Just as the title suggests... You're given the option to go see a movie for ~$5 + taxes and fees. The catch is that you have no idea what you're seeing until the film starts.

Do you go? What's the worst that can happen?
let's say you know the genre. Does that make a difference?

Personally, I love 'em. Even when the movies have been total duds, it was always worth the experience.
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If I didn’t have kids or any other obligations and an evening to kill, why not?

Am I allowed to leave if it’s shit? Or am I forced to watch like Alex in A Clockwork Orange?

You may leave. But you do not get a refund.

I saw one last October at AMC. It was $5 for a mystery horror movie. It turned out to be Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder update)

0% chance I would ever do this. Interesting topic though.

Closest I ever came to something like this was a test screening for a Kevin Smith movie. But I knew it was a KS movie and it didn't cost anything. Just had to do questionnaires before and after.

I've been to three mystery sneak previews in advance of the general release. No idea what the movie is but you get to see it weeks before anyone else.
First one was free. Had to win tickets by calling in to radio station. Turned out to be Blazing Saddles.
The other two, you paid to see the regular feature that was playing and could stay to see mystery movie right after. These turned out to be Capricorn One and Beyond The Poseidon Adventure.

I did this at a repertory theater a few years ago and it ended up being The Brothers Bloom, which I had somehow never heard of, but enjoyed.

The big theater in my home town shows a "Sneak Preview" every week. It's always a movie which hasn't been released yet and for a couple of years I went regularly. They hardly show any sequels, since they don't want to confuse people who haven't seen the previous movie.
Sometimes the director is in the audience and answers questions afterwards, which can be akward, when the movie sucked. One time the first question was why the movie had to be so long and the director was confused, since the runtime was under 90 minutes, it was just boring as hell.
I stopped going reguarly after some bad movies in a row, but I still like the secret screenings.

Recently they added an Arthouse Sneak in a smaller theater and a Cult Sneak, where I caught Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Considering I live in bumfuck nowhere, this will never happen to me. So my vote is nay, both because it won't happen and out of envy.

I voted No. There are genres I like and genres I don't. For me to sit through a movie of the genre I dislike, it would not go well. Call me close-minded if you will but that's just the way it is.

Since the majority of Hollywood films nowadays are ones I would never watch, the odds are against me so I would say no.

As a projectionist back in the 90’s, I was working at a flagship Regal theater in town where we did a ton of these. Most were pretty good, but one really weird one was when Billy Bob Thornton just finished filming All the Pretty Horses and decided to show it as a special SXSW screening, 1999 I believe. They just finished filming like 3 days before, so it was just basically a full cut with all of the scenes thrown in, to the tune of 4 hours. Lots of hype when people found out in the seats and he came up to introduce it. About an hour in, you can see people slowly filing out little by little.

I went to some test screenings on campus while I was in college (American Pie, Cruel Intentions, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, that era and type of movie), and it was fun.

I've seen some $5 mystery movies advertised and just haven't gone for it. Maybe some day, but I'm so overwhelmed with things to get done that going to one of those screenings is a time luxury that adds a certain level of risk that makes that time more valuable to me.

I'm open to it, I'm just unlikely to do it. That makes me a technical "yes" for the poll options, I suppose.

Wait, so they’re not even new releases?! I might pay $5 for a mystery movie no one has seen yet but I don’t think I’d go for a mystery movie where there’s a decent chance I already have it in my collection.

The ones I went to had teaser ads in the newspaper. The one for Capricorn One showed a landing module with tagline "What if the biggest thing ever never really happened" or something like that. No other information. We thought it was going to be about faked moon landing.
Can't remember the art in the ad for Beyond Poseidon Adventure but the tagline was something like "The ship has one more story to tell". This was one year after Raise The Titanic was a bestseller and I was wondering if that's what it could be.

It was done in October to celebrate Halloween and they left the movies mysterious because one of the showings was the latest Halloween movie before it officially opened.

Most have some type of plot synopsis now, but back in the day I did go to a few pretty good mystery screenings. Gremlins, being one.

HBO used to have them too. Back when subscribers would get the little monthly schedule booklet with your cable bill. They were listed as "Sneak Peek" or something. The following month the movie would be on the schedule. Once it was The Car. Another was Creepshow.

Interesting answers and poll results.

I think $5 (plus your usual taxes and fees) is totally reasonable for seeing an old movie you may or may not have seen before. I don't think any theater would charge that for a sneak preview of a brand new film, but stranger things have happened. I HAVE paid more for sneak previews, but they were sometimes double features along with an older film.

There's something fun about sitting down in that dark room and not knowing what you'll be seeing. As I said in the Overlord thread, if that was clearly advertised as "see 2018's Overlord for $5!" I'd absolutely have just not gone. But when the film started and the title came up, I decided to stick with it, and it was a fun time. I'd watch it again.

​​​​​​I didn't even plan ahead to see it. I was scrolling local show times around 6pm, saw that a 'secret movie' was starting at 7pm, and said Fuck it, let's do this. No ragrets!

I don't watch that many movies in the theater because almost none of them interest me. If I went to a mystery movie, it would probably be a live action version of My Little Pony.

wtf happened to my post that IBJoel liked?

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk...l#post14099971

ah. my bad. thanks Dan.

can't tell you, it's a secret.