TL;DR Had a movie double feature with my mom and service dog and come to find out the gate at the entrance had been locked on us without an employee to be found anywhere.

For context that will be important later, today, my region got the first snow of the year, and it was quite a substantial amount. There was around 5 inches of snow fall by around 7:00, which was when I planned to go to the theater.

The day started out fairly normal, I took my dog for a long walk in the snow, as he's a cold weather-loving dog, and I had layered up specifically so that I could take him for a long walk and enjoy the peace of the snow fall. I gave my mom a call to ask if she wanted to go and see a movie, which she was down for.

"What movie did you want to see?" she asked.

"Probably either the Hunger Games prequel or Napoleon." (I didn't really want to see Napoleon, but because she wanted to see it, I'd tough it out for her, as I've done several times when she's made questionable movie choices.

She suggested that we should do a double feature and see the Hunger Games at 7:15 PM and Napoleon at 9:50 PM. It would be tight, but we'd probably be able to skip all the previews.

Upon arriving at the theater, we bought our drink, popcorn, and tickets. We bought tickets for both movies at their respective times, which they allowed us to do.

Additional context right around here might be important that makes what happened even more of a head scratcher. I have a medical alert service dog who is a regular at the theaters we go to. During the movie, he lays on the floor and sleeps unless he needs to wake up to alert me. If he wasn't iconic enough by his very existence, tonight he was wearing a bright orange and yellow reflective jacket underneath his vest that covers his belly, because in adverse weather conditions, it's very important for me to keep him clean and reduce any excess dog odor.

After the Hunger Games was over, and we were headed to the restroom, my mother got the attention of an employee who wished us a good evening and said something along the lines of, "We'll be here a little later, since we bought tickets for Napoleon." He acknowledged her, and the drink was refilled before we scurried to the very end of the theater hall.

Once inside, we were the only ones there, which isn't unusual for our theater. For example, just a few weeks ago, when we saw Killers of the Flower Moon at 7:00 on the opening Sunday(?), we were the only ones at that showing. So, it is the occasional treat to enjoy a movie to ourselves.

The movie had already started, and soon, the title card popped up, so we decided that whatever we had missed, probably wasn't much at all.

About an hour into the movie, the drink was empty, as my mom and I just share one drink. Because she had gotten a refill earlier, it was on me to get it this time around. I got up from my seat with the cup in hand and my dog's leash around the same wrist. I stepped out of the theater and into the hallway, and it was DARK. Not every light was off, but the lighting was dim, oddly menacing, and without a soul around. I didn't think too much of it, since I could hear the sounds of movies playing in other theaters. And at the very end of the hall, there was a gate pulled across, and likely locked. I didn't want to go up to it to see if I could simply push it open, I took that to mean that were were locked in, and that would be a problem to figure out later.

I sat back down, replaced the cup back in the holder, and I said, "Mom, I think we're locked in. Nearly all the lights are off, and there's a gate that's locked." She was in disbelief, but didn't get up immediately to see if she could see for herself whether or not I was bluffing.

She got up around 20 minutes later, where she left the drink cup entirely to find out what was going on. According to her, she had walked all the way to the gate to find it locked with padlocks, and she'd looked into other theaters, only to find no one at all.

She sat back down, confirmed that the gate was locked, and that it would be a problem for future us.

A little after that, a couple had shown up in the back of our theater. I only caught a glimpse of them, but they're were murmuring to each other. I figured that maybe they saw us there and were going to make sure the gates were unlocked by the time our movie ended. I'm not sure when they left, but at one point, I looked back, and they were gone.

The movie ended at around 12:45 AM, and my mom and I got up to figure out what was going on. As we stepped out of the theater, we found much of the same- not a soul around, the gate locked, and the lights out.

My mother called 911 to tell them what was going on. It didn't seem like an emergency to me in the moment. But we started to check the theaters for the couple or anyone else who may be there, and there was no one at all. It was a bit eerie going into theater after theater to see all the seats empty and the lights dim.

My mom made some noise, calling out to no one that was around, which alerted the attention of the mall's security guard, who didn't have a key, but was trying to figure out what to do.

This is where the weather context came into play. My mom had heels on, and sure we could have taken an emergency exit, but we didn't know where exactly we'd end up, and my mom didn't want to slip and fall on the ice. We also didn't know whether or not pushing open the emergency doors would trigger an alarm. We didn't want anyone to think we had snuck into the theater on purpose or had broken in, so at the moment, the best option seemed to be trying to get ahold of SOMEONE who either had a key or knew the exits well.

Two police officers showed up, who couldn't help us out, until my mom noticed a sheet of paper on a nearby counter. I'm not sure who one of the cops called, but she ended up on the phone with possibly an AMC manager who told us a series of steps of which doors to take through the emergency exit. And if all went well, no alarm would be triggered, and we'd be out near the parking lot where my mom had parked.

The trio outside the gate assured us that they would go and wait for us where we should be able to get out. Thank goodness, we followed the directions, and the doors did push open out into the frigid cold, where other than the two police cars, my mom's car was the only car in the parking lot, completely frozen over with ice and covered in snow.

We had a quick chat with the officer while the car was heating up and the K9 in their squad car was barking at my service dog- explaining that we were just there to watch the movie we had paid to see, only to find out they had locked up the entrance on us.

I didn't get home until 1:45 AM, an hour after the movie had ended.

It was a very bizarre night. I just want to know WHAT had happened that lead to them locking up the gate before the movie was over, when they knew two people had bought tickets to the 9:50 showing. There were still employees are around when the Hunger Games had ended who HAD to have seen my mother, me, AND my service dog in his bright outfit as we walked all the way to the end of the hall.