Previously: The San Antonio Donkey Lady.
Type: Unknown. Upon initially examination, subject — known as the Ticket Taker — appears to be of the PE (Preternatural Entity) classification; however, some reports suggest elements of the EV (Electronic Virus) classification may be present, as well. Further research is required.
Period/location of origin: Unknown. Discussion of this iteration of subject emerged on Twitter in the middle of October of 2023, roughly around the 17th and 18th days of the month; however, some evidence presented regarding subject’s existence during this time suggests subject was active some 13 or 14 years earlier, in 2010 or possibly even 2009.
Appearance: Subject appears to be a vaguely humanoid figure with large, staring eyes; a bulbous nose; round, rosy cheeks; and an oversized mouth seen either held open in round “O” shape, or clenched shut with sharp teeth bared. It is not known whether it has hair, or whether what might be mistaken for hair in several renderings and representations of subject may be just shadows.
[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]
A number of visual artists have recently produced renderings of subject, among them the following:
- Leslé Kieu (also here and here)
- Eduardo Valdés-Hevia (also here)
- Fyya
- JRGDrawing
- Gabriel Cardinal (also here and here)
- Matt Pierce (also here)
- Paulvonevil (also here)
- Solomon Mansfield
- PainterBro
- Pyromancer25
All of these renderings were posted to social media — primarily Twitter — on Oct. 17 or Oct. 18, 2023. They all vary in style, with each reflecting their individual artist’s individual sensibilities; however, subject’s key features — the eyes, the nose, the cheeks, the mouth — do seem fairly consistent across renderings.
Images of subject typically depict only subject’s face; as such, less is known about what might be attached to the aforementioned face. There is, however, some information available via a single photograph which appears to have captured subject in full. In this photograph, subject seems to have a torso, arms, and legs, as a human would; however, the proportions are incorrect: Its torso is impossibly short, and its limbs are impossibly long.
Given the mundanity of its name, it is possible that the “Ticket Taker” is attempting to blend in or disguise itself as a human service industry worker.
But if those who have witnessed it are to believed… it is clear that this “Ticket Taker” is not fooling anyone.
Modus operandi: Subject’s modus operandi is largely obscure, although a small handful of reports suggest bits and pieces, which, taken together, help form something of a whole.
Some reports are quite vague, with targets remarking only that they have witnessed “something” taking their tickets at the cinema or movie theater — something that… did not look quite right. In one case, the target noted that they had observed graffiti drawn at the back of their local cinema depicting subject, although it was not immediately evident who or what had created the art.
The phrase “THE MOVIE IS STARTING” has been associated with the Ticket Taker — indeed, it appears alongside the piece of graffiti previously noted — although whether the Ticket Taker has ever communicated this message directly to targets, whether verbally or otherwise, is not known.
Some reports, however, contain more detail — and also provide something of a timeframe during which subject is known to have been or to have become active.
According to one report recounting an incident which would have occurred in the late spring or early summer of 2010 — a date which may be pinpointed due to the film mentioned in the account (“the fourth Shrek movie” — that is, Shrek Forever After, which was released in the United States on May 21, 2010) — targets may, upon arriving at a cinema, purchasing tickets for a film, and entering a screening room, be approached by subject and asked for their tickets. (Subject is, after all, a Ticket Taker.)
Should targets hand their tickets to subject, subject may then inform targets that they are in the incorrect screening room, and that the film they actually intend to see is playing in another screening room elsewhere in the cinema. However, subject may also invite targets to remain in their current screening room and watch the film playing there in lieu of going to their intended screening room.
Targets need not remain in the current screening room; they may, if they choose, exit the screening room and, presumably, view their intended film without incident. Should targets choose to remain in the current screening room, however, they may then witness the screen light up with a classic cinema countdown clock. Additionally, they may begin to hear a strange laughter echoing out from the projection booth.
It is not known precisely what may occur after this point, as the target who detailed this report noted that they left the screening room as the clock counted down to its final number. The target did note that, as they exited the screening room, they looked back very briefly and witnessed subject’s face projected across the entire screen. They are unaware of whatever else may or may not have occurred within the screening room after they left.
A different account — the events of which would have occurred either in late 2009 or early 2010, per the film referenced within it (Avatar, which was released on Dec. 18, 2009) — offers a slight variation in modus operandi. According to this account, targets may find, upon arrival at the cinema, that the film they intended to see is sold out; however, they may also see that another film — one unfamiliar to targets, with a slightly gruesome-sounding title (e.g. The Beheading) — will conveniently be starting soon. Should targets choose to remain in the cinema, purchase tickets for this other film, and enter its screening room, they, too, may be approached by subject and asked for their tickets.
As in the other account, targets who produce their tickets for subject will then witness the screen light up with a cinema countdown clock and hear laughter drifting out from the projection booth. Again, though, it is not known what may occur after this point, as the target who relayed this account also exited the screening room at this time. The target later discovered that the film to which they had seemingly purchased tickets did not exist.
Both of these accounts attribute similar characteristics and habits to the Ticket Taker: Per these accounts, the Ticket Taker may bob its head in an unnatural fashion, and also may laugh in unsettling manner. This laughter is believed to be the same laughter heard emanating from the projection booth after the countdown clock begins.
According to a third report, which was unearthed from an unnamed online web forum in October of 2023, but which carries a posting date of July 13, 2010, subject may simply… lurk in cinemas and screening rooms, following targets. To what end, however, remains unknown.
Lastly, two reports describe instances of subject appearing not within a brick-and-mortar cinema or movie theater building, but in modern, everyday technology — hence its potential classification of EV, in addition to PE.
According to the first of these two reports, the target received an unsolicited email from a ticket exchange service geared towards “trading in old tickets for new ones.” The email, however, also contained an attachment — a .jpg file which, when opened, revealed an image of subject. The file name of the attachment was tickettaker.jpg.
According to the second of these two reports, the target purchased tickets — presumably online using their smartphone — and suddenly found an app installed on their phone without their consent. The app appears to place the Ticket Taker’s face on the phone’s home screen. It cannot be deleted or removed.
The effects of the .jpg and/or the app on their respective targets are not yet known.
Containment: Unknown. Subject is currently loose in the world, and is not contained in any way. Subject should be considered a great danger, to be avoided at all costs.
Additional notes: Although subject does appear to be connected to cinemas and movie theaters specifically and to movies and cinema more broadly, subject does not appear to be connected exclusively to first-run cinemas or screenings of newly-released films.
We know this due to the report from July 13, 2010 — the one found in an old online web forum—which seems to have emerged from a special, limited screening of an older film.
This forum post contains a photograph of the screening room in which the target witnessed subject, much of which is taken up by the screen itself displaying the end credits of the film which just concluded. Based on these credits, it is apparent that the film playing was the iconic 1988 anime Akira.
All of the credits visible in the image are accurate to Akira’s sound department: Tokuya Shimada was, in fact, Akira’s sound recording producer; Yukie Naito and Toshifumi Seike were the production’s sound recording engineers; Kenji Shibasaki and Toyo Onkyo performed the foley effects; Kozo Ogata was the sound recording production manager; and Masafumi Mima was the assistant to the sound recording director.
Akira was, at that point, 12 years old. Although the film has seen a number of re-releases over the years, there was not a known re-release of the film in 2010. This suggests the cinema showing it at the time the report was recorded was neither a first-run cinema, nor a large chain cinema; it is more likely to have been a second-run cinema, or one known for specialized programming.
This photograph, notably, is also the only known image of subject viewed in its full form — that is, it depicts subject’s entire body, including the impossibly short torso and the impossibly long limbs. It is, at the current writing, the only image extant showing more than just subject’s face.
Something about the Ticket Taker is reminiscent of “This Man” — a similarly distorted face that would reportedly appear in many peoples’ dreams circa 2006-2010 — although “This Man” was rather more benign in nature. It is therefore not suspected that the Ticket Taker is connected in any way to “This Man.”
However, it is worth noting that this current moment in time is not the only time an entity carrying the name “the Ticket Taker” has been witnessed or observed: Reports of an old, unfinished PC game called The Theater also contain descriptions of an entity — possibly a non-player character, although possibly something… else — called the Ticket Taker.
It is not known whether The Theater’s Ticket Taker is related in any way to the Ticket Taker which concerns this current report. If they are related, the nature of that relationship is also not known. Regardless, the commonalities seem too similar to be mere coincidence, and are therefore worth examining.
The game The Theater, which was seemingly meant to be an educational title, was set within a cinema; accordingly, the Ticket Taker character performed function one would expect such a character to perform in such a setting. Described as a “poorly drawn, pixelated, bald, Caucasian man with large red lips wearing a red vest over a white shirt and black pants” with a “completely expressionless” face, the Ticket Taker reportedly stood at a desk in the cinema lobby and routinely told the player, “THANK YOU, PLEASE ENJOY THE MOVIE” as the player character passed by on their way to the titular theater’s screening rooms.
However, players never actually saw the inside of a screening room within the game: When the player character reached the door of a screening room, the computer screen would reportedly go black. When the image returned, the player would find that their character had been deposited back in the lobby.
Playing this loop repeatedly — passing through the lobby and by the Ticket Taker, heading towards the screening rooms, returning to the lobby, etc. — would eventually cause unusual events to occur, such as the Ticket Taker vanishing, a distorted version of it — which reports dub “the Swirly Head Man” — appearing, and the movie posters seen in the lobby changing. The game would eventually crash after the Ticket Taker told the player that they would “NEVER REACH THE OTHER LEVELS.”
It is not known what the “other levels” were, or how they could be reached, if at all.
Of note: Although the face of The Theater’s Ticket Taker was said to be “completely expressionless,” it was thought by some that if the disc containing the game were to be smashed or harmed by a player, the depiction of the Ticket Taker on the disc’s case would develop an angry expression the next time players viewed it. It is not known whether this belief was true, or whether it was merely an urban legend.
Rumors of the distorted version of The Theater’s Ticket Taker — the Swirly Head Man — stalking players in real space outside of the game are similarly unconfirmed.
Regarding the timeline, the reports of both The Theater’s Ticket Taker and the current report’s Ticket Taker note a handful of significant years that may be of note.
For instance, the initial report of The Theater emerged sometime around 2010; the earliest extant version of this report is dated September of that year (although this version is known to be a copied and pasted piece of text which may, in fact, have originated somewhat earlier). Similarly, the earliest known reports of the current Ticket Taker date back to 2009-2010, as preciously noted.
Additionally, The Theater’s 2010 report describes the PC game as having been accessible around the time that the first Doom game was released, placing it circa 1993 — much earlier than 2010. And, although the details are a bit scanter with regards to this Encyclopaedia’s Ticket Taker, the language of the report from the 2010 Akira screening — e.g. “I thought you guys were kidding but I just saw him tonight” — implies that discussion of subject had been going on for some time prior to the posting of the report itself.
These commonalities do not confirm anything conclusive about The Theater’s Ticket Taker in relation to the current Ticket Taker. Again, it is not known if there is any kind of relationship between the two — or even whether they are separate Ticket Takers or the same Ticket Taker.
The possibilities, however, are intriguing. Further research is recommended.
Indeed, even independently of The Theater’s Ticket Taker, many questions remain about the current Ticket Taker:
Who is it?
What is it?
What does it want? What is its goal?
And, perhaps most importantly: Why did discussion of it suddenly begin when it did, in the middle of October of 2023?
Before Oct. 17, there was nothing… and then, suddenly, there was everything.
That’s… curious, is it not?
Recommendation: Further research is required.
However, this much is known:
Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, give your tickets to the Ticket Taker.
We don’t know whether tickets are the only thing the Ticket Taker takes.
Resources:
Renderings of subject created by all of the following artists:
- Leslé Kieu (also here and here)
- Eduardo Valdés-Hevia (also here)
- Fyya
- JRGDrawing
- Gabriel Cardinal (also here and here)
- Matt Pierce (also here)
- Paulvonevil (also here)
- Solomon Mansfield
- PainterBro
- Pyromancer25
Web forum post from July 13, 2010, via Eduardo Valdés-Hevia.
First-hand account of the Ticket Taker, collected by Leslé Kieu.
Another first-hand account of the Ticket Taker, collected by Leslé Kieu.
Shrek Forever After at IMDb.
Avatar at IMDb.
Akira at IMDb.
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Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Twitter @GhostMachine13 and on Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!
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