[Theater Reddit] Update: The Never-Ending Reel

Hey, everyone. I wasn’t planning to post again, but I guess this is the kind of story that doesn’t let you walk away.

A few of you asked what was on Reel 8.

I wish I could tell you I never looked.

I tried to ignore it for a while. I really did.

But every night, I’d hear the booth running — even with the projectors off, power cut at the breaker. That slow, rhythmic clicking of film running through a gate. Sometimes I’d find strips of unspooled film in the hallway, like breadcrumbs.

They weren’t from our collection.

Each strip had frames that showed people I knew: the ticket girl, my manager, some of the regulars.

All of them asleep.

The Screening

Three nights ago, I gave in.

I locked the doors, shut off every light, and loaded Reel 8.

The picture started the same way — a few seconds of static, then footage of me in the booth, watching the film.

So I stopped the projector.

But the footage kept playing.

On the wall.

With the power switch off.

That’s when I realized it wasn’t projecting onto the wall — it was coming from inside it. Like the surface itself was alive, pulsing faintly with light.

Then it shifted.

I saw my apartment again. My bed.

Someone was standing beside it, holding a camera.

I shouted, threw the reel off the machine — but the film kept running. The reel hit the floor, unwinding fast, the film stretching across the booth like veins.

And in every single frame, my face looked back at me.

The Next Morning

When I came back for my shift the next day, the booth was spotless.

No film. No Reel 8.

But there was another canister sitting where I’d left my keys.

REEL 9.

The handwriting was the same.

Except this time, the label wasn’t written in marker.

It was etched — carved into the metal.

The Last Thing

I’ve been hearing the machines again, even when I’m home. There’s no film, but I can still feel the light flicker against my eyelids when I try to sleep. Like I’m inside a reel that never stops turning.

I asked the manager about the booth records, about who keeps leaving the reels. He looked confused. Said we haven’t used real film projectors in over fifteen years.

Said the booth’s been sealed since before I was hired.

If you ever work projection, and you find a reel labeled anything past “7”…

Don’t watch it.

Because I think once you do, it doesn’t end.

It just finds another frame to play inside.