How do I write a creepy story about an old cinema?

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There's a creepy old cinema in my town with a creepy building structure, and it has been abandoned for over 15 years. I got fascinated by it, and I wanted to write a disturbing story about it, but I don't know what the plot can be about. I mean, how do you write a creepy story about a cinema? Give me some tips and ideas!

Tommy and Angela, on the run from the law one rainy night, break into a cinema that's been abandoned for 15 years. Soon, odd things start happening which makes them regret entering the musty old theatre. They hear the voices of children screaming, glasses breaking, loud whispering, and footsteps and in the dark. They see objects like audio monitors and cleaning supplies moving by themselves. They watch as the projector comes on, showing a grainy movie of their past evil deeds. When they notice fresh blood dripping down the walls and screen they try to get out of the cinema but fail as the doors and windows won't open. The intermittent flashing light of the exit signs, the mist shrouding the theatre's floor and their lack of a phone signal makes them realize that escaping is futile.

Since stories are written backwards, it helps to know what the outcome will be then you write towards that. I used a lot of clichés in the synopsis. Most, if not all, are avoidable based on whatever kind of outcome you're looking for. Here are some questions to ponder. Are Tommy and Angela being punished for their past behaviours? Are they locked in the theatre with a ghost or a serial killer? Is this just a dream sequence? Is this to be a short story, novella, novel or screenplay? Will they escape the cinema? Will they be captured and killed or will they get off scot free? How violent will this story be? Will they see the error of their ways and give up just as the police are breaking the door down?

Something nasty happened at the cinema long ago - ghost haunting
The previous owner of the cinema was an occultist and did dodgy things.
There is a specific reel of film that is steeped in mystery and any cinema that shows it regrets it.
The cinema is buried on an ancient burial ground.
There is a haunted projector in the cinema and whenever it plays it opens a portal to another dimension.
The cinema is not actually in our dimension.
Anyone who enters the cinema gets tuned into the spirit world and starts to see ghosts.
The person or persons in the story start to experience weird things and it gets more bizzare but the twist in the end is that the they are ill and there are no scary things , it was just the popcorn they found was made with hallucinogenic kernels.

Is this the sort of thing you are after ^^^^

Brilliant story ideas. Thank you both!!

I like to write creepypastas, but when I write a creepypasta I usually add a death of a character. But the death can't make the reader feel sad because then it'd be a feelspasta. The death is supposed to make the reader feel creeped out or troubled, not emotional. I know how to manipulate the reader's emotions, but it's just being original with the story plot that is the hardest. I will try to use the good story ideas in this thread and think up a way to make a good creepypasta out of it.

Perhaps the manager of the cinema is a serial killer, and he's obsessed with thrillers and horror movies that he uses for inspiration in his murders.

Or....accumulated life experiences, plus the fact that people look down to him despite his all-encompassing knowledge of cinema, could set him off.

The one that set him off was a lady in a Carmen Miranda hat. It aroused him sexually, thus adding to his frustration.

He went into the bathroom.....

Take a look at the short story "20th Century Ghost" by Joe Hill. Aside from the fact that it is excellent, knowing its plotline will keep you from duplicating it accidentally (is that the most frustrating thing that happens to a writer? I'd guess it is.)

Remember that old cinemas were once the grand palaces of the "music hall and variety" (or American "vaudeville") shows. Stuck halfway between carnivals and Shakespearean theatres, the homes of this kind of enjoyment were often quite ancient, mysterious and dark (in more than one meaning). Performers and stagehands took what risks they must just to stay employed frequently ended up broke, or worse, dead.

Let's not ignore the audiences, either. How many spirits of the wives and children of gone-to-war soldiers found refuge in these cathedrals of entertainment? How many of them are still their watching the flickering black-and-white newsreels hoping against hope that their husbands and fathers would come home soon? How many didn't come home?

How many babies were left behind with only a note of hope by compromised young women after the night's last show, only to be adopted by the actors and other theatre workers? And, what celebrities' ghosts of bygone movie premieres must still haunt the box seats and dressing rooms that have become dusty and abandoned storage rooms?

All this is based in truth. Does it show that I grew up in a five-generation carnie, theatre and cinema family? Theatres and cinemas will seldom be known by today's chldren who know only that a button brings them a presentation of life outside their own. They will miss out extremely.

Old thee-a-ters are great!

Writing a cinematic story about...an old cinema? Practically narrative incest! So many ways you could go.

I go more to the surreal than to the gory. Maybe the old projector starts by itself, and shows a movie. The characters discover somehow that they can walk into the screen and magically appear as extras in the movie itself. The police enter the theater looking for the our heroes and don't notice that the fugatives they are looking for are right up there on the movie screen in the movie itself (maybe sitting at a table at Rick's Café in Casablanca over Bogie's shoulder while Bogie is talking to the piano player in the foreground.