‘Strange Factories’: The Portsmouth-made movie that bridged the gap between cinema and immersive theatre
Horror movies have always been popular, but recently, a raft of different spooky franchises and one-off classics have really done their utmost to make us not able to sleep ever again.
Some of it is James Wan’s fault with The Conjuring, while Ari Aster has a lot to answer for, thanks to Midsommar, and especially Hereditary, but imagine sitting in the cinema watching any of those spine-chillers and then suddenly looking to your right to see one of the characters ready to end you in super bloody fashion? Absolute nope.
But that was exactly the case back in 2013 down on the South Coast of England, when some particularly evil folk, suitably named foolishpeople, decided that living in Portsmouth wasn’t scary enough and put together a film called Strange Factories, a horror movie with an interactive element to ensure anyone daft enough to witness it was properly traumatised.
Held in the cinema museum in the Hampshire city, anyone attending a screening of Strange Factories was greeted at the door by people in weird masks, which sounds bad enough, but then the attendees were given what was described as a ‘viscous liquid’ to drink before being shown to their seats. What?!
The story itself was based on a writer called Victor, apparently searching for survivors of a theatre fire, who gets drawn to a remote settlement where he finds his former friends living under the power of an aristocratic noblewoman. He draws up a pact with her that they will rebuild the theatre together, but only while making bloody sacrifices along the way.
According to the blurb from the makers of the movie, “Strange Factories draws on ancient theatrical traditions and mystical exploration, to wrench at the heart of what it means to be human. Will you allow it to show you the wonder behind the moving pictures, the dreams of violent imagination?”
Not if I have to take a drink of something first that I have no idea what’s in it, no, I won’t, thanks anyway though. According to those who witnessed the film/performance, what transpired on the screen and inside the theatre was “an alchemy of film, live theatre, artwork and location-specific dance and lighting to create an ambient experience…of mystery and suspense”.
It was also unclear whether or not the people sitting around you were members of the public or connected with the story in some way, lending an element of constant paranoia to the proceedings, and there was apparently a clown involved at some point, which would be enough for me to be setting down my popcorn and heading for the exit immediately. Tickets for the showing and performance were around £25 at the time, which seems a fair amount to be scared out of your wits, and critics back then, including those at the Evening Standard, were suitably impressed, describing the film itself as like something from David Lynch, while the performative element was acclaimed as a vivid and disturbing reality.
Regardless, stepping inside a horror film is probably not something that most people are going to want to do anytime soon, especially if you consider what’s about to come out in cinemas over the next few months, not least a revisiting of the cult banned series Faces of Death in April, a new reboot of The Mummy which, from the trailer, looks pant-soiling, and especially not the latest Evil Dead movie, called Evil Dead Burn, which if it is anything like the most recent instalments, will be about as bloody and boundary-pushing as its possible to legally release onto the nation’s big screens.
