Edgar Wright’s pub crawl comedy oddball was the first movie ever screened for the public at the opening of the Alamo Drafthouse location in Richardson back in 2013. As of October 7, 2020, it’s also the last movie that they’re going to show for awhile because all North Texas Alamo locations are closed up again. The announcement came that same day.
Hey, it’s 2020 and we can’t have nice things. Hollywood aren’t taking chances with their hyped releases in theaters during a pandemic and the crowds aren’t ready–or haven’t yet been convinced–to come back. Many Alamos in the US remain open, as of this writing, but in North Texas, they’ve decided to step back into indefinite hibernation. It’s just temporary, they say, but who knows?
So, host and local Alamo creative director James Wallace treated Secret Screening #79, the show’s seventh anniversary to the day, like it was the last.
In an intro for which he normally loads us up with movie knowledge and revs the engine of the good time that’s about to start, Wallace instead got emotional about the power of the theatrical experience. He also shared the story of that first showing of The World’s End (see this piece on the Alamo’s own website for a summary of the craziness; Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and NIck Frost were all there), his reflections on the beginning of the Secret Screening and lots of thank you’s and acknowledgements.
Afterward, the movie itself was almost beside the point. This night, the Secret Screening was not a place to discover a wild new favorite. It was a time to appreciate what we had before and what we still had for the next few hours.
Most movie theaters die with a whimper. They die ignored. They die obsolete and run-down. They die as a mere piece of real estate, a floor and a ceiling and some walls ready to be redone as a Hobby Lobby or some other bullshit like that. They die with nobody caring that it died, a “For Lease” sign taped over your good times.
IF Wednesday, October 7, 2020 turns out to be the last day that the Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson, Texas shows movies and makes memories, Wallace was going to make sure that it went out loved–even if only a small group of Secret Screening stalwarts got to see it.
Now, I’m optimistic that theaters will be back. I think the crowds will eventually come back. I think the Alamo Drafthouse will be back.
But will The Secret Screening come back? Will Wallace himself be back?
I have no idea. I can’t even speculate about it or anything else happening in this crazy year.
It worked out that the Alamo’s first movie was The World’s End. Secret Screening selections often tied in with current events, current movies and holidays. These tie-ins ranged from the obvious (Christmas movies in December) to the weird (Wonder Women shown just ahead of the release of the big-budget Wonder Woman in June 2017) to the completely warped (Teenage Mother, with its infamous live-birth footage, screened on Labor Day, yuk-yuk, in 2016).
Now the Richardson Alamo potentially ends with The World’s End. The ultimate tie-in. It ends like it began. The Secret Screening’s own wild pub crawl through genre film history may culminate here.
At the Secret Screening, things always worked out. Even when the theater got sent the wrong print in mislabeled cans (see the night of Penitentiary III, which began with Wallace introducing Penitentiary II with no idea of the mistake until he saw it on screen with everybody else) or when the film burned up in the projector at the very end (see The Magic Christmas Tree). Far from letdowns, these moments only contributed to what a crazy time that the Secret Screening could be.
Here’s hoping that things continue to work out and the Secret Screening rises again. This show was, to me, the best shot-in-the-arm to moviegoing in the Dallas area. Honestly, I’m Harry Homebody. All I want to do is sit at home and read and write and play with the cats, but I was devoted to The Secret Screening. I told lies to go to this show. When my car was out of commission, I took the train and the bus to go to this show. My first one was the third one, Raw Force, and it hooked me bad and I went to every single show afterward.
Even explaining the Secret Screening to people who’d never been to it was fun. I enjoyed the range of responses. A lot of people thought it was a cool idea and wanted to go, but you’d also occasionally get someone who furrows their brow and sincerely asks “Why would you go to a movie without knowing what you’re going to see?“.
I don’t know. I like surprises, I guess.
I like seeing old 35mm film prints, of movies both famous and forgotten, get at least one more chance to live.
I like Blood Freak and The Blob.
I like the taste of Popcorn and Sweet Sugar.
I believe in Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny.
You either get it or you don’t.
I’m glad that I got to spend one more night in this weird world. The Secret Screening was a gift and if it’s over, I say we got it wrapped up in one very nice bow.
See this site’s own The AGFA Secret Screenings at the Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson, TX: A Running List for a complete document of the show.