Movie Watching Ghosts at East Town Theatre

The East Town Theatre in Hong Kong was meant to be a grand new and luxurious cinema for the modern ages. There was only one problem – they had built it on top of a former funeral parlor and many of the people in the cinema watching the movie turned out to be ghosts.

Today, having a haunted reputation can be good for business, and there are plenty of examples of owners milking the ghost stories for all it is worth. For this once luxury cinema though it was the end of business as it had to close down due to the rumors of it being haunted.

East Town Theatre was built in 1964 at the junction of Lockhart Road and Fenwick Street in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. The cinema had 1300 seats and the best equipment in town to enjoy the movies when they started rolling into the dark rooms. There was only one problem, many of the movie goers were said to be ghosts.

The Ghost Spectators

After noticing that there seemed to be more admissions than sold tickets from the sales counter, the management suspected it to be counterfeit tickets, but when they checked it out, they found no evidence for it, and it looked like every ticket was real.

One day they decided to get to the bottom of the mystery, and did a headcount of the audience as the movie started rolling in the dark room. It was then they noticed mysterious shadows sitting among the audience and they realized just how haunted the building was.

The Woman in the Toilet

There were also reports about ghosts in the womens toilets, perhaps one of Asia’s most haunted places to be.

The legend about this ghost though was a little easier to spot though than the ghosts seated in the dark cinema. The ghost of the woman would remove her head and put it in the sink and start to brush her hair in front of shocked and traumatized movie-goers.

There is also this one legend that claims that a woman was at the cinema with her boyfriend and was quikly going to the toilet to freshen up her makeup and saw a girl standing next to her. The girl seemed normal at first glance, but on further inspection, she realized it was a ghost and she hurried out from there.

She screamed and tried to get back to her boyfriend, but the ghost appeared in front of her and separated her from him. When she finally reached him, she fell over, dead.

Although this seem like a made up story, this one writer claims that this case made the news, although not really providing any further sources for it.

The Old Funeral Parlor

The building was built on top of a demolished funeral parlor, a place of particular haunted activity according to Chinese ghost lore.

This history and all of the legends that kept piling up in the cinema were too much for the cinema to deal with. Perhaps it would have been different today as the modern world now has a more interesting and relaxed relationship to the haunted.

But back then it was not good for business at all, and 10 years after the opening, they had to close its door and the building was later demolished.

Now the area is completely rebuilt and there is for example a parking lot where the cinema used to be. If the haunting is still going on is unclear, but what we do know is that the ghost managed to linger through one demolition. Perhaps they did so again?