Cheap Vampires, Free Wolves

By Wolfen Moondaughter

So I saw a two-disc set comprised of the Director’s cut of Underworld and the regular cut of the second film Underworld: Evolution last week, for only $15. That didn’t quite convince me to get it, though, as I already own the regular cut of the first film and while I liked the second film well enough, I didn’t love it as much as the first or third. Then I noticed that the package had a sticker on it that said it came with a pass worth up to $10 for seeing the third film, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, in theatres. Well, I’d seen and loved Lycans already, so I figured yeah, cool, a chance to see it again for free — that’s worth getting the DVD for! Granted, there was always a risk that there wasn’t a theatre nearby that would actually take such a pass, but the theatre that I go to most of the time is in a touristy area and has accepted similar passes before. The promise of the pass is what sold me on buying the set.

But using the pass proved a little more complicated than I’d imagined! If you’re as big of an Underworld fan (particularly of Lucian and Viktor) as I am, I do still recommend that you buy the set and use the pass to see Lycans (again) — but I also warn you to brace yourself for a potential headache and be prepared to stick up for yourself as a consumer. (Really, though, Lucian is worth the trouble!)

Now, the pass wasn’t actually in the set — I had to register online and print it out. (Thankfully I actually have a printer, and had ink for it.) But I did confirm, on the site where I registered, that the theatre I wanted to go to was indeed one of the ones that was accepting the pass. I went about a week later — a trip which involved me having to hitch a ride out to the area with my mom on her way to work. This meant getting up at 6:45 am to see an 11:50 am show (of a movie that’s only about an hour and a half long), and not being able to go home again until 3-ish.

So you can imagine my annoyance when I went up to the ticket window with my pretty little printout and was told that theatre’s agreement with the company giving out the passes had ended: they said that there was only one pass from the company that was still being honored, and the Underworld one wasn’t it. The cashier even called his bosses, but they were firm in their resolve: they wouldn’t be able to get reimbursed, so no movie for me, sorry. (They were nice about it, mind, and I figured it wasn’t their fault. Turns out it actually was the theatre’s fault, though; the pass distributor did nothing wrong! But I’ll get to that, and it all worked out well for me in the end.) Luckily, the guy did give away a piece of information that got my gears turning: he told me that they had copied down the website from my pass so they could contact the distributors and tell them to take their theatre off the list.

I went for a walk, but the day was chilly and wet and started to aggravate my lungs. There was no way I could walk around outside all day, and sitting at a restaurant table for hours and hours while I waited for mom to get off of work didn’t seem appealing either. I decided to go see the movie after all, since the matinee was only $6. As I walked back to the theatre, I got to thinking: if they wanted the web address, chances were good that the theatre office had web access. If they had a printer, too, maybe they could print out a screencapture of the website while their name was still on it, just in case the site got changed before I got home! Then I could mail my receipt to the pass distributors and see if I could get reimbursed — a longshot maybe, but I firmly believe that we have to hold companies accountable for their actions if we expect to not get cheated on a regular basis. If it was true that their agreement with the theatre was over, I figured the pass distributor either should have made arrangements to honour this one pass, like they were that other one, or they shouldn’t have added the theatre to the list in the first place. So I talked to a manager, explaining what I wanted to do, and she agreed to help me, telling me that the printout would be waiting for me at the will-call.

So I’m sitting in the theatre, watching the previews, when the manager comes in — I figure she’s bringing me the printout, but it turns out that the theatre people had been wrong about the pass! They were supposed to accept it! So not only did they credit my card, so that I ended up seeing the movie for free after all, but they also gave me a free pass for another movie of my choice! Bonus!

In summary: 1) the new 2-disc Underworld set is a great deal, 2) especially with the free movie pass, 3) because Rise of the Lycans is a great film, but 4) if the theatre tries to keep you from using the pass, it may be worth your while to press the issue! Just hurry, because the pass expires 3/7/09! (And make sure that your printer has ink.)

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Wolfen Moondaughter is on the editorial board for the comics industry webzine Sequential Tart, for which she has written since late 2001. She’s an artist, too, having done spot illustrations for Dragonlance, among other things. In her spare time, she’s a rabid fanficcer/fanartist. See more of her work at her site, Wolfen’s Webworld.

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