Back in the summer of 79 I was only 13. My dad kept on talking about a great movie he saw with my mom, he said it had a lot of suspense and that the actors were relatively unknown, which made it even better. Well, one Saturday afternoon my dad took me to the Midland theater in downtown Kansas City, Missouri and bought a ticket for me since it was rated R. The Midland was a great, old, and grand Cinema that probably was built in the 30's or 40's. I forget exactly how he got me physically inside the theater but I think he walked me to the lobby attendant, gave her the ticket, she tore it in half and gave it back to him and then he gave it to me and she let me walk in. Dad said he'd pick me up in a couple of hours, I had no idea what I was getting into. Downtown KC, crowd of maybe 20 people, to see an R rated space horror flick in the historic Midland theater on a lazy Saturday afternoon..nothing could be better for a 13 year old who probably had never seen an R rated flick!
Once I got seated the few other things I remember were how large the theater was, darkly lit statues on the sides, the balcony seating and lots of chandeliers. It was really kinda old and creepy looking and it kind of represented the decay of a big cities downtown area that had once been so glorious and full of life many decades before. Once the movie started I remember being distracted by the dimly lit statues or whatever they were on the side walls, there was so much to take in compared to the regular movie theaters I normally attended.
Of course, the ambiance added even more suspense to the movie, if that's even possible. I do remember being scared enough once or twice during Alien where I covered my eyes but the movie was so good I made sure to watch 99%! After Ripley won and it was all over I walked outside into a very hot, sunny late afternoon in downtown Kansas City Missouri. My dad had somehow arranged to surprise me with a incredible movie experience, one that will never happen again.
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LetThemEatCake (2717)
5 years ago
that's amazing¡ what did you think about the xenomorph?
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ebhaynz (3528)
5 years ago
I remember a few bits from the movie, I was amazed they way they filmed the astronauts walking outside on the LV moon, I couldn't figure out how the hell they did that. I didn't know why they were saying "mother" the first few times they said it, only later did I figure out it was the name of the computer. Yes, the xenomorph scared me(and I scared easily back then) but the movie was so good I was determined to stick it out. I think this movie more than any other got me excited about Sci-Fi, more so than Star Wars(78) or Star Trek(Dec, 79).
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JunoItsBill (93)
5 years ago
That’s an awesome story. You described it extremely vividly. I’d love to go see movies in old theaters like that. That’s awesome of your dad to give you an experience like that though, great idea to leave you by yourself to see it, that must have made the experience even scarier and more exciting. Knowing that you’re not even supposed to be in there watching it, and you’re by yourself, and you’re crapping your pants because your a kid seeing an all time great horror movie, wow he set you up perfectly. Kinda reminds me of when my dad showed me The Terminator when I was like 10, although it was in my basement haha, it was still awesome to see a classic mind blowing sci-if movie of that caliber while being so young, which was pretty damn scary for a kid, my mom would have said I couldnt watch it bc of my age so we had to tell her we were watching something else but I don’t remember what we said it was.
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