The Theatre is one of the more classic gaming creepy pastas out there.
It’s about an old game that was released around the same time as Doom, but is almost
impossible to hunt down these days.
And there’s a damn good reason why.
Hey everyone!
Welcome back to top 10 gaming, and our series on gaming creepy pastas.
Today, rather than retelling a themed creepy pasta associated with a particular existing
title or franchise, we’re diving into one about an alleged game called The Theatre that,
to anyone whose claimed to see it in real life, had a pretty horrific experience with
it.
Let’s jump in.
The Theatre was a game that, when released, was sold in a plain white case, with nothing
but a sprite of what has since been named ‘the ticket-taker’; a poorly drawn bald
white man with large red lips wearing a red vest over top of a white shirt, and black
pants, completely expressionless.
According to legend, if someone smashes the disc inside of the case, the expression of
the ticket taker will actually change, with his face looking back at your angrily.
Other than the ticket taker, nothing else is said to be on the case; no title, no dev
logos, nothing.
Just the ticket taker.
Some people who got their hands on this game would give up before even playing it.
It was notorious for it’s inability to install correctly.
Upon reaching the licensing agreement, your computer would freeze.
The agreement itself would also feature a blank line for where the developer studio’s
name was supposed to be.
Apparently, if you tried rebooting your computer when it froze on the agreement without ejecting
the disc, and hit I agree as soon as the computer started back up, the installation would continue.
After it’s installed, things only get weirder.
When the game starts up, it goes straight to a menu with a sprite of a movie theatre’s
exterior on a completely empty street.
The options you’re given are NEW GAME, LOAD, and of course, OPTIONS.
If you select options, the game immediately crashes and shuts down.
Clicking on Load does absolutely nothing, even if you have a saved game.
So really, the only choice is New Game.
When the game begins, you are in first person view, standing in an empty movie theatre lobby
with only the ticket taker standing in front of a dark hallway, which must lead to the
cinemas.
There’s a bunch of poorly drawn movie posters on the walls, all illegible.
All you can really do is approach the ticket taker.
When you do, a low quality sound clip plays of a man saying THANK YOU PLEASE ENJOY THE
MOVIE, along with a text box spelling out the same dialogue.
You walk down the hallway, the screen fades to black.
And when it returns, you’re back in the empty movie theatre lobby.
From there, you keep doing the same action over and over again.
And while that may sound absolutely awful, as you continue to repeat the action, small
little things, differences, will occur.
Now, it’s never been recorded how many times you have to approach the ticket taker in order
for these peculiarities to occur.
Some believe it’s completely random.
The first strange event that most players experience is when they return to the empty
theatre lobby, the ticket taker is gone.
When you walk down the hallway, the sound clip and text box still appear, despite the
ticket takers absence.
And, when you walk down the dark hallway, the screen doesn’t fade you back into the
lobby.
The sounds of your footsteps can still be heard whenever you continue to push the up
button on your keyboard to move forward.
It feels like an endless black hallway.
The tension gets intense.
Players reported feeling immense anxiety as this occurred.
Eventually, it gets to a point where the player is no longer able to move forward.
Then, after a few quiet moments, a sprite appears.
It’s said to be the same sprite as the ticket taker, but with one major difference.
His head is now a swirl.
Players reported feeling physically ill when seeing this spirte, calling it the Swirly
Head Man.
Nothing happens in the game for several moments, until, all of a sudden, an abrupt piercing
screech will pour out of player’s speakers, and the game will begin to glitch severely.
This is said to go on for several minutes.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the player is returned to the empty theatre lobby, with
the game no longer glitching out.
If players were bold enough to keep at it, and continued to walk down the hallway, they’d
experience the initial normal cycle of the game a few times.
Some claimed to have seen the swirly head man appear in the corner of the theatre, and
a ‘yelp’ sound effect would play.
Then, eventually, upon returning to the theatre lobby, they will eventually see the ticket
taker sprite, pacing back and forth, his legs not moving, but the sprite hopping instead.
His eyes and mouth have become wide, making him appear as if he was worried.
Some players have claimed the images on the movie posters would eventually be replaced
by an image of the swirly head man, too.
Upon approaching the ticket taker, a different sound clip would play, which, because of it’s
low quality, has been highly debated as to what exactly the ticket taker is saying.
The text box below him contains a series of corrupted characters, making the words illegible.
Some swear that the sound clip is saying “never reach the other levels”.
Once you speak to him, the screen fades out, and returns the player back to the starting
point in the theatre lobby.
The theatre hallway is now blocked by a brick wall sprite.
If you approach it and touch it, the game will immediately crash.
After that, no one has figured out what to do next to progress, or how to access these
‘other levels’ the ticket taker had mentioned.
No one knows why seeing the swirly head man causes such acute panic in players playing
the game.
And, all of the original copies of the game seem to have completely disappeared, with
those who manage to find boot leg versions of the game popping it into their computers
to discover that the discs are empty.
And that’s that.
So what do you think?
Could The Theatre be real?
Do games like it actually exist?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know your thoughts.
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In the meantime, thanks for tuning in pals!
I’ll catch you all in the next video.