Went out tonight with Henrick to see a movie. We decided to see The Grudge 2 even though I hadn’t seen the first movie. Overall, it wasn’t bad; it wasn’t good either. From what I hear, the style is typical for a Japanese horror film. In any case, I now know what that scary blue faced kid is all about now.

Eh, but this entry isn’t really about the movie. I’m writing about the movie-going crowd that we were sharing the theatre with. From the beginning, we noticed that the crowd seemed to be a lot younger than we were. I was joking that the local high school exploded all over the place. The place was full of giggly teens all brimming with energy. As the movie started, it was already obvious that people were there to scream. They proceeded to do so at every small event and non-event. It was amusing at first, but it quickly got tedious. I mean, there were parts that weren’t scary, or totally expected, and the little girlies screamed anyway. The macho teens in the audience were all cracking jokes, trying to make themselves seem all brave. It was all ridiculous.

Somewhere in the middle of the movie, the amount of murmuring escalated. People started yelling out “shut the fuck up!” and “people are trying to watch the fucking movie!” A whole lot of f-bombs were dropped all over the place. Of course, that only egged some people in the audience on. It was getting to the point where I couldn’t hear any of the dialogue on screen. Somewhere behind me, two people got into an argument. Some female was telling this guy to “shut the fuck up.” He was firing back. It escalated to the point where she slapped him in the face. I heard the contact. The audience around them were going “oooooooooh” in a bit of shock and horror. Some people started chanting “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” Having been hit, I can only imagine the guy was irate. However, he was in absolutely no position to hit her back. He did treaten her though: “I’m going to fucking kill you.” All the while, some people next to me were wondering out loud “where’s security?” I was kind of amused that they managed to say something without throwing the f-word in. Security did come in (much too late, really) and brought the female out. As she was leaving the row, she was exclaiming out loud “I’m glad to be out of here! Some adult people are trying to enjoy the movie!” Uh huh. The murmuring continued up until the next scary thing happened on film.

That’s how the movie experience went. As we left the theatre, Henrick and I observed that indeed the crowd consisted of mostly under-20s. Groups of friends were coming out of the theatre making that glottal vibration noise associated with the movie. They were all still giggling about it.

I realize this is going to make me sound like an old fart, but seriously, that was a horrible movie crowd. I’d have rather watched the movie among a calmer crowd that would have been more interested in the flick (read: an older crowd). Hm.