Obsession
Follow movie manager Brad and his string of theatre characters as each story encompasses a different version of the characters in their local theatre, reflective of the film being reviewed. Each review is a story in and of itself. So enjoy and have fun at the movies!
The Opening
I'm movie manager Brad, and here is my story ...
Last night I got to watch an early session of the horror movie, Obsession but only because it's part of my job. As a box office manager at the local movie theatre, I have the pleasure of setting up film schedules. The perk of the job, and my favorite perk of any perk thus far in life, is getting a huge insight to upcoming films and even better, getting to be the very first person in the area to see these movies. Basically, I would play them early to make sure that the film's data wasn't corrupted and that the film played smoothly all the way through ... from preview to end credits. And unofficially, I may ... from time to time ... have invited the employees to view with me and make it an unofficial viewing party, helping build moral and create an opportunity for bonding.
The latest early showing I did was different though, in every way possible. For one, I didn't invite the staff this time and still wound up with a viewing buddy. I definitely wasn't expecting that. Also, my viewing partner was acting strange towards the end. It had me worried but, she seemed to be fine later on the next day. I don't know . . . I guess I just figured she was probably just her trying to freak me out and mess with me. You see, while the movie started playing one of my runners came wandering into the theatre. A runner is someone who runs the concessions, food, and drinks to the patrons in the theaters. It's usually the first job you get entering in the theatre industry. The bottom rung, if you will. Her name's Ash, and she's one of my top runners.
For one reason or another Ash's ride fell through that night and she was stuck there for a few hours. Instead of despairing, she apparently wandered back in and heard the movie playing in theatre six. The movie had just started when she wandered in.
"Hey, Brad, is that you", she asked while slowly creeping up in the dark trying not to disturb whoever was in front of her.
"Yeah, what's up", I replied. The start of the movie was simple to follow while talking to her, so I wanted to inquire ... but I wanted to make it quick and to the point. "Are you ok?"
"Oh yeah, my ride is just not showing up for a few hours. Can I watch with you until then?"
I had to think it over really quickly. On the one hand she was a female subordinate alone with me in a rather larger dark room. But on the other, we've always been completely professional, she's never given me reason to question her character, and she's about my age so it's not like the optics would be terrible. Even if Dee (my theatre's general manager) had watched the security footage or anything. I made a split-second decision after a split-second analysis of the situation.
"Sure, sit anywhere you'd like. Grab some popcorn and a drink from the kitchen if you'd like."
"Ok, cool. I'll set my stuff down and be right back."
With that she put her coat and bag down on the seat beside me, then headed down the ramp. The movie was pacing along fine and I could put my focus back on the film. I didn't put too much thought in the situation, mostly because I didn't feel like I needed to. "She'd get her popcorn and I'd have a little viewing buddy for the night", I thought.
The following night I came in for the late shift from 6pm-2am. For the first hour I would stay in the manager's office to go through my routine of checking emails, checking the managers work from the previous shift, then create a gameplan for my shift. Being one of the kitchen managers I would then head to the kitchen and go through another routine of checking the prep station, checking the high targeted cleaning locations, and many other routine checks. Odd thing though, almost nothing was lacking in the prep station that day. Usually there's a few things that have been left behind or forgotten about due to the busy nature of the job, but everything was prepped in double, or even triple in quantity. All expiration dates were on point, all of the condiment cups were filled and prepped, even most of the surfaces were completely clean.
"Wow, did we hire a cleaning service for the day", I joked, talking to the other kitchen manager I was taking over for. Her name is Jessica and she's been there at the theater for the better part of a decade, even though she was still younger than me. It was always good practice for me to have a little "pow-wow" with the morning manager, have a bit of a handoff of information from the first shift to know anything important for the closing shift.
"Ha, I know what you mean. I've actually never seen the kitchen this clean during the day before. Rarely seen it this clean after closing either. But no, it's just been so dead all day that we haven't really had anything else to do except clean and prep."
"I get that, about the cleaning I mean, but dead? On a Friday? And with a new horror movie out this week, too. That's weird", I said with my arms crossed while my mind immediately raced through dates, possible holidays, recently reported news, really anything that could explain it. "I mean, sometimes it doesn't really get busy until now, so it'll probably pick up".
"Yeah, I think I saw on the latest ticket sales report that almost every seat is booked up from here on through the night, so I'm sure you'll be busy soon", replied Jessica. "Strange though, a lot of seats were bought up throughout the day today as well but, I don't know ... I'd be surprised if we had more than 50 people show up all day today so far. Basically, a lot of no-shows even though a lot of ticket reports show that nearly all seats were taken up"
With that I had wished her a farewell and decided to look everything over once more. She was right about everything though. Jessica, I mean. The ticket numbers were super high throughout the day that day, but according to Jessica, only a small fraction actually showed up. "How strange", I thought. But with that I got back to work and figured it'd get busier as the night went on.
The Review
"So, why did you decide to start sweeping theaters with me", asked Ash.
"Well, it's the weirdest thing actually, literally no one has shown up since the shift change for their movie. I know right now Dee is low-key freaking out in her office trying to find out what's happening".
"What do you mean", she asked.
"So, the ticket reports show that every seat has been claimed ever since the shift change at six, right? But literally no one has shown up since then. And even though Dee doesn't show it, she is absolutely freaked out right now. She's almost never here past eight and it's well past ten. The kitchen is all but cleaned and closed up already, we sent most of the staff home already ... there's literally nothing keeping her here except trying to figure this out. My only real question besides the tickets are the theaters. If we haven't had anyone in here all day, why are they all so messy? I don't remember them being this dirty when I did the theater check last night before leaving."
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure", she replied with a somewhat shaky voice. I don't think I even have access to the ticket reports, and I just helped with kitchen cleaning at first when I got here. I didn't even start theater cleaning until you grabbed me to start cleaning them. I'm as surprised as you right now at how dirty they are."
"The only thing that explains the tickets is that there was either some kind of hack from an outside source, someone bought out every ticket with stolen credit cards or something, or someone here got in the seating system and blocked off every seat for the night. I mean, to me it sounds like it either boils down to a felony act or someone being fired. There's no way all the seats were paid for and no one has shown up. Still though, the dirty theaters are strange. Wish I could ask someone from the day shift if any of the few people who came through today were caught theater hopping. Maybe someone trashed the theaters on purpose for a prank or something."
"Well, if someone did then I officially quit", Ash said with a sardonic tone. She always loved teasing me about quitting almost as much as she loved teasing about being a better manager than me, even though she was simply a runner. "Seriously, if it wasn't for someone's idea of a prank, we'd probably be able to go home by now."
"I mean, you probably would be able to ... runner", I whipped back in my usual playful tone with her, hoping she'd take the bait and enjoy some back-and-forth banter for a few minutes. But us MANAGERS ... we can't just go home when we want to. We're actually professionals you know", I continued in the the teasing tone.
"Oh yeah, you clean trash like a real theater professional", she replied in an equally teasing tone. I was glad she took the playful bait, until the next thing she said. "But, I guess if I had to clean up someone's prank, doing it with you isn't the worst."
The way she said that caught me off guard. The words "doing it with you isn't the worst", along with how she said it . . . it almost came off as ... as ... well, flirty. But I thought, "naw, there is no way that she'd just start flirting with me out of the blue like this. We've worked together for almost a year and we're currently cleaning trash. Literally walking up the stairs to the top of theater 7 with brooms and trash bags . . . why would she suddenly start flirting with me now? Yeah, I'm just imagining stuff".
"So, what did you think of the movie last night", Ash asked me as we topped the final aisle of the theater. "I don't remember much after the movie, but you weren't by my side so we couldn't talk about it".
Again, the words she used confused me. They didn't come off as flirty that time but they made me uncomfortable all the same. Still, I didn't want her to pick up on that. As her manager I had to project a sense of strength in my professionalism toward her so instead of indulging in the awkwardness I played it off instead. Giving her a playful side-eye and raising an eyebrow, I gave her a quick little nudge on her arm with my elbow.
"Ok, sorry ... weirdo", I replied. I felt good about my course of action as the awkwardness melted away immediately. "I don't remember much about last night either, after the movie that is."
"Same here", replied Ash, starting to sweep with me and clearing seats of any rubbish found in them. "But yeah, what did you think of the movie though."
"ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE FUEL", I turned around and exploded with surprising enthusiasm. I dramatically dropped the broomstick and dustpan handle throwing my arms up and out in
"Oh wow . . . you really loved it", she replied with a giggle. "What about it was so good?"
"Two words; no ... "downtime."
"That's three words, silly boy", said Ash with a playful little push of her hand on my shoulder. It immediately occurred to me that, well ... Ash had never called me that. She never called anyone that. She didn't talk like that and I don't think the word "silly" was even in her vocabulary.
"Um, yeah, well ... joking aside and all, it's just on another level with the suspense. It is just non-stop constant. I've rarely seen a movie where there is just a constant state of suspense hanging on every scene and on every line. You never know what's around the corner of every single second while watching. The way that the concept is designed, along the immaculate writing for each character, you literally get no downtime in the experience.
"Ok, what do you actually mean by "down time"? Because I hardly remember being stirred at all. The only time I jumped was when you hand touched mine when you tried grabbing your soda."
Again, this was not like her. She hated being touched and if it did happen, I know damn well she wouldn't want to bring it up. She was full of false confidence. A girl who projected all of the flair and strength in the world with no real resolve to remain as such if the world but poked her more honest and delicate nature.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I don't remember that, actually. But sorry", I replied, hoping that would be the end of the awkward comment. But before she could introduce any more skewed statements, I continued. "Anyway, what I mean by downtime is that in most horror movies, suspense thrillers, or action films you have a formulaic design in the storytelling where there is the established base of the story in its characters and context, then a build-up, a climax, and then a cool-down. And within that there are multiple smaller instances of build-up, climax, and cool-down, repeating over and over until the end".
"Wow, story nerd", said Ash, which sounded more like her so I was happy about that.
"Shut up, least I know that "downtime" is one whole word and not two ... like YOU", I replied, feeling the magic of our natural banter returning to normal.
"Ok, well, it has no downtime ... which intensifies the whole experience I guess, like you said ... but what else", she asked. We were already almost done with theater seven and on to the big theater in theater six.
"Um ... well, the writing was amazing, like I said. It would have to be because a film that goes against that formula can get old really quick if it doesn't have great writing to keep you engaged. And even though the cast wasn't a standout cast, it had some interesting choices. Andy Richter from The Conan Show was there, a veteran talent but not a household name, and Cooper Tomlinson from the sketch group Bad Ideas ... but that's about it. Still, their performances were mostly amazing. Especially Inde Navarrette, who played the supernaturally obsessed Nikki. The strength of her performance is why the non-stop suspense was so effective!
"I agree, her obsession was spot on. Very relatable", said Ash. We were collecting our things from the theater to move to theater six and with that statement I grew quiet again for a bit and just gave her a side-eye. Something about how she said that statement, along with everything else she said, it just made my skin crawl. If she was trying for a long hall joke here, she was nailing it. But, in the off chance that she isn't ... that it isn't a joke for some reason ... I just didn't want to poke the situation any further. After a few minutes and while walking down the hall to the main hallway she broke the silence once more.
"So, was there anything you didn't like", she asked.
"Yeah, actually. The acting of Michael Johnston, the main protagonist, was hit and miss. He was able to portray absolute terror and fear with perfection, immersing you in the fear his character experiences with pinpoint precision. However, when it came to regret, or sadness, it was painful to watch ... and not in a good way. When he had his crying scenes, it felt like I was watching a 5-year-old trying to get away with something throwing out crocodile tears. Just not a well-rounded performance by him. But otherwise, everything else was amazing! The concept of wishing upon a willow tree from a standard new age store was great because it's mystical and vague enough to let you accept the concept of the fantastical story's premise."
The Closing
We were in theater six at that point, cleaning from top to bottom with time ticking away. We had been quiet with one another since entering the theater, yet with Ash "accidently" bumping into me here and there with a quick "Oops", or an "I'm sorry" to follow. Since entering theater six, where I saw the Obsession movie the night prior, everything felt different. The atmosphere felt dark and heavy, the silence just absolutely deafening and yet still more bearable than Ash's awkward commentary.
"Hey guys, we're the only ones left in the building. I sent everyone else home and closed the doors", said Dee. She was at the exit hall by the theater's staircase looking up at us. "I'm not sure what's going on. I've already sent an email up the chain to ask for some IT help in the matter, but it seems that some of the seats were bought by the same credit card and the rest were blocked from our own system. Whoever is responsible either hacked us from outside, or it's someone on staff. Either way, I'm sure we'll track down who's responsible."
"Ok, thank you", snapped Ash with a loud and forceful tone.
"Ashley, you good? You want to just head out? I'm sure Brad can fini..."
"NO ... no, I'm fine. We're fine. Thank you", Ash replied rapidly and frantically.
"Whatever ... watch the tone though. I AM still your boss", said Dee as she walked down the hall and out of eyesight.
A few more minutes passed by and we were near the bottom of the theater aisles. Actually, we were in the exact row we were sitting in the night prior for the movie. Ash followed behind me as I swept in front of her. She just collected any trash in the seats and wiped down the dinner trays from each seat with a quick wipe down of the seat itself. To be honest, I was really hoping that the silence would keep going. At least through theater five. We would've been almost done by then and the rest of the theaters were much smaller. Plus, there was just something about theater six that was unnerving to me.
"So, here we are, Brad", Ash said from behind. I turned around slowly not sure what to expect. She was in front of the seats that she and I sat in the night before. I didn't notice it until now but looking at those seats, as opposed to everything we just cleaned up, those two are the only seats that didn't have a speck of trash anywhere on or around them. Her hands began gliding up and down the leather wrapped arm rests and then she stroked both seat cushions with her hands, pressing down in the middle of them and lowering her head as if reminiscing.
"This is where it happened, my dear", said Ash.
"Where ... what, happened?" I asked. At this point I figure this has to be where her prank would be sprung after a long and painful setup. But whatever, I was more than ready for it to be over and lambast her for whole thing. "All we did was watch Obsession".
"Exactly! Our first movie together", she replied.
"Together? What do you mean? We've watched plenty of movies over the last year together. You've come to plenty of the viewing parties I invited the staff to."
"NO", she screamed at the top of her lungs while raising her head back up. "Not together like THAT! I mean ... To....geth...ER. We are now together, forever. And Obsession was our first movie. Fitting since it's why we're fated forever. Can't you hear it, my dear. The snap."
"The ... snap", I asked. At this point life felt surreal, like I was living a vivid dream. Or, more like a nightmare. But it definitely didn't feel like real life. Still, I was definitely awake and completely aware of what was happening, though I wish I wasn't. "What snap are you talking about, besides your brain."
"Funny, my dear, as you always are. But I'm referring to the snap of the willow tree in the movie. Remember, when Michael's character Bear snaps the wishing willow branch the first time and makes that wish of his. The wish that sets their fates in motion.
"Yeah, but come on though, it's only a movie and I didn't even say any...." I replied but paused mid-sentence. It suddenly struck me that, knowing what was happening in the movie and waiting for Ash to get back from the kitchen last night, I had the intrusive thought of "what if this happened to me and Ash ... what IF I wished for Ash to love me more than anyone else in the entire world". And it just so happened that I thought that right at the same time that the character, Bear, snapped the willow branch thus enacting the nightmarish wish.
"No, stop ... jokes over, ok. This is getting freaky now", I said. I hated saying it because it felt like admitting defeat. Something she would hold over me for months. But it was better than keeping on with this for the rest of the night. "Wait a minute", I thought. "How does she know about that first time he snapped the willow branch? She was in the kitchen when he did that, and when she got back, she just sat there. Damn, now that I think about it, she was so deadpan in her seat the whole time, it wasn't really normal at all".
I didn't notice that, while I was traveling back through my memories of last night, that she had traveled closer to me in the aisle, closing the distance drastically and putting her face within inches of my own. Eyes wide but glazed over, she stared at me face to face ... literally ... garnishing a wide smile that seemed to wrap around her entire head. She grabbed both of my wrists with a tight grip. It wasn't painful, and I knew I could break away if I needed to and so I didn't feel any kind of threat, but it was very forceful and broke every barrier and protocol in the workplace.
"This isn't a joke, my dear. Maxing out all my cards and blocking every other seat so we had the theater all to ourselves, trashing all the theaters to give us some alone time from the others here, it was all for you. This is love. True love. And it's with you ... and me ... and the movies! I love you more than any of my friends. More than my family. I love you more than anyone in the entire world and I want you to stay with me in the theater . . . forever!"
"Ok, enough Ashley", I said loudly while whipping my arms away and breaking her grip. I backed up and out of the aisle, standing on the stairs knowing there was one last step and then a long run down the theater six hallway.
"No . . . no it's not enough. It isn't enough until I have you, you have me, and we have the theater, my dear", she said while raising the old heavy wooden sweeper. It was an older sweeper that we almost never used and would just find as it would float around the theater when someone used it spur of the moment. It was basically a heavy block of wood, about a yard long, full of bristles and topped with a thick wooden rod of a handle. While I'm not sure how lethal it could be, I do remember Chucky killed a schoolteacher with a simple yard stick one time, and I didn't want to see how this played out. So, I just took off down the final step, rounded the stairway wall, and sprinted down the carpeted tunnel with lights beaming down in strobe like fashion overhead. There was something about sprinting down the hallway that made me feel invincible. Like the tight space honed in my speed and let me run faster than ever before . . . plus I was scared out of my mind!
"BRAD . . . COME BACK HERE AND LOVE ME", I heard a reverberating scream enveloping me in the hall like an amplifier surrounding me on all sides. My brain seemed to rock inside my skull from the sensation, and I almost wanted to cover my ears . . . but I wanted to keep to my form in sprinting away even more so. After a few seconds I burst from the hallway and into the main theater hall, tumbling out over my own feet yet scrambling back up in a solid fluid motion and running toward Dee's office. She's a massive broad woman and could help me if Ash needed to be detained.
"Dee, Dee I need to talk to you", I screamed while knocking on the door. "Something is going on with Ash and I think we need to call someone."
"What are you talking about" asked Dee as she opened the door.
"I don't know. Ash has been low-key flirting with me all night ... which you know she doesn't do ... she's been "accidently" touching me the last hour or so, and she just screamed at me at the top of her lungs. And she says that it all started last night when we were watching Obsession togeth..."
A sudden rush of air blew by my head followed by a wet sensation spraying across my face. Looking at Dee I could see her eyes widen for a split second, then begin rolling up and into her head as her body went limp. There was the heavy broom head block of the sweeper suddenly in front of me, and it was stained with hair and blood where Dee's head was but a second ago. I quickly spun around and found myself once again face to face with the demonic smile plastered on her face. Then she rapidly pulled back her arm holding the sweep handle and I felt a sudden burst of blunt pain strike the back of my head and my body lunge forward. She had pulled the broom back toward and caught my neck with the broom head, thus pulling me with it. With our lips crashing together and our teeth colliding like two trains there was a sharp sense of pain traveling up my jaw and flooding my body. I could feel the warm wet blood squeezing between our lips as I pushed myself off and away from her. Some of my teeth were running around free in my mouth and I just shoved her to the side and went running for the side building exit while spitting out my own teeth.
When I got to the door I found it locked. I forgot that Dee had said that she already locked up the building when she let everyone out. Instead I ran down the hall, quickly passing by Dee's office and seeing Ash simply standing there watching me run by. I figured that the other side of the theater might be unlocked . . . Dee didn't always make her way to the far end of the theater like she's supposed to.
"Damn, you just had to go all out tonight of all nights, didn't you Dee", I thought as I found the double doors leading to the other side exit locked. Turning around I realized I had the choice of going through the kitchen and into the lobby where the front doors were or go back down the hallway toward Dee's office and take the other hallway down towards the lobby. I didn't want to risk running into Ash again so I sprinted through the kitchen doors but immediately saw the haunting silhouette of Ash darkening the kitchen door window leading into the lobby. She was already waiting for me. I felt trapped but instantly remembered one thing that she didn't know. The doghouse in theater 8, basically the term we use for the small projector room in the theater, it had a ladder that led to the roof. I knewI couldn't escape from the roof, but I could at least barricade the door, scream for help, and have a safe place to call the cops.
"BRAD", I heard a revolting scream echo throughout the halls and I took that as a sign to run for the roof. I sprinted into the theater, raced up the stairs, and unlocked the doghouse door with my key. Before closing the door I glanced down and saw that the theater was empty, so there's no way she knew which theater I ducked in. I always wanted to climb the ladder to the roof, but not in that way.
On top of the roof I raced around the perimeter of the building real fast. Sometimes a cop would lay in wait somewhere in our parking lot, trying to catch the next speedster or broken taillight. There was no such luck though, but now I dug deep in my pocket and grabbed my phone knowing I'd get a good signal way up here. But before I could make a call I turned around and saw Ash standing right in front of me!
"You got your wish, my dear", she said as she inched closer to me, knowing full well I was but inches from the side of the building myself. "And now, I want my wish". With that she lifted up her hand revealing a willow tree branch. One that perfectly resembled the one in the movie. Lifting it up she took it by both hands and held it right out in front at eye level. "And I wish . . . that we could be here in the theater, together . . . . forever!"
"Noooooo", I screamed, right before hearing a snap sound. Everything went black, and I've been lost in a darkly haze ever since. But I still feel things. I feel tired, as if I haven't sat in years. I feel scared, like I'm not in control of anything anymore. I feel sick to my stomach, like I haven't had anything to eat in months. And worse of all, I feel loved . . . like Ash is still nearby at all times. Maybe one day I'll wake up, maybe one day someone can make a wish upon a willow tree, and set me free of her Obsession ...
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