Donnie Darko is finally playing in the Orlando area. Bill and I caught it over at the Altamonte 8, the only independent theatre in the area playing it. We were very excited to finally catch the Director's cut of this top notch movie. However, the movie theatre itself turned out to be a story in and of itself.
We arrived at the Altamonte 8 just after dark. There is a dim light eminating from within the theatre, but otherwise it appears closed. The ticket window is sealed with masking tape and a hand written sign directs us to purchase tickets inside. The figure of two men are outlined by the dim light behind the ticket counter. We cautiously approach the men, as we draw closer, the shadows depart to reveal cardboard cut outs of Legolas and Gandalf. Visibly shaken, we turn to our left and find a slightly less animated gentleman who is either going to sell us tickets or kill us. Bill is the first to speak, "Two tickets for Donnie Darko please." The clerk who is best described as the atypical Scooby Doo villian replies "Errghghg Donnnrriiiee Daaarkooo 14, no 7, no 14 dollars." Old man withers points us to another hand written sign which advises that all movies start on time, because no one is stupid enough to advertise at this clearly abandoned theatre. We hurry to our seats, anticipating either death or a good movie.
The theatre was devoid of people, so we chose to sit in the DEAD center of the room. Some more people filtered in just before the movie started raising the headcount to a seat packing 4. The movie began promptly at 7:20 as advertised and despite poor sound and video quality it was a great experience. The darkness and silence of the movie theatre lent the movie a more dramatic setting then one would experience at home.
When the movie ended, we made our way to the exit through the empty theatre. It was fairly dark in the theatre and no employees were to be found. All the lights were out, and the exit was a one way door. From the outside, you would never be able to tell a movie was just shown. We discussed the movie experience and decided that we would not be surprised if we went back to this theatre the next day and found that this theatre was never open for business and we had just experienced some strange supernatural phenomena. If you're a fan of Donnie Darko, you know we wouldn't have it any other way.
