I was quite excited to come across this jokey (?) page, Chunderfist, documenting wild and weird local tales.  If there’s anything I love it’s a hilarious local legend.  A small world should always be celebrated with an adequate sense of scale, and ever-so-lovingly I feel this page is one of those things I’d call a “legend in a lunchbox.”

Anyway, I’m quite taken in by the tale of the Ghost of Cinema 2 at my local four screen cinema chain.    A tale of a ghost bored of Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021).  A tale of a ghost that doesn’t give a shit about Marvel end-credits.  A tale of the ghost busting in the ladies loos.  It just raises so many questions about if she preferred Ghostbusters (2016) or Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021).

Read Chunderfist’s Cinema Ghost Tales here:

Have you seen the Ghost in Cinema 2?

I don’t believe in ghosts as such, but I do believe each of the cinemas has its own special vibe, what with the various screen sizes, seating arrangements, slopes of floor and exit lighting positions.  My friends think this borders on some kind of OCD.

Cinema 1 is big screen and blockbuster bada-boom ready – most things I see are in here.

Cinema 3 is 1’s smaller sister – but it’s usually booked out by a film society on nights I go.

Cinema 4 is the tiny screen with a bad layout for unpopular runs or films on their dying days.

And

Cinema 2 is mostly where we see horror, it’s a decent size and I firmly believe it has the best surroundiest sound.

Now, having said I don’t believe in ghosts, I do believe there are things out there that are unexplained, and yet to be explained.  I’m like Mulder & Scully, I want to believe but I also want the evidence to support wild claims.  But I understand that evidence can be hard to gather; without appropriate ways to measure subsonic sound it doesn’t “exist;” without an x-ray machine we can’t “see” a broken bone; and even without a confirmed, documented sighting, a bird species can be “extinct” for decades.  Humans are always getting better at proving things, explaining things, understanding phenomena.  Always will be.

But before research, before measurement, before rigorous investigations in any human endeavour there is a collection of anecdotes, stories and observations.  These are what inspire further study.

Thus, as a fairly regular attendee of the “haunted cinema” in question I thought I’d provide a few notes of my own, for the cause.  I haven’t seen the ghost, but I can report these things.

1.  Cinema 2 is a Camera Obscura
If you head into the cinema in the daytime, while the doors are open, you can see the streetscape from outside projected onto the screen and sometimes the walls.  Cars drive by and people walk past the big glass entry doors and mill in the foyer.  It’s not a super strong or well composed projection, and as with all “raw” camera obscuras the image is upside down.  But there are plenty of ghostly apparitions there.  Off the top of my head I can’t remember if this is better at certain brighter times of year or not.

2.  Bone-Chilling.
The only time in my life I’ve experienced this as an actual sensation was in Cinema 2.  Here’s the quote about it from my Annabelle Comes Home (2019) review:

 “First, can we talk a  little about “bone-chilling.”  I’ve always considered this to just be an intellectual type phrase that substitutes nicely for “leaves you cold.”  And physical-physiological reactions at the movies are pretty common; laughing, crying, jumping, screaming, gasping, goosebumps, shivers… even the spreading heat of “heart-warming” is something I’ve experienced in the cinema.  And I’ve had cold shivers along my spine before, or the squeams.  

But during Annabelle, I had a whole new reaction I could only think must be “bone chilling.”  It was an intense sensation of moving cold running along the inside of my leg bones, from shin, up to just past the knee.  I can’t even remember exactly which scene prompted it, because the feeling was so new and intense I was quite distracted and excited.  My (eye) money is probably on it being FerryMan.”

Anyway, BONE-CHILLING… is it a psychogenic reaction you think you’ve had to film or art?”

3.  When You’re All Alone In the Dark…
Everything is scarier when you’re alone in a cinema.  Especially if it’s a horror film.  The sensation that there might be someone or something creeping around is heightened tenfold.  When seeing Halloween (2018) I really did think that Cinema 2’s sound was phenomenal:

“I will admit that maybe this experience was improved by being the only people in the middle of a large cinema late at night… the 3D-soundscape really came into its own because no crunch could be dismissed as popcorn, and no squelch as a choc-top.  I had to turn and check the door five times … and it was all in the film.” 

4.  Cinema 2 is the Horror Cinema
I don’t think this would hold up stat-wise overall for Cinema 2.  But for my taste in film, and the times of day we go, most of what I see in there is horror.  Is it just that it’s the right sized cinema for the expected horror crowd?  That it really does have a great system for creepy surround sound?  Do they take advantage of the resident ghost to add extra special vibes by scheduling horror in there?  Whatever the reason, we’re often entering Cinema 2 in a sense of excited anticipation, waiting to be creeped out.  So it definitely comes with a spooky vibe more often than not for us.

5.  Cinema 2 backs onto the Alley.
Its emergency exit doors pop out on the other side of the building than the candybar.  Not only does this mean it’s a cinema that people sometimes sneak into, it also means it’s used by some people as a cut through to the carpark.  So people sometimes do just “appear” or walk through it and “disappear” seemingly out of nowhere.

So these are my anecdotes and observations of Cinema 2.  To add to the body of work of paranormal and everyday investigators now studying it with a keen eye for potential ghostly or logical explanation detail.  I’ll be sure to keep a record of anything interesting that happens in there from now on, although obviously, if I was being properly scientific I’d also keep a record of all the boring non-eventful experiences.  

Got a haunted cinema tale?  Tell me about it!

PS:  this article from Melbourne, Australia, proposes that it’s always Cinema 4 that’s haunted, and has some other tales of cinema hauntings.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/ppxy5m/a-history-of-melbourne-cinemas-that-are-haunted

<Written in 2021… and for some reason never posted… until now!>