Ridiculous cybernetic freakout THE LAWNMOWER MAN (1992) — Friday Night WTF!
May 15 : 9:00 pm – 10:45 pm
Friday Night WTF screenings are cheap, weird, and out of control! Cult trashterpieces, so-bad-they’re-good crapfests, movies that make you ask “What the hell am I watching?!” — we’ve got ’em all on Friday night.
“Wonderfully trashy! A profoundly strange film…irresistible to camp aficionados, bad movie lovers and Gen-X nostalgists because [it gets] the future of technology so exquisitely, surreally wrong.” – Nathan Rabin
Get ready to have your head torn off by some groundbreaking yet profoundly bizarre special effects in this high-tech thriller that explores the frontiers of the human mind and the outer reaches of good taste. Stephen King famously sued the filmmakers to keep his name off this wildly entertaining and utterly goofball attempt to transpose Flowers for Algernon into the virtual reality realm. Pierce Brosnan stars as a mad scientist experimenting in VR, who uses mentally challenged gardener, Jobe (Jeff Fahey), as a guinea pig for an intelligence-enhancing project, transforming him into a genius with extraordinary mental capabilities, only to have his latter-day Frankenstein monster turn on him—something that absolutely never happens in Frankenstein stories! Featuring psychedelic early-’90s CGI, a chimp in a VR suit, and one of the worst Simple Jack-style performances in cinema history, THE LAWNMOWER MAN was, as Outlaw Vern puts it, “a completely ridiculous movie at the time and has of course been made much more ridiculous as its ideas about the future have not panned out.” Well, sure. But it’s so much damn fun!
This screening is part of Arkadin’s May 2026 series, THE COMPUTER IS MY FRENEMY, featuring films that explore our collective love-hate relationship with the digital world. Does the internet truly bring us together or only tear us further apart? Find out this month!
Arkadin does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. However, we encourage researching titles to determine if a screening may contain content that could be upsetting to you. Please feel free to contact us for guidance on specific films. Information about content can also be found on Common Sense Media, IMDB and DoesTheDogDie.com, as well as through general internet searches.
Theater Policies
- All seats are first-come, first-served.
- The theater opens 30 minutes prior to showtime, except for “Happy Hour” events and pre-shows when the theater opens at the listed 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.