History ComicBook / CinemaPurgatorio

* PunnyName: The three child heroes of ''The Picture Palace Mystery'' are named [[FamilyThemeNaming Dick, Fanny and Titty]]. Sexual puns aside, only the last one isn't a real name.
** RealityIsUnrealistic: "Titty" actually ''is'' the name of a character in the Arthur Ransome children's novel ''Literature/SwallowsAndAmazons.'' Ah, the British.

* ObviousStuntDouble: Becomes a plot point in one film; here, in ''[[Film/ItsAWonderfulLife It's A Breakable Life]]'', George Bailey is nearly killed by a series of accidents - only to find himself unharmed, the fatal experiences being endured by people who look only ''somewhat'' like him. Eventually, he's approached by a stuntman in place of Clarence; he explains that they're in a movie and that for every fatal incident he experiences, a stunt double has to endure it for the sake of the scene. Unfortunately, far from teaching him to respect the rights of the poor stunt doubles who suffer in his stead, this lecture teaches Bailey that he is effectively ''immortal'', and he uses this new power to turn the tables on Mr Potter, kill him and take over the town - at the cost of yet another stuntman being shot down by Potter's bodyguards.

* TakeThat: ''The Picture Palace Mystery'' mocks the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Film_Foundation Children's Film Foundation]] films' purported tendencies to be [[TastesLikeDiabetes saccharine]] and dull to their intended audience by having it swiftly turn gruesome.

* DisgustingPublicToilet: The Cinema’s toilets are gross, graffitied and occasionally flooded, but the protagonist has no other choice but to use them. To add insult to injury, there's no toilet paper, forcing visitors to wipe their asses with the terrible magazines sold at the cinema. Later, as her inability to leave the building becomes apparent, she’s forced to sleep there too, if only because it’s impossible to get any rest in the theatre itself.

** As the final issue makes clear [[spoiler: the Cinema Purgatorio is the one overarching example of the entire series. Assorted ne'er-do-wells are condemned to spend eternity here for the crimes they committed in life, either as customers or staff; the woman in the ticket booth is there for precuring children for her rapist husband, the usherette is there for embezzling money from a school, and Mr Flicker looks suspiciously like Adolf Hitler. As for the protagonist, she's guilty of murdering her daughter - more specifically, in a fit of rage over being prevented from going to the pictures with her new boyfriend - and for that, she becomes the projectionist.]]

* HorribleHollywood: Many of the films discuss the corruption and injustice at work in Hollywood throughout the first half of the 20th century; some feature direct jabs at specific creators like [[Creator/WarnerBrothers Jack L. Warner]], others take aim at more general aspects, like the exploitation of stuntmen, discrimination against minorities, criminal behaviour being swept under the rug and so forth.

* ICanExplain: At the end of ''Abandoned Sunset'', [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rushmore Howard Rushmore,]] writer for the infamous ''Confidential'' tabloid, attempts to justify his career by a combination of this and a downplayed version of ButHeSoundsHandsome. His lying that he is not Rushmore is [[BadLiar so blatant]] that the other morgue inhabitants ([[Film/RebelWithoutACause Sal Mineo]], Creator/LanaTurner, Creator/GloriaSwanson, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalky_Wright Chalky Wright]], and an unnamed member of the [[UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist Hollywood Ten]]) immediately give him the SilentTreatment after he tries to ask forgiveness.

* ImprovisedLockpick: In the cartoon short ''And The Blackness Moved'', the cat [[Creator/OttoMessmer Otz]] uses his own ConfusedQuestionMark to pick the lock on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Sullivan_(film_producer) Pat's]] door when he loses his keys.

* ImprovisedLockpick: In the cartoon short ''And The Blackness Moved'', the cat Otz uses his own ConfusedQuestionMark to pick the lock on Pat's door when he loses his keys.

* ICanExplain: At the end of ''Abandoned Sunset'', [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rushmore Howard Rushmore,]] writer for the infamous ''Confidential'' tabloid, attempts to justify his career by a combination of this and a downplayed version of ButHeSoundsHandsome. His lying that he is not Rushmore is [[BadLiar so blatant]] that the other morgue inhabitants ([[Film/RebelWithoutACause Sal Mineo]], Creator/LanaTurner, Creator/GloriaSwanson, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalky_Wright Chalky Wright]], and an unnamed member of the [[UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist Hollywood Ten]]) immediately give him the SilentTreatment.

* ICanExplain: At the end of ''Abandoned Sunset'', [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rushmore Howard Rushmore,]] writer for the infamous ''Confidential'' tabloid, attempts to justify his career by a combination of this and a downplayed version of ButHeSoundsHandsome. His lying that he is not Rushmore is [[BadLiar so blatant]] that the other morgue inhabitants (Creator/SalMineo, Creator/LanaTurner, Creator/GloriaSwanson, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalky_Wright Chalky Wright]], and an unnamed of the [[UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist Hollywood Ten]]) immediately give him the SilentTreatment.

** The story of the Warner Brothers is a comedy modelled on the Marx Brothers.
** The gruesome Black Dahlia murder and the media furore around it is retold as a musical.

* HorribleHollywood: Many of the films discuss the corruption and injustice at work in Hollywood throughout the first half of the 20th century; some feature direct jabs at specific creators like [[Creator/WarnerBrothers Jack L. Warner]], others take aim at more general aspects, like the exploitation of stuntmen, discrimination of minorities, criminal behaviour being swept under the rug and so forth.

** The life of Willis H. O'Brien (the animator behind King Kong) is told through a King Kong movie.

* NakedNutter: By the final issue, the usherette has given up on wearing clothes and is now doing her job stark naked, and can be seen masturbating over the brutal murders occurring in the last film. [[spoiler: Presumably, she's been driven insane by being trapped in the Purgatorio.]]

** One of the early films features two characters in a Roman Empire PeriodPiece becoming aware that they are actually in a movie, to the point that they even notice the studio and other actors in waiting just off-screen. Growing increasingly horrified by things like wristwatches, prop scrolls without writing and fake beards, one of the characters realises that his entire life is a lie and begs to be put out of his misery; the other tries to oblige, only to find that his sword is made of wood, forcing him to strangle his co-star to death. In the end, the remaining actor is left alone, staring in existential terror as the scene fades out around him.

** ''One Hell Of A Girl'' ends with [[spoiler: the protagonist finally realizing that the woman on the screen is actually her; fleeing the theater in a blind panic, she's herded upstairs to the projector, where she finally succumbs to the revelation that she's been condemned to remain a prisoner of the Cinema Purgatorio for all eternity.]]

* CosmicHorrorReveal: "The Picture Palace Mystery" appears at first to be a juvenile adventure story in which three children try to stop an untrustworthy projectionist from ripping off their cinema-owning aunt. Instead, they find themselves confronted by an EldritchAbomination that ends up killing one, blinding another and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation driving the third insane]].

** In ''After Tombstone,'' actors know for playing parts in Westerns are condemned to return to the stereotypical frontier town and re-enact the cliched narratives over and over again - usually keeping all the injuries they acquired the last time they were gunned down. The sheriff speculates that they'll have to do this until they can find a version of history they can all live with.

* TerrorHero: The Flame of Remorse of the eponymous superhero serial; he's capable of essentially controlling time through cuts, proving so unstoppable that the villains are overwhelmed with NeverendingTerror - to the point that they have no choice but to confront their innermost guilt.

** ''One Hell Of A Gilr,'' as the protagonist notes, is stylistically reminiscent of an Creator/AlfredHitchcock movie; she even remarks that the murderous heroine looks like Creator/JanetLeigh, to the point that she even dies in the shower... [[spoiler: up until the protagonist belatedly realizes that it's actually meant to be ''her.'']]

* TerrorHerror: The Flame of Remorse of the eponymous superhero serial; he's capable of essentially controlling time through cuts, proving so unstoppable that the villains are overwhelmed with NeverendingTerror - to the point that they have no choice but to confront their innermost guilt.

** Already having spent the last few years of his life as a prisoner of his own neuroses in an isolated cinema, following his death, Howard Hughes is condemned to spend eternity alone in the same theatre.

* CosmicHorrorReveal: One film appears at first to be a juvenile adventure story in which three children try to stop an untrustworthy projectionist from ripping off their cinema-owning aunt. Instead, they find themselves confronted by an EldritchAbomination that ends up killing one, blinding another and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation driving the third insane]].

* DisgustingPublicToilet: The Cinema’s toilets are gross, graffitied and occasionally flooded, but the protagonist has no other choice. Later, as her inability to leave the building becomes apparent, she’s forced to sleep there too, if only because it’s impossible to get any rest in the theatre itself.

** The life of Todd Browning is retold as a sideshow of the kind featured in his most famous work, ''Film/{{Freaks}}''; it's even narrated by Harry Earles and ends with Browning being accepted into the ranks of the freaks - complete with the famous chant of "one of us!"

** The final film, as the protagonist notes, is stylistically reminiscent of an Creator/AlfredHitchcock movie; she even remarks that the murderous heroine looks like Creator/JanetLeigh, to the point that she even dies in the shower... [[spoiler: up until the protagonist belatedly realizes that it's actually meant to be ''her.'']]

** After his death, Creator/HowardHughes winds up right back in his private cinema at the start of his descent into madness, watching movies alone for all eternity.

* JustOneLittleMistake: As the final film reveals, [[spoiler: the protagonist did her best to make it look as if someone else had murdered her daughter; she wrapped the body in a carpet, dumped it in the swamps some distance from her house, and even pulled down the corpse's underwear to make it look like a sex crime. She then called the police to report a missing person, clearly hoping that this would be enough to put them on the wrong track... only for her to be undone by the photo provided to the police: in the picture, her daughter can be seen standing on the very carpet she was found wrapped up in. From there, her arrest, confession and conviction swiftly followed.]]

* NoticingTheFourthWall: One of the early films features two characters in a Roman Empire PeriodPiece becoming aware that they are actually in a movie, to the point that they even notice the studio and other actors in waiting just off-screen. Growing increasingly horrified by things like wristwatches, prop scrolls without writing and fake beards, one of the characters realises that his entire life is a lie and begs to be put out of his misery; the other tries to oblige, only to find that his sword is made of wood, forcing him to strangle his co-star to death. In the end, the remaining actor is left alone, staring in existential terror as the scene fades out around him.
* ObviousStuntDouble: Becomes a plot point in one film; here, in a story plainly modelled off ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', the George Bailey {{expy}} is nearly killed by a series of accidents - only to find himself unharmed, the fatal experiences being endured by people who look only ''somewhat'' like him. Eventually, he's approached by a stuntman in place of Clarence; he explains that they're in a movie and that for every fatal incident he experiences, a stunt double has to endure it for the sake of the scene. Unfortunately, far from teaching him to respect the rights of the poor stunt doubles who suffer in his stead, this lecture teaches Bailey that he is effectively ''immortal'', and he uses this new power to turn the tables on Mr Potter and take over the town - at the cost of yet another stuntman being shot down by Potter's bodyguards.

* RapidAging: In one of the films, a young couple prepare to move into a new house, oblivious to the fact that time has started accelerating on the property, as signified by months falling off the calendar inside. Before long, the husband and wife begin to feel the effects, aging as they inspect the house until they start to forget what they were doing there in the first place. Confused, they head downstairs to find that the floor is now swamped with torn-off pages from the calendar; as soon as he reaches the landing, the now-ancient husband suffers a heart attack and collapses into the sea of paper, dying somewhere under it. By now too senile to remember her husband or where she is, the wife weeps in terror for the remaining panels of the comic until, too old to claw her way out of the rising mass of paper, she sinks beneath the surface and dies as well.

The films themselves include everything from silent movies, comedies, animations, exploitation, B-movie monster flicks, superhero serials, mysteries, children's adventures, westerns, and even biopics. However, all of them are horribly morbid in one way or another, often discussing the horrors of early Hollywood or even more disturbing subjects. Equally bafflingly, nobody seems to notice anything amiss.

More worrying, nobody seems in the mood to explain why or even ''how'' the protagonist keeps coming back for more...

** At one point, the protagonist gets sick of the theatre and tries to leave via the emergency exit; she just finds herself being led into the theatre all over again.

* InTheStyleOf: Many of the movies on display are essentially biopics told in a fashion deliberately reminiscent of styles of film common in the early-to-mid 20th century. Among other things...

* NoticingTheFourthWall: One of the early films features two characters in a Roman Empire PeriodPiece becoming aware that they are actually in a movie, to the point that they even notice the studio and other actors in waiting just off-screen. Growing increasingly horrified by things like wristwatches, prop scrolls without writing and fake beards, one of the character requests to be put out of his misery; the other tries to oblige, only to find that his sword is made of wood, forcing him to strangle his co-star to death. In the end, the remaining actor is life alone, staring in existential terror as the scene fades out around him.

** The biopic of Creator/GeorgeReeves is filmed and narrated like it's Superman serial.
** The final film, as the protagonist notes, is stylistically reminiscent of an Creator/AlfredHitchcock movie; she even remarks that the murderous heroine looks like Creator/JanetLeigh... [[spoiler: up until she realizes that it's actually meant to be ''her.'']]

* JustOneLittleMistake: As the final film reveals, [[spoiler: the protagonist did her best to make it look as if someone else had murdered her daughter; she wrapped the body in a carpet, dumped it in the swamps some distance from her house, and even pulled down the corpse's underwear to make it look like a sex crime. She then called the police to report a missing person, clearly hoping that this would be enough to put them on the wrong track... only for her to be undone by the photo provided to the police: in the picture, her daughter can be seen standing on the very carpet she was found wrapped up in. From there, her arrest, confession and conviction swiftly follows.]]

* NakedNutter: By the final issue, the usherette has given up on wearing clothes and is now doing her job stark naked, and can be seen masturbating over the brutal murders occurring in the last film. [[spoiler: Presumably, she's been driven insane by being trapped in the Purgatorio.]]

* HorribleHollywood: Many of the films discuss the corruption and injustice at work in Hollywood throughout the first half of the 20th century; some feature direct jabs at specific creators like [[Creator.WarnerBrothers Jack L. Warner]], others take aim at more general aspects, like the exploitation of stuntmen, discrimination of minorities, criminal behaviour being swept under the rug and so forth.

** After his death, UsefulNotes/HowardHughes winds up right back in his private cinema at the start of his descent into madness, watching movies alone for all eternity.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The protagonist always wanted to be in the movies... now it seems she can't get

* IronicHell: [[spoiler: Assorted ne'er-do-wells are condemned to spend eternity at the Cinema Purgatorio for the crimes they committed in life, either as customers or staff; the woman in the ticket booth is there for precuring children for her rapist husband, the usherette is there for embezzling money from a school, and Mr Flicker looks suspiciously like Adolf Hitler. As for the protagonist, she's guilty of murdering her daughter - more specifically, in a fit of rage over being prevented from going to the pictures with her new boyfriend.]]

* EldritchLocation: The eponymous cinema is ''odd,'' to say the least. The protagonist has no idea how she keeps finding herself there, attempts to leave via the emergency exit only lead to her winding up right back in the theatre, and elements from the films seem to end up rubbing elbows with real people over the course of the series.
* HorribleHollywood: Many of the films discuss the corruption and injustice at work in Hollywood throughout the first half of the 20th century; some feature direct jabs at specific creators like [[Creator.WarnerBrothers Jack L. Warner]], others take aim at more general aspects, like the exploitation of stuntmen, discrimination of minorities, criminal behaviour being swept under the rug and so forth.

More worrying, nobody seems in the mood to explain why or how the protagonist keeps coming back for more...

!!''The Bad Bad Place'' provides examples of: