OVER ILLUMINATION DURING showings at one screen at Odeon cinema at Dublin’s Point Square led to a raft of complaints and has resulted in the cinema chain closing the offending screening room indefinitely. 

The hubbub gained traction online when when one Odeon customer took to Reddit to share their understandable frustration after encountering the offending lights while watching Danny Boyle’s zombie sequel 28 Years Later.

“I have watched more than 20 movies this year in different theatres and have never seen lights so bright, the dark scenes of the movie were barely visible,” they said.

To make matters worse, ushers said they had been told they couldn’t turn off the lights as it was the emergency lighting system.

To save other cinema fans from a similar fate, the customer took to Google reviews, but found they were not the first unhappy patron.

A previous customer said the cinema’s lighting “completely ruined the viewing experience”, while another said they would give the cinema a rating of “zero” if possible.

One prospective cinemagoer posted online that they had decided to seek a refund rather than risk ending up in the brighter screening room.

The experience would be “equivalent to watching telly with the big light on at home”, another poster said. 

Thankfully, Odeon cinemas have now taken action to prevent further harm and closed the screen.

Apologising for the inconvenience, a representative said the infamous lights were in fact emergency lighting which had gone rogue.

“The emergency lights in that screen are usually left on at minimal level for health and safety reasons. However, it does seem that there is an issue with controlling the light levels, so ODEON has decided to close that screen until it’s resolved,” they said.

No doubt the cinema managers are hoping their corrective action casts the row in a slightly different light.