This made me LOL - "Horror film upsets family expecting 'Mimzy'"

[WMR]

Horror Film Upsets Families Expecting 'Mimzy'
AP

HOLTSVILLE, N.Y. (April 7) - An audience expecting to watch a family film was stunned to get an glimpse of a horror movie, which left some parents shaken and the theater chain apologizing for the movie mix-up.

The moviegoers were expecting to see "The Last Mimzy," the PG-rated tale of a brother and sister who discover a mysterious box of toys and become endowed with superhuman powers to help preserve humanity's future.

Instead, the crowd saw the opening scene of "The Hills Have Eyes 2," the R-rated sequel to a recent remake of a 1977 horror classic by the genre's renowned director, Wes Craven. The film centers on National Guard troops who stumble on a clan of mutant cannibals and starts with a chained woman giving birth to a mutant.

"There were kids that were crying, there were people trying to cover the kids' eyes, they were caught off guard," said Anthony Rasco, who was in the audience when the scene was unexpectedly shown Thursday in one of the theaters at the Island 16 multiplex.

Another patron said the episode had left his 3-year-old son with lingering, and unsettling, questions.

"My wife is eight months pregnant, and he's been asking, 'Is that what mommy's going to have?"' said Frank Doll, 31, of Mastic.

Theater staffers soon stopped the movie, gave the patrons free ticket vouchers, and started "The Last Mimzy" about a half-hour late, according to parents.

National Amusements Inc., which operates the Island 16 and about 1,500 other movie screens in the United States and elsewhere, expressed "deepest apologies" in a statement Friday.

"We are working with our theater's managers to correct this situation and ensure that it does not happen again," said the statement from the company, based in Dedham, Mass.

[Matt700wlw]

ooooops

[westofyou]

I dream of an America with nudity and F-words on network TV. Where the whole world doesn't stop because a school bus did. Children are the future… today belongs to me!

[Falls City Beer]

That really was the last Mimzy.

[dougdirt]

Haha, maybe this is funnier to me since I dont have kids, but I find it hilarious.

[Falls City Beer]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Haha, maybe this is funnier to me since I dont have kids, but I find it hilarious.

I have kids and I think it's hysterical. But then I don't rub down every object my kid wants to touch with Purel.

[TC81190]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

I have kids and I think it's hysterical. But then I don't rub down every object my kid wants to touch with Purel.

Trust me you would not want them to see said scene. You are an odd bird. :

Something tells me this is less accident and more prank. Or something, I don't know.

[Falls City Beer]

Originally Posted by TC81190

Trust me you would not want them to see said scene.

I'm sure I wouldn't, but then I think I'd recognize, from the previews, that I wasn't in the proper theater to see The Last Mimzy. Previews before horror films are dead giveaways.

While I don't plunk my 6 year old down in front of horror movies or anything, I do think some people are insanely keyed-up about what their kids see and endure.

[TC81190]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

I'm sure I wouldn't, but then I think I'd recognize, from the previews, that I wasn't in the proper theater to see The Last Mimzy. Previews before horror films are dead giveaways.

While I don't plunk my 6 year old down in front of horror movies or anything, I do think some people are insanely keyed-up about what their kids see and endure.

Yeah that's very true. I wonder if the previews for HH2 did show...

That should have given it away.

[TeamBoone]

According to the article, they weren't in the wrong theater; the correct theater showed the wrong movie.

[Degenerate39]

That's pretty funny. Don't you think you'd leave the theaters during the credits that pop up before the movie starts. That right there should tell you it's not Mimzy.

[Unassisted]

My family and I just saw "Mimsy" over the weekend. Since it doesn't start with credits, it's hard to tell where the movie begins and the trailers before it end. I sympathize with the parents in that theater, but in these days of giant multiplexes where one projectionist is threading up projectors for a dozen or more screens, it doesn't surprise me that a mistake like this could happen.

[Roy Tucker]

Frankly, if I were a parent and took a 3 yr. old and had this happen, I'd be pretty angry at the theater.

Expecting a family movie and getting a horror-gore R-rated movie isn't funny.

There are scenes and images I don't think little ones ought to be seeing. They move those kinds of movies pretty disturbing. I don't like them.

I don't think it will scar them for life, but it may make for some sleeping with the lights on for a night or two.

[bucksfan]

I can understand the mistake. Depending on whether previews were shown or not, I will have to hold off judgment on whether the people in the theater should have know something was amiss or not.

But that aside, I certainly would not have thought it funny if my 5 year old daughter had seen something like that, if I hadn't had fair chance to prevent it. It's one thing if it's something she probably sees once we walk out our front door anyway. It's entirely a different matter if it's something that sounds as abnormally grotesque as this was. This is not to say I would be angry with the theater as mistakes can happen. But to say it's funny, well, I just don't get that.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by TeamBoone

According to the article, they weren't in the wrong theater; the correct theater showed the wrong movie.

When I was working as a projectionist while home from college during the summers, I did this once.

Often, a multiplex will split a theater into day-night showings. In the daytime, a kids movie or family movie will play while, at night, the same house shows a more adult feature. Both films are labeled on the reel and its the projectionist's job to make sure that the proper film is threaded up and ready to show when the timer kicks in on that particular theater.

Most multiplexes use a similar projector setup where the films are "built" from the individual little reels (like the ones they talked about in "Fight Club") into one giant reel of film and placed onto a large platter that feeds into the projector -- eliminating the need for someone to change reels during the movie. These projectors have 3 platters - one for the film being shown, one for the film to be "rewound" to as it plays, and a third platter where you can put another movie that is splitting time in that particular theater.

Well, if you let your mind wander while going through the 15-20 theaters threading projectors and setting timers for show starts, sometimes you can accidentally thread the wrong movie (since both look almost identical, save for the scotch-tape written label on the tail of the film), set the timer, and not even known that the wrong movie has started until someone comes out to complain that their movie is wrong. You'll be merrily away on the other side of the projection both setting up another film and get a call over the radio that you screwed up. Doubling the "doh" factor is the fact that you're working with a giant reel of film and can't just stop it like a DVD and pop the other one in. You've got to either cut the film, and store it aside until you can reconnect the unshown part to the shown part and run it through the machine to re-spool it for another showing, or you've got to "fast-forward" the entire film through the system to get it back to a single reel and free up the machine to show the correct movie.

Anyway -- when I was working, there was a house splitting between "The Wild Thornberries" movie and "The Divine Secret of the Ya Ya Sisterhood" -- one a kiddie flick and the other a chick flick. I accidentally threaded up the cartoon and showed 30 minutes of that to a theater filled with middle-aged women looking for an uplifiting story about divine secrets and sisterhood. Someone finally complained and we had to comp everyone to the next showing. Hell hath no fury...