"Joker" Panic Throwback

The lack of moviegoing recently thanks to COVID-19 (I haven't been to a movie theatre since March, save for one trip in August to see Tenet) has left me reflecting on some of the more memorable of my cinema trips. One such trip was to see Joker which, as you may recall, was plagued by controversy in the lead up to its release as the media began to assert that it might inspire mentally ill people to follow in Joaquin Phoenix's footsteps and channel their disillusionment into violence against innocents.

With hindsight, it's easy to see that these fears were unfounded, but there was a solid second there where violence (over a Todd Phillips movie!) seemed inevitable. In the days immediately preceding the movie's opening, some rando on 4chan made a thinly veiled threat against Sydney's own Ritz Cinema, saying something along the lines of 'some of you are cool here, so stay away from Ritz Cinema Randwick tomorrow night'. I don't frequent the Ritz, but the warning certainly gave me cause for concern. I decided to put off my viewing for a couple of nights, for fear of getting my head blown off between kernels of popcorn (at least you'd be able to say that I died doing what I loved).

Luckily, no shooting or suicide bombing occurred at the Ritz (presumably the only thing that bombed were their ticket sales that night), so a few days later I decided to risk it for the proverbial biscuit. Tensions were high as I walked into my local theatre, as employees stood at the door to the cinema, checking IDs. This was odd as this particular cinema never checks anyone's tickets, not even for films with age-restricting ratings. It's a wonder that they don't go out of business from people sneaking into sessions they haven't paid for. Presumably, the cinema had heard about the threat against the Ritz and decided to up their security. I'm not sure what exactly was stopping a shooter from just... buying a ticket to the movie, but it's the thought that counts. 

Anyway, I passed the eyeball test for incels and got into the cinema. Things were tense from there, and not just because of the suspenseful events on screen. There was a slightly overweight guy in his late 30s sitting a few seats to the right of me who laughed at several of Arthur Fleck's jokes, even the ones that weren't really meant to be funny. He also had a backpack with him, and I half-expected him to pull out an assault rifle at some point and start shooting, which would be rather inconvenient for me given that I would probably be the first to go. 

Luckily, I managed to get through the screening without dying. I can only assume that the suspicious guy was nothing more than an overzealous DC Comics fanboy, rather than a crazed gun-toting maniac. Still, it was all a bit terrifying.