B (5:05)
It was just. Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them a minute. My name is Sam. I'm 27 years old. I'm a law school admin, and I just finished my Master of Public Health and Epidemiology, and I'm currently living in Philadelphia. I grew up in a small town in rural Maryland in a fairly religious family. We went to church every week. It was an evangelical church, but my family was pretty superstitious growing up, so my dad's family were regular churchgoers. They went every single week. They were Fairly, no nonsense about it. My mom's family practiced Santeria and what her mom has called witchcraft, or, you know, they use different words for it. For generations, they practiced the before converting to Christianity. So she has a lot of stories as well. So these. Their kind of backgrounds made them very cautious. So I was always taught to kind of protect myself and not to put myself in a position where I might invite any unwanted spirits or anything like that. And it was kind of presented to me as like, this stuff might not be real, but you don't want to play with it anyway. Like, you just want to be safe. When my kind of story started, I was around 15 or 16, and at that time, I would say I was fairly superstitious. I don't know if I, like, explicitly believed in ghosts or spirits or anything like that, but I definitely, like, that was a basis kind of for how I saw the world. So it was like I had never seen anything myself. But I was like, these are things that can happen to people. I guess a good word for it is agnostic. Like, I just kind of wasn't really sure where I stood. You know, I had been questioning Christianity. I was not really sure that that made a lot of sense for me at that time. And there were all of these things that couldn't be explained in the world. So I was really just in this, like, very open time of my life where I was like, I'm not really sure what is true and what's out there, but, you know, any of it could be. When I was about 14, I started working at this movie theater in the next town over. It was a fairly small theater. We had a small lobby, a little hallway leading to each of the theaters. And then the smaller theaters were, you know, maybe like 60 seats, and the bigger theaters were a few hundred seats, probably. But it had four theaters. So from left to right, you had theater one, theater two, theater three, and theater four. Theaters one and two were bigger, and theaters three and four were smaller, with two being the biggest. It really felt like, you know, any kind of strip mall movie theater, nothing really exceptional or off about it. Especially during the day, it really was just like a building. And at night, you know, it would get very dark. So the parking lot wasn't especially well lit. So it got super, super dark in the building. But, you know, we were all movie theater employees. We weren't especially afraid of the dark. I was working pretty much as often as I could, as many hours as I could, trying to make money. And this theater, the last show usually started at around 10:00'. Clock. But sometimes we would have early premiere showings around midnight, so we could be there as late as 2 or 3 in the morning, depending on how long those premiere movies were. And I really loved this job. I thought it was super fun. I got to see movies and eat popcorn. You know, working in a theater, you hear all sorts of stories about how theaters are haunted. And I assume probably just because they're these, like, spaces where people are sitting for a long period of time super late into the night, and you might find yourself in the dark alone. It just seems like really the perfect environment for a ghost story. So our theater had allegedly a resident ghost, and it was kind of this, like, lighthearted story. But everyone said back when we had film projectors, which we kept our film projectors for, like, much longer than a lot of theaters did, I think they were only replaced with digital maybe two years before I started working there. So they would say that if you looked up into the projection booth while you were watching a movie, that you could see an old man operating the film projectors. And the thing that was strange about that was that there was no old man working there at the time. And really, like, the film projectors didn't need to be maintained throughout the movie. There wouldn't be anyone necessarily operating them. So, you know, this guy definitely didn't exist. But tons of people said that, yeah, there's the old guy. You can see him operating the film projectors. But it was just this, like, lighthearted thing. Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't, but everyone likes it. So when they replaced the projectors with digital projectors, people stopped seeing this guy. And so we all would joke like, oh, he doesn't know how to work the new machines. So when I was working there, anytime you would go up into the projection booth, if you had your phone flashlight on or like, you know, any kind of flashlight, the light would flicker, which is, like, pretty strange. But, you know, we would joke like, oh, he, you know, he doesn't know how to use the new machines, and he's playing with all the technology, whatever. But again, it wasn't anything anyone took very seriously. Flashlights flicker. I never saw the projection booth ghost. I did experience the flickering several times where my flashlight would just, like, flicker or go out. I'd have to bring a backup flashlight or use my phone flashlight. And even my phone flashlight would sometimes flicker or go out. And again, it was really just like, that's weird. And you'd go on with your day in one of the bigger Theaters people would sometimes say that when the lights were down and the movie was going, they would see what looked like someone sitting in one of the seats ahead of them, watching the movie, eating their popcorn, whatever, and then the lights would come up and there would be nobody sitting there. When I worked there, we would sometimes pre screen movies. So we would get a movie in and we would watch the movie to make sure that the file was, you know, fine. It may have just been an excuse to watch a movie before it came out, but, you know, it was just employees. And we would all sit together, usually about halfway back. So we were watching this movie that had just come out. It was maybe a Marvel movie or something. And there was maybe eight of us, and we were all sitting about halfway back. Some of us were on the right side, some of us were on the left. And I remember seeing close to the front of the theater, like maybe four or five rows back, seeing what just like, very clearly looked like the shadow of somebody watching the movie. I just remember seeing what looked very clearly to me like an arm picking up a soda and drinking it and then putting it back down, which wouldn't have been abnormal except that I knew nobody was sitting up there. And I knew, like, I could look behind me and see every person that should have been in that theater. At the end of the movie, the lights came up and there was nobody there. And I just wrote it off as, it's a trick of the light. It's nothing. But then my friend who was sitting next to me, my co worker said, did you see that? That was really weird. There's, you know, a person sitting over there. And when we got up and walked out, another employee who had been sitting on the opposite side of the theater from us said, you know, I saw this. I could have sworn somebody was sitting eight rows in front of me and the lights came up and nobody was there. That was super weird. So we were all a little, like, freaked out by that, that we all experienced it. But it was a pretty common occurrence where you might see the shadow of someone who looked like they were watching a movie who was not actually there. It really just looked like a dark silhouette. If you were sitting far enough behind someone in a theater, the screen was bright enough that it backlit the person so you could really only see their silhouette. There wasn't any, like, real detail that you could see. Even if there was a person there, I think you probably wouldn't be able to see much detail. It was a little creepy. But again, it was. There was no, like, threatening aura from any of these, like, stories. And even when I saw it, it was really kind of like we were like, oh, my God, I can't believe we saw that. That's crazy. It was more like we were kind of excited that, you know, we got to see some of, you know, the other employee who saw this shadow at the same time as us was like, I don't. I don't want to talk about it. That's too weird for me. But, you know, at that stage, I felt pretty comfortable still coming to work. It didn't feel like there was anything that wanted to harm me or anything like that. So as. As far as I was concerned, I was like, okay, well, whatever this is, whether it's, you know, ghosts or whatever, they're here to watch movies, you know, they're not here to hurt us or anything like that. So there was one time where I was working late by myself. It was a super slow shift, probably a weekday, and I had just a manager present. So when there's just one person and a manager, when the last movie starts, the manager would take the cash drawer and take it into the office and lock themselves in to count the cash drawer, and I would stay behind and clean and whatever. So we hadn't sold any tickets for the last show, so I was basically just required to go and check the theaters, make sure nobody was in there, clean up anything, and then close down the concessions. So the last movie had started and the manager had asked me over the walkie talkie, hey, the movie is still playing. Can you just make sure nobody's in there before we shut it off? And I want to say it was like a Resident Evil movie or something. Something that was like, a little creepy. So I went in there, and this was in theater three, so it was one of the smaller theaters. And I remember as soon as I opened the door to the theater, it was like I was just anxious and, like, my chest felt tight and it felt cold. I don't know, it was almost like when you are in a situation and you realize that it's going to become dangerous or that you need to get out of there. That feeling that you get in your body, like, oh, I need to get out of here. But it felt completely inappropriate. I was in this theater by myself. There was nothing as far as I knew that could hurt me that was at all dangerous in there. So I kind of brushed it off. I was like, I don't know exactly what this is, but, you know, I'm probably just being irrational, and I just kind of chalked it up to like, oh, it's, it's late, it's dark in here, you know, it's midnight or something. It's fine. I'm just going to ignore it and clean. I was like, it's probably just anxiety. I'm not going to worry about it. And then it just like got worse as I went on. As I went down each aisle, I would just get more and more afraid and full of dread. And I went down each aisle and looked down each aisle to make sure nobody was down there and to make sure there was nothing on the floor. It was a pretty dark movie too, so there wasn't a ton of light, but there was enough that I could see where I was going. I didn't need to use a flashlight. And when I got about 2/3 of the way in, I looked down the aisle and at the very end in the corner, there was this figure. And it was crouched. It was super thin, very tall. It was this shadowy figure. It had its arms wrapped around its knees and it was almost in the fetal position, sitting upright. And its arms were very long, its legs were very long. As soon as I saw it, I kind of froze. And at first I thought that there was a person, like a man crouched because it was definitely human shaped. But the longer I looked at it, like after probably just a second, I realized this thing was dark. It was almost like a total absence of light. The room was fairly dark, but it was much darker. It was almost like it was just like sucking all the light out of the. The space it occupied. And it was looking straight at me, like it was. It was crouched, kind of facing towards the seat in front of it on the ground, but its face was pointed at me. And the worst part about it, and I remember it so clearly, was that its face looked like. Like maybe it had a face once or something. But it was just like smudged in almost like a spiral. I'm not sure if it would have had features originally or what, but it really looked like smudged. I remember describing it to someone as if someone had taken their thumb and just smudged it in a circle until there was nothing left. Maybe the most scary part was that it was solid. Like it looked like a real thing was there. Like I could reach out and touch it. It didn't look like, you know, like your hand would go through it if you reached out to it. It really looked like there was a 3D figure there. It really, like it took up space. It was. It seemed very corporeal to me. It did seem like. Like, wavy around the edges or, like, shaky or I guess staticy could be a word for it. And it just had this, like, energy emanating off of it. This, like, threatening energy. I remember thinking, like, this thing wants to kill me. It's going to kill me. And it felt like I couldn't breathe. As it got worse and worse, it didn't really feel like it was my body doing that on its own. Like it wasn't just anxiety. It felt like something was constricting my. My breathing and something was making it so I couldn't function normally. And when I saw it, I just. I couldn't breathe. Like, I felt like it was like something was strangling me. And so I think that was what I thought was going to happen, that it was, like, psychically going to just kill me. Like, I would. It was going to strangle me psychically or something, that I was just going to stop being able to breathe and die. That's what it felt like to me. And I remember by this time, it sounded like the movie was playing so loud. Like, so much louder than a movie would ever be playing. And I couldn't hear anything else. And I was just absolutely gripped by this fear. And I remember thinking, I have to take a good look at this. Like, I have to know that I really saw this. And I stayed there for as long as I could, which probably was only like, five or six seconds. And then I just got out of there. I was absolutely, like. I knew it was trying to kill me. That was all I could think was, this thing is going to kill me. And I remember I was shaking. I was so, so terrified. And I went to the manager's office, and I knocked on the door, and she unlocked it. And I just said, I don't know what I just saw in there, but I need to go home. And she was like, don't tell me anything else. Like, I don't want to hear it. I have to stay here until I finish counting this drawer. Just go home. And I just remember I was just, like, shaking, and I had this nervous energy. But, I mean, there was nothing to do except go. So I went home. And at this point, it's probably, you know, midnight or one in the morning or something. And I get home, and I'm living with my parents at this time. I'm a teenager, but everyone's in bed. And so I just went to bed. I didn't sleep well at all as a teen, so I'm sure I sat awake just, like, anxious and scared. For a few hours and then fell asleep. And then the next day, I told my sisters. I was like, I saw this thing. It was crazy. And they were like, oh, my God, that's crazy. That's awesome. Like, tell me all about it. And my parents were like, oh, you know, demons and ghosts are real. You have to be careful. But that was kind of it for a little while. You know, I told my co workers as if it was a ghost story. And some of them were very like, oh, my God, I'm so afraid to go out in the dark now. And most of them were like, that's a super cool ghost story. But I don't know if my co workers really took it seriously or if they were just going along with it because that was what we did. And, you know, I get it. I. I totally understand. Like, it sounds unbelievable. People love to tell ghost stories, especially at a movie theater. Like, people who work at movie theaters, at least at the movie theater that I worked at, loved ghost stories. So, like, I understood why they had that attitude. And I guess at the time, it didn't feel really important to me that people believed me because my sisters believe me, my brother believed me.