Don your spookiest masquerade get-up and join us for an evening of elite deviance with Stanley Kubrick’s secret-society thriller EYES WIDE SHUT (1999) and a pre-film talk by journalist Devin T. O’Shea on St. Louis’ own creepy elite cult, the Veiled Prophet Society. Talk at 6 pm. Movie begins around 7 pm.

VEILED PROPHET TALK @ 6 PM

Every year in December, a club of St. Louis’ wealthiest and best-connected families gather for a secret gala in which young debutantes must pay fealty to a creepy, KKK-inspired “prophet” in a garish get-up. This is the bizarre group that rules St. Louis from the shadows, the Veiled Prophet Society. No one has done more to dig into the weird politics, racist history and elite networking capacity of St. Louis’ Veiled Prophet Society than local journalist Devin T. O’Shea, who’s penned articles on the Prophet for publications like The Nation and Protean, discussed the VP on TrueAnon, and is currently writing what is sure to be the definitive book on the subject. O’Shea will give a talk on the history and mystery of the VP before the film.

EYES WIDE SHUT @ 7 PM

“Eyes Wide Shut is not fiction. It’s documentary. It’s a great artist, at the end of a brilliant career, uncovering hidden evil.” -Rich Cohen, The Paris Review

Consumed by betrayal and jealousy, a wealthy Manhattan doctor (Tom Cruise) becomes entangled in a a ritualistic sexual underworld when his wife (Nicole Kidman) admits to having lascivious sexual fantasies about another man. The final work of legendary director Stanley Kubrick, who died within a week of completing the edit, stars Hollywood’s most bankable celebrity couple at the time, and was shot on a open-ended schedule (finally totaling over 400 days), with closed sets in London standing in for New York City. Cruise and Kidman play William and Alice Harford, a physician and a gallery manager who are wealthy, successful, and travel in a sophisticated social circle; however, a certain amount of decadence crosses their paths on occasion, and a visit to a formal-dress party leads them into sexual temptation when William is drafted into helping a beautiful girl who has overdosed on drugs while Alice is charmed by a man bent on seduction. While neither William and Alice act on their adulterous impulses, once the issue has been brought into the open, it begins a dangerous season of erotic gamesmanship for the couple, with William in particular openly confronting his desire for new sexual experiences. Plus, it’s a Christmas movie!

THEATER POLICIES

All seats are first-come, first-served.

The theater opens one hour prior to showtime, except for “Happy Hour” events when the theater will open at the event’s start time.

All ages are welcome at Arkadin except for Drinkolas Cage events, which are restricted to 21+. We follow the MPAA rating guidelines for all other films.

Tickets can be purchased using the BUY TICKETS link above. Upon ordering, you will receive a confirmation email from Square. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of the show at the concession counter.

If you’ve purchased advance tickets, when you arrive, please give your name at the concession counter to check in.

Tickets are returnable by sending a request through the contact form located on our About Us page prior to showtime.

When an event is sold out, we reserve the right to release open seats to customers on the waitlist. If you have a pre-purchased ticket and arrive late and there is no seat for you, your ticket will be refunded.

All screenings are held in our indoor theater unless indicated otherwise in the event description above.

Please respect your fellow movie-goers by remaining quiet and refraining from using your cell phone throughout the screening.