User blog:Timebomb192potato/Boxread b-movies discussion: "Hundreds Of Children Terrified When Movie Theatre Plays La Llorona Instead Of Detective Pikachu"


 * p/Da_Cucumber: When I became a projectionist, I was told how I got the job. The last guy wasn't paying attention and forgot to switch out movies. He started Jackass: The Movie instead of one of the Harry Potter films (can't recall which one). Nevertheless, he was fired on the spot and was forced to hand out free passes to irate moms and pissed-off Potter fans on his last day on the job.
 * p/TheLook_5421!: I remember that in 2005 I went on a school field trip to see Because of Winn-Dixie, but the dumbass projectionist started Boogeyman instead. They waited until the scene where the Boogeyman murdered the lead's girlfriend to shut it off (by then, our teacher had stormed off to bark at the manager). Refunds, passes for free movies and mumbles of "Sorry" ensued. I will never forget that image.
 * p/FrostingAndCookies: This happened to me in the mid-00s. Went with my parents and sister to see Robots and the trailers started with The Final Cut. Okay, not appropriate thematically for a kids film, but we shrugged it off. And then the trailer for Cursed plays. Um... what? Then the trailer for Boogeyman plays. Oh. Hell. No. The parents began to stand up and file out, then a theater tech ran in and ordered us to move to the theater next door. They'd gotten the reels confused and (IIRC) Saw was about to start. We all got our money back and still got to see the movie, so that was a bit better.
 * p/TheMovementOfThings: The worst I've ever done is playing some IFC Films release instead of "The Hangover", and I noticed before the trailers finished so managed to stop it and switch out the reels without the handful of patrons in the theater suspecting a thing. Other projectionists have told me worse stories - for example one of my co-workers once managed to play "Deep Impact" instead of "Spice World" for a sold-out early morning matinee crowd, and had to hand out free passes to angry parents.
 * p/IWakeUpInATree_105: One of my colleagues once started A Good Day to Die Hard instead of Pitch Perfect.

All the people who wanted to see Pitch Perfect were screaming and cursing more than John McClane ever did in the entire Die Hard franchise.

We ended up having to hand out free passes and apologize to every single one of them.
 * p/Fullproof_Dog: When I was in college me and my friends went to see a Rocky Horror Picture Show participation screening. The shadowcast folk were all set up and we were all ready to have a good time.

And then the projectionist (this theater hadn't switched to digital yet at the time) started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The shadowcast folk were befuddled but made the best of it by riffing the 7 minutes of the film we saw before the staff realized the mistake and shut it off.

I mean, the poor projectionist was probably having a smoke outside and thought everything was alright.
 * p/TheDancingStuntman: Only barely related, but whatever - a few years back I went to see a horror movie marathon at a local multiplex. The film I wanted to see was Saw. However, the atmosphere was ruined by The Lego Movie being played in the next theater over. Here I am looking at Jigsaw torturing people, and I can hear people singing "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! EVERYTHING IS COOL WHEN YOU'RE PART OF A TEAM!" through the thin cinema walls.
 * p/IrateMan: This happened to me when I was little - we went to go see TMNT (the CGI one from the mid-to-late-2000s), and imagine our surprise when it starts in ancient Greece! 300 played for about 10 minutes before the screen went black, the lights came on and the manager walked in to apologize for the mixup and offer refunds. In the end they got the actual TMNT screening on track, and I did get to see the movie.
 * p/BobbiBobbiBob: That must have been a fun experience for the people in the theater that were supposed to watch 300. Everybody is seated and waiting for the film to start... then suddenly they hear a voice from the projection booth shout "This theater's been certified Turtlefied!" (only people who watched The Next Mutation or the crossover with Power Rangers in Space will get that reference)
 * p/TheElectricLightArkestra: I worked at a theater in the late-1990s/early-2000s. I worked in the projection booth. I was often part of the reel build team but occasionally got to man the projector. We would usually only have one film reel per projector, but every so often, we would have two. This wouldn't be an issue as long as you threaded the correct movie through the projector.

You've Got Mail was midway through it's run in our second-largest theater, and Virus was beginning it's run. Virus was scheduled to be played during the afternoon, and You've Got Mail in the evening.

On that day (a sold-out Friday night), the projectionist forgot to switch out the reels, so the crowd that were going to see You've Got Mail instead saw Virus. As I'm having a break, one of the ushers runs up to me. "Billy! We got a problem!" I round the corner, an angry-looking middle-aged woman glared at me, and I walk in just in time to see the scene from Virus with the robotic spider attacking the crew as I'm screaming over the radio for somebody to go and shut it off.

We had to apologize sincerely and give everyone free passes. After we shut it off, we swapped out the reel and started You've Got Mail.
 * p/Electric_Fan: A movie theater I worked at played Jigsaw in front of an entire auditorium of church groups waiting to see some religious film from Pure Flix. They waited until halfway through the first "game" to shut it off, and the manager, upon arriving to apologize and offer refunds, visibly looked like he was fearing he would be attacked for giving a poor attempt at an apology.