One of the main reasons for my travel to Austin was to check out The Alamo Drafthouse.
The Drafthouse is a chain of theaters in Texas that are known for being unconventional. For starters they are a full service restaurant and they show movies... at the same time.
That alone is worth the price of going to Texas. But, they also show films that you might not be able to find anywhere else.
For instance, the night I arrived they were showing "Ghostbusters" in something they call a "Quote-a-long" where they encourage the audience to speak the lines along with the characters. Sort of like a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" late night showing, just for normal people.
But, the main attraction that was showing when I was available was "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Not just the movie though. There was live comedy with the movie. Think back to "Mystery Science Theater 3000," just without the robots and instead of outer space it's in Austin.
The live comedy track was done by the comedy troupe Master Pancake. And they do all sorts of shows every week.
I was very excited when I got to the theater and stood in line to get inside. Once they started letting people in we were led up a staircase into the theater. The theater looked almost like a normal theater, but with bar counters in front of each row of seats.
As I sat down I was treated to 45 minutes of trailers playing on the screen. And not just any trailers, but old school, foreign horror movies. Really creepy ones from Japan and Italy. Stuff that nightmares are made of. Near the start of the show the trailers took an odd turn with an old Halloween safety instruction video made by the Norfolk (I think) school district. It was super cheesy and went through all the Halloween problems like sticking together, not talking to strangers etc. So cheesy that it was extremely funny.
The screen went black then a warning came on screen. If you talked once, they would ask you to be quiet. Talk again and you get thrown out, no refund. That alone made my night. The warning ended with a creepy whisper of "Shut the F**** up!"
Master Pancake took the stage and talked a little about the film and talked about a drinking game for the film. At the same time the food that I had ordered had arrived, chicken tenders and fries. In a movie theater. Awesome.
The film experience was beyond great. The live comedy was hilarious and I was laughing almost non-stop throughout. I was even one of the only people in the audience to get a Tasha Yar joke.
Nerd pride right there.
I wanted to get a total experience out of the theater, so I ordered some popcorn and a orange cream shake halfway through the film. The popcorn came in a big metal bowl, which freaked me out a little bit. I am so used to either a paper bag or a paper bucket. Saves the environment at least.
Here are some more pictures of the night. And yes they didn't come out too well.
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