October 2019, I went along to Blackgang Chine, and one of the most intense auditions I have ever experienced. As it turned out, none of the scare acting work I hade taken on before at Oxford Castle, nor even the boot camp could have prepared me for what AtmosFear had in store! I not only landed a role in what was accordingly the scariest attraction on the Isle of Wight at the time, but the lead character role in Terror Island's 'The Blood Shed', one Rat-Tail, leader of the 'most notorious smuggling gang on the Island'.
I walked onto the set, and found myself faced with (as one would have hoped for on such an occasion) a smuggler's hide-out from Hell. Past the pitch dark, decaying stone corridor (where I would first be making myself known to the poor unsuspecting souls-) was a dimly flickering lantern which cast a grim, reddish light through the smoke, over over some old dusty barrels to my left, shredded hangings - which were set up so as to create some distortion of the space - along with ropes, and an old wooden table to my right. Upon the surface was an assortment of ghastly objects, sharp, bloody utensils, bones and a rusty cage containing a few grisly-looking stuffed rats (my new friends!).
Apparently this character had a thing for rats and liked to introduce them to his victims... In fact I was amazed by the sheer number of folk who felt quite the opposite way about the little creatures- Sometimes it took little more than the erratic waving of a toy rat before the eyes of my 'visitors' to achieve the desired results. The first time I experimented with this approach, the polystyrene in the rat's neck snapped quite audibly, which added nicely to the overall effect!
Behind the table was a bookshelf, which of course would be the entrance to the rest of the den, and which I would be gleefully wrenching open to admit each group of victims, sending them on to the mercy of my gang, who would assuredly be 'dying to MEAT them!'
Oh yes, they went there. These guys were also cannibals! What better plan to keep the place secret, than to 'slaughter anyone who dares enter, leaving no remains...'?
I worked closely with the Director Jason Karl, in order to perfect this character. Eventually we arrived at something that had its roots in the Child-Catcher (yes, of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang infamy) with overtones of the kind of maniacal lunacy that would suggest he had escaped from Arkham Asylum. Amid his ravings about his beloved pet rats, and accusations of the victims, were repulsive, wide-eyed, slavering hints at what was about to befall the hapless guests, often little more than a hair's breadth between the face of the leering rogue and that of whoever he had picked on to taunt and snarl at.
The event was a two week run, which put my vocal chords to the test, but a good deal of ginger, honey, lemon and turmeric brew saw me through! And the overall maintenance of energy levels was trying- I think the hype and the immersion within the role and the overall excitement I had built up, added with the kicks derived from scare acting and being on such a set gave me just enough of a boost to pull through the non-stop, intense and at times hyperactive performances. The acute precision of timing, placement, movements and judgement (my first port of call following the first scare, was always to read the room before choosing my victims) required constant, meticulous forward thinking. This along with the realisation of the costs of maintaining such a pitch, and over-exerting my voice (thanks to the black-metal style vocal work I had used for previous scary roles, I already knew the do's and don'ts when it came to bellowing out harsh vocals over longer performances.) The reactions were priceless- Not least the ones from the drop hatch (always a hit, with the especially loud crash and jump-scare) and Rat-Tail's sudden re-appearance. Having finished with each batch of 'fresh meat' and ushered them through the book case, just as they thought they had seen the last of me, I got to scurry down a corridor to the drop hatch, to then give another mad cackle and remind them to 'watch out for the rats!'... like that was the sum of the horror that lay in wait! What provided me with even more amusement was the one hardened, 'not-to-be-trifled-with' older female visitor, who turned back and told me, 'shut-up! I like rats!' The rest of the crew were equally dire and distressing (in the most effectively creepy and compelling ways!) if not more so- with their duties to scare and inspire nothing less than sheer, blood-curdling terror. Among them were figures such as the formidable Mama Pustula, the matriarchal figure with a mangled eye and very bad teeth (we were all enticed to put on some kind of tooth enamel- the options were, decaying, nicotine stained or bloody, or some of each-).
Chopper, who resembled a living scarecrow, would follow victims through the first segment whilst growling and reaching out through the bars and cracks in the woodwork, scrabbling to get his claws on the 'fresh meat'. Barbarica, the butcher's task was to force everyone inside the kitchen to observe the fates of previous victims, whose corpses were lovingly strung up and prepared for feeding time. Just to allow it all to sink (or plummet) in a little deeper. Oh she delighted in detailing exactly how she enjoyed her meat! Charming woman- Guests would then be shut inside a pitch dark chamber with Brutus, the unseen lurking, beast-like creature in the shadows. He could either give subtle menacing hints as to his presence, or simply flick on a lamp to illuminate his horrific latex distorted and blood-drenched semblance of a face for a moment, whilst shrieking at a pitch to freeze the bone marrow. Having doubled up as this guy on alternate days, the surprise scare attack has everything in the scare-actor's favour! And in fact I grew rather fond of the distorienting sound effects after a few hours - they became almost nostalgic. Then we had Tinker, a creepy little contorting creature (played for the most part by a very talented contortionist circus performer) awaiting her supper and crawling about the scenery in a way that was reminiscent of Gollum, eager to pounce on and throttle his prey. Next came Pig-Head; a 6+ ft tall man with, as the name suggests, an unsettlingly realistic, scarred pig's head fitted over his own. He would chase you down the corridor to the next room, aided by Brutus who made a comeback and burst through a door to harrass his prey even more, causing them to then run straight into Hell-Razor, a deranged maniac with a chainsaw, at the end. As Brutus, I was intrigued by the number of large, well-built males who had brought their girlfriends along, and promptly used them as shields against this guy-! Needless to say, much hilarity ensued from within the gang. The other two mazes, Amphibious and Hexcavation, also held their own share of suitable terrors, ranging from sea monsters to evil spirits. I was in awe of the team's creative skills and the stories they had written for this event. There is something to be said for the level of immersion that is brought by this kind of dedicated passion, technique and creativity, which I believe can provide an experience that goes far beyond what even some of the scariest horror movies can achieve.
The make-up artists were truly remarkable- with their magical abilities to give the illusions of some particularly grotesque facial mutilations (Rat-Tail's facial scar was one of the less severe looking wounds!).
All in all- some of the best fun I have had in my scare-acting career- Added with the fact that I made my first ever appearance on South Today! (Because of course it would be in the guise of Rat-Tail! Why do I have the suspicion this will become a thing...) From the reports and reviews, the event in itself was highly successful, and due to return in 2020 with plans for new projects over Valentine's Day and Christmas in 2021!
The team!
