed like a fitting point to be at given the themes of the movie as to whether it was real or not.

My Dad and Ma took us to see 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) at a drive in, so he packed me and Mike and Glenn in the trunk, so he didn't have to pay for us. My brother Glenn dumped a Coke down the rear window radio speaker. I fell asleep after the ape man part.