At 7 p.m. on Feb. 7, guests walked into Eau Claire’s Black Kettle Tea & Boutique, not for the usual herbal remedies or horror-inspired attire and accessories but for a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ 1992 film, “Death Becomes Her.”
Guests walk into the shop and take the stairs on their left, making their way to the basement of the store. Iconic horror movie posters line the walls of the event space, cleverly called Six Feet Under.
The showing of “Death Becomes Her” — the dark comedy starring Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn — is just one of the many films put on in this space. This specific event was titled “Valloween” — a clever combination of Halloween and Valentine’s Day.
Black Kettle Tea & Boutique is owned by horror movie fanatic and herbalist, Bri Vodvarka.
However, this event, as well as others in the Six Feet Under space, was run by Vodvarka’s employee and best friend, Ariel Wisniewski.
“We do movie screenings every second Thursday of the month, but we’re going to start actually doing two movie screenings,” Wisniewski said. “I choose one, Bri chooses one and then we’re going to have people guess.”
Wisniewski said she had been searching for “Death Becomes Her” on VHS for a while, as it was one of her favorite movies growing up. After finding it at The Beyond, she said she thought, why not screen it? That was when she and Vodvarka decided to have two films for February and the following months.
As guests began piling in and getting comfy with their Italian sodas and movie-theater popcorn, Wisnewski said she was shocked at the number of people who came to the event; this was the largest number of people who had attended a screening at Six Feet Under to date.
This was echoed by an Instagram caption under a happily-crowded Six Feet Under on Black Kettle Tea & Boutique’s page, operated and managed by Vodvarka.
“You guys blew our minds last night. Ariel put together this event for you guys,” Vodvarka said. “This is what I envisioned our basement looking like for screenings. Movie theaters are dying because people got so used to watching movies from home and scrolling on their phones.”
Movie theaters have been struggling to keep up with shifting trends and streaming distribution services. This was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down a lot of public areas. Vodvarka said she is thankful for attendees of the Six Feet Under events for keeping film and horror communities alive.
Laughter filled Six Feet Under as “Death Becomes Her” played in this mood-lit basement cinema. Infectious giggles escaped everyone’s mouths at every single funny, campy and downright absurd scene the film had. This was accompanied by Black Kettle Tea & Boutique’s cat scurrying between chairs.
Sam Brounkow, an attendee of “Valloween,” said he had seen the movie before but was excited to see it at Black Kettle Tea & Boutique. He said he is looking forward to attending more screenings now that a set Saturday screening is being added.
“I saw [the event] on social media,” Brounkow said. “I’d seen the movie a lot when I was younger, and I thought, wow, let’s just go.”
Black Kettle Tea & Boutique’s next film screening will be Gorman Bechard’s 1987 film, “Psychos in Love.” The screening will be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 12 .
Hirata can be reached at [email protected].
