This Week's Monday Mystery Movie Wasn't What I Hoped It Would Be, But I Ended Up Loving It

I’ve recently started attending some of the Monday mystery movie events at my local theater. With the number of 2025 movies I’ve seen this year, I like the idea of incorporating some randomness into my theater-going experience.

While it goes by different names depending on the theater chain (AMC Screen Unseen, Marcus Mystery Movie, etc) the Monday mystery movie event is a screening of a new, unnamed movie on a Monday night for a low price. Of the few I’ve attended, it appears to be the same film being screened across various theater chains. While there’s usually some speculation on social media about the title, the whole point is that you show up not knowing what movie you're seeing until the movie starts. Besides the date and time of the screening, the listing only includes the movie’s rating and general length. My theater also says if it’s a horror or not.

I Hoped I'd See Nobody 2, But I Guessed Wrong

So far, my experiences attending the mystery movie Monday have been pretty great, even when I guess wrong. Case in point: this week, because Nobody 2’s release date is this coming weekend, I guessed that it might be the Bob Odenkirk sequel. Also, it's rated R, which would match the teased mystery movie. Relay’s theatrical release isn’t until next week (August 22), so I hadn’t even considered it, though I now realize that the level of earliness of the mystery movie varies.

While I showed up for the screening thinking Nobody 2 was a possibility, my mindset with these screenings is very much: “I get what I get.” Guessing right is fun, but if I get to see a movie I hadn’t heard about or planned to see in the theater, and it turns out to be really good, well, that’s even better. I realize that I'm spinning a figurative wheel and hoping for the best with these screenings, which I think we all sort of do when we go see a movie, in that we don’t know for sure if we’re going to enjoy it. This just adds a bigger layer of mystery in that we don't know exactly what we're about to see. So if you’re super picky about what movies you see, this experience may not be for you.

Before this week, the last time I did a Monday mystery movie, I ended up seeing The Life of Chuck, which was what I'd hoped for, especially after Eric’s high praise for it in his review. It was fantastic, and I was delighted to get to see it a bit earlier than its theatrical release. (CinemaBlend’s Laura Hurley ended up accidentally seeing it twice due to her own Monday mystery movie experience, but that’s another story.)

Now Let's Talk About Relay, Because Wow

In the case of this week’s experience, I went in hoping for one movie, but it turned out to be something else. And that worked out, as Relay was such a fun, suspenseful movie, and a great one to see in the theater with a crowd.

Directed by David Mackenzie, Relay stars Riz Ahmed as a man who works in the shadows, helping people broker deals with companies that usually have something to hide. The titular “relay” refers to the relay phone service he uses to communicate with clients anonymously and confidentially. Sarah (Lily James) hires this man to help her after she kept documents from a former employer that could expose research findings they don’t want made public. Because she has these documents, she’s being harassed by the company at life-ruining levels. Ahmed’s character takes on the job to sort the situation out with her, and the thriller really takes off from there. Sam Worthington plays the guy who leads the team of life-ruining harassers trying to get the documents back on behalf of the company. Watch the trailer below:

As has been the case in the past two Monday Mystery Movie screenings, my theater was impressively full for a Monday night. People are certainly showing up for a mystery screening, at least in my neighborhood. And the tension in the room for this film was palpable, which added to my enjoyment.

Like I said, this wasn’t a film that was big on my radar, but after seeing it, I learned that it debuted at TIFF in 2024, and with 28 reviews as of this writing, it’s currently holding a respectable 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is exactly why I’m loving the Monday Mystery Movie screenings. I don’t love going out on a Monday night, but I need this kind of randomness in my life. I'm not sure if I would've chosen to see Relay in the theater otherwise, but it was a great big-screen experience.

Relay arrives in theaters on Friday, August 22. If it sounds like your type of film, give it a shot. The cast is great, as is the New York City setting, and it kept me guessing throughout.