So, I’ve only just heard about the demise of the Valhalla Cinema in Glebe, & though it’s a shame to lose that crazy old arthouse den, on the other hand I’m not surprised. Because of the smell.
That place always smelled bad. And it was creepy. I felt like I was entering the First Layer of Hell when I went there. More than once it struck me as exactly the kind of spot where a couple of hundred people could easily burn to death.
But, like I said, it’s a shame, because despite its morbid interior, it was an easy commute from my place & it housed most of the Popcorn Taxi stuff, which will now apparently be showing instead at Cinema Paris (otherwise known as Impossible to Get To via Bus) & the Chauvel (Mildly Irritating to Get To via Bus unless you’re On that Bus Line).
There’s actually an old, abandoned cinema in a building near me. My buddy who works maintenance showed me. Man, *that* was creepy as hell. Very post-apocalyptic, the seats falling off their hinges & hanging skewed, almost as though people had broken them in their rush to depart, the carpet looking like it’s been boiled & stretched & dropped back on the floor, out of shape. A lone fluro light hanging from a wire in a back room, giving the only illumination across the uneven floor.
Yup, it’s true what they say. Old cinemas never die, they just get creepier.