This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/SpikeSpiegal309 on 2026-05-31 00:01:58+00:00.

---

I have been working at a historic movie theater for almost five years now, and as far as I can tell, this guy has been coming since we opened. He’s in one of the photos from before the renovation and my boss says it’s been a thing since before he started thirty five years ago.

Regardless, our box office is outside so whoever is working that evening is the unlucky one that has to give him the bad news. I remember my first time very clearly. One of the managers took me aside. By this point I had been told about this person but I didn’t really believe any of it until Eliza, my manager, got super serious about it. Normally she’s a careless pothead who just wants to go home as quickly as possible. The lack of irony in her face scared me, probably saved my life.

“Okay, whatever you do, don’t say the name of the movie he asks for.” I looked at her. Kind’ve freaked out.

“Why, what happens?”

“Don’t think about that right now okay, cause it’s not gonna happen, right?”

“Right.”

“All you say is ‘sorry sir. We’re not showing it and we’ll never be showing it as far as I know.’ If he persists,  just say you have the whole schedule right in front of you. Don’t fuck around with this Jack. You feel me?”

“Yeah, I got you.”

The time came. I watched a man dressed straight outta the 50s casually stroll up. He had a suit and hat and he lit a cigarette and smoked it before approaching me. Besides this he just seemed like a regular dude.

“Ya’ll showin’ …. Tonight?”

“No I’m sorry sir we’re not showing that.”

“Anytime soon?”

“Nope.”

“You sure about that, boy?”

“I got the whole schedule here and it isn’t there sir.”

“Seems thorough enough. Say, what are ya’ll showin’ tonight?”

“Oh we’re showing Killer Klowns From Outer Space. We show it every year around this time.”

“KILLER CLOWNS!” He began laughing his ass off. “Why, that is a doozy. Thank you for your time nonetheless friend.”

“My pleasure.” I said. I couldn’t help but let a little indignation out with my words. He walked away.

I was eventually promoted to manager and became the one giving the pep talk before his appearance. I still didn’t know why this was happening or why we can't say the name of the movie but I didn’t really want to find out.

My 4th year here I gave the talk to the girl, Sarah, who was to work in the box office. She seemed sufficiently scared and I watched from inside as he approached. After a moment, Sarah opened the door to the box and quickly walked towards me.

“He asked to see Killer Klowns.” My heart sank.

“Uhh shit, sell him a ticket.”

“Can’t I just say we’re not showing that either?”

“No, he knows it’s annual.”

“Shit, okay. Regular customer?”

“Regular customer.” I looked at my two coworkers next to me working the concessions booth. “Just treat him like a regular customer, guys okay?” They both nodded nervously.

Sarah went back to the box and next thing I knew the man walked through the door with a smile.

“Hello!” I said.

“Hello, good to see you again.” I handed him a raffle ticket. “What’s this for?”

“Oh we have a giveaway before every movie.”

“Oh like a raffle.”

“Yeah.”

“Well thank you.” He walked into the theater. No one seemed to be concerned by his presence besides the employees.

“I’ll watch him after I start the movie.” I said after he had left the lobby. But as I turned to face forward, I realized I could no longer see color. I became aware of the tight usher’s uniform that then  wrapped my body along with my co-workers, whom I was selfishly grateful of for being just as confused as I was. We all wordlessly agreed to play along but I became more nervous as I realized all of the customers were dressed in the same way as The Recurring Man. All of them were men, neatly dressed, and seemed to openly detest the brief time they had to interact with me when handing them their raffle tickets.

I thought. “This is bad”. There are few occasions in which I would say I felt less safe.

I went into the theater to do my normal routine not realizing that the whole event had completely changed inside the theater as well. The renovation tried to keep things as they were during this time and they did a remarkable job from what I could tell in black and white. Every patron was wearing the same hat which they all took off in unison as the countdown started. I rushed to the projection booth hoping in vain that everything was the same there.

I opened the door to a wave of cigarette smoke that burned my eyes.

“What the fuck! WHAT THE FUCK YOU DOIN UP HERE, BOY!” He took great big strides towards me past the many film reels and through the fog of smoke. In one quick motion he recoiled his hand and brought it square onto my cheek.

The smack echoed through the auditorium and I was dazed for some time. When I came to I was sitting on the steps catching my breath as the movie began in front of me. It was not Killer Klowns. Instead, it was the image of a man screaming as his head began to melt like wax and pour down his chest. I was horrified but transfixed.

It cut to a child standing alone in a field. It reminded me of the child that the Monster drowned by mistake. But, that’s not what happens to this child. A group of men all dressed like the patrons in the theater came into frame and began eating the child’s limbs piece by piece. They were not ravenous about it. They ate with the formality of a steak dinner and the child laughed, even as they lay up against a log with their head the only remaining appendage. They laughed until they were no longer a child, then they began to wail endlessly.

It was then I realized all of the men in the theater were watching me with blank faces. I slid down the railing and rushed for the exit doors.

“Why!? WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS!?” The man on the screen screamed as I felt a hand grab my shoulder and what I assumed to be a knife enter my back. Almost instantaneously I lost feeling in my legs and my screams matched the now grown child’s. I crawled towards the door little by little each movement sending searing pain all throughout my body. Eliza opened the door.

“Holy shit,” she said as she grabbed both my hands and pulled me through the door. I lay there on the period accurate carpet, in excruciating pain, bleeding as my co-workers quickly locked all of the doors into the auditorium. “Fuck fire safety,” Eliza said.

Eventually we saw in color again, Eliza called the ambulance. We didn’t see anyone leave the theater. The next day my boss would open the doors to find an empty theater. I was taken to the hospital. Prognosis is I’ll never walk again. I told the police he’d be back next year, but they didn’t believe me. We stopped playing Killer Klowns on that day, but he never asked for it again anyway. Also, no idea what happened to the people who were already inside the theater when The Recurring Man first entered.

Regardless, I’m learning to move around better on my own with the wheelchair. I am going to figure him out. There’s a corn festival every year here. It’s circus themed, that’s why we show Killer Klowns on the specific date. But I happen to know that said circus has been happening since 1922. The fair is the only other common denominator besides the man himself.