I don't think I've ever really spoken of the strange-ass hauntings the Wells Five Star Cinema beholds.
At least, not in detail. The majority of the stuff comes from the projection room, anyway -- which is just a room as long as the theater's length, with three rooms -- a break, bath, and stock room branching off towards the front area of the theater (you see, two of our cinemas actually face the front of the building -- the 1 and 7 ones, specifically, because they're the biggest and this was the only way to fit them between Ames and the Fleet Bank that was next door). 7 1960's-era projectors, some with old platter systems, some with new ones. I couldn't possibly tell you how much wear and tear they've had; to search through our former projector technician's desk would be nothing but detrimental to the process of finding out.
And that's not what I'm talking about, anyway. There are a couple people that can back me up on what I'm about to tell you (Aislin and Zombiesdontrun, specifically on here).
1.) There has been, for quite a few years, the sound of one of the doors (specifically the one that is in theater 6, which is in the back corner of the building) opening and closing, and noticable steps coming up the stairs.
But, while you're threading the projector, and you hear the steps or the door closing, you wait for someone to come up -- but there's no other real sound. No one turning around and going back through the door. No one ever comes up.
2.) There's been at least two seperate shadow sightings. One from Ian, who was heading towards the theater 6 stairwell and door, and when he went to flick off the light, first he saw his shadow -- and then a much larger shadow suddenly loom over him. This caused him to turn around rather quickly to find nothing was there. The other occurence was from me; I had just started projector 3, and we had a pair of platters sitting, resting on our technician's desk. I turned around after fixing the framing on an ad (it was for a car, so it doesn't explain the following), and saw a shadow shift incredibly quickly across the platters, where light from three was reflecting onto it. It couldn't have been from two; the light that peeks out from there doesn't reach that far.
3.) Yet another personal occurence from me; walking into the break room one afternoon to grab one of those $6 boxes of Goldfish (yes, I do eat that much Goldfish), I heard growling. Zombiesdontrun was supposed to be asleep in there, so I assumed he had heard me coming and jumped behind the couch in an effort to scare me. However, after calling his name a couple of times to no answer, and with the growling definitely being more dog-like than some human forgery, I got a bit of the willies, and stepped back out of the room as fast as I could. If I remember correctly, Zombiesdontrun was actually downstairs in the lobby when I came down to share my story.
And there are other stories, too. Just senses of general uneasiness we've had during game nights (yes, we've had game nights -- imagine like 4 or 6 TVs, a bunch of XBoxes. PS2s, GameCubes, NES, SNES, etc. etc. systems and a whole lot of junk food), the fact that sometimes projectors shut off without there being a safety catch or a brain wrap or a fallen variac; there's a whole ton of shit that's kinda fucked up with our theater. Add in that before it was a small supermarket (which it was before it became a CMCI theater), the place was a slaughterhouse, apparently, it becomes much more freakier a place to have worked at.
And I found out about the slaughterhouse thing after the dog growling bit.
The ghost hasn't been around recently, though. It's gotten quiet, in that way.
The dog thing still gives me the weebie-jeebies, though. Because it was a fucking growling dog I heard, and I'm sure of that. Not the sound of the bank's water system setting itself again (it's only hearable in 6 when a movie's not running), not a projector shuddering or something, it was a goddamn growl. No construction on either side of the building. Nothing that could be construed as mistakable for the sounds I heard.
At least, not in detail. The majority of the stuff comes from the projection room, anyway -- which is just a room as long as the theater's length, with three rooms -- a break, bath, and stock room branching off towards the front area of the theater (you see, two of our cinemas actually face the front of the building -- the 1 and 7 ones, specifically, because they're the biggest and this was the only way to fit them between Ames and the Fleet Bank that was next door). 7 1960's-era projectors, some with old platter systems, some with new ones. I couldn't possibly tell you how much wear and tear they've had; to search through our former projector technician's desk would be nothing but detrimental to the process of finding out.
And that's not what I'm talking about, anyway. There are a couple people that can back me up on what I'm about to tell you (Aislin and Zombiesdontrun, specifically on here).
1.) There has been, for quite a few years, the sound of one of the doors (specifically the one that is in theater 6, which is in the back corner of the building) opening and closing, and noticable steps coming up the stairs.
But, while you're threading the projector, and you hear the steps or the door closing, you wait for someone to come up -- but there's no other real sound. No one turning around and going back through the door. No one ever comes up.
2.) There's been at least two seperate shadow sightings. One from Ian, who was heading towards the theater 6 stairwell and door, and when he went to flick off the light, first he saw his shadow -- and then a much larger shadow suddenly loom over him. This caused him to turn around rather quickly to find nothing was there. The other occurence was from me; I had just started projector 3, and we had a pair of platters sitting, resting on our technician's desk. I turned around after fixing the framing on an ad (it was for a car, so it doesn't explain the following), and saw a shadow shift incredibly quickly across the platters, where light from three was reflecting onto it. It couldn't have been from two; the light that peeks out from there doesn't reach that far.
3.) Yet another personal occurence from me; walking into the break room one afternoon to grab one of those $6 boxes of Goldfish (yes, I do eat that much Goldfish), I heard growling. Zombiesdontrun was supposed to be asleep in there, so I assumed he had heard me coming and jumped behind the couch in an effort to scare me. However, after calling his name a couple of times to no answer, and with the growling definitely being more dog-like than some human forgery, I got a bit of the willies, and stepped back out of the room as fast as I could. If I remember correctly, Zombiesdontrun was actually downstairs in the lobby when I came down to share my story.
And there are other stories, too. Just senses of general uneasiness we've had during game nights (yes, we've had game nights -- imagine like 4 or 6 TVs, a bunch of XBoxes. PS2s, GameCubes, NES, SNES, etc. etc. systems and a whole lot of junk food), the fact that sometimes projectors shut off without there being a safety catch or a brain wrap or a fallen variac; there's a whole ton of shit that's kinda fucked up with our theater. Add in that before it was a small supermarket (which it was before it became a CMCI theater), the place was a slaughterhouse, apparently, it becomes much more freakier a place to have worked at.
And I found out about the slaughterhouse thing after the dog growling bit.
The ghost hasn't been around recently, though. It's gotten quiet, in that way.
The dog thing still gives me the weebie-jeebies, though. Because it was a fucking growling dog I heard, and I'm sure of that. Not the sound of the bank's water system setting itself again (it's only hearable in 6 when a movie's not running), not a projector shuddering or something, it was a goddamn growl. No construction on either side of the building. Nothing that could be construed as mistakable for the sounds I heard.
murkling:
I believe that you theatre has all used equipment much like your sister theater in Windham. I could be mistaken but that is what I am told.