During the 2015 Halloween season, a little boutique haunted experience called Fear is What We Learned Here made a splash on the Southern California horror scene. Made up of a few talented folks from Blackout Haunted House, this new attraction was big on mystery, light on detail, and knew that the human psyche was the perfect stage on which to present Fear. It was literally theater of the mind, as visitors seemed to wander barefoot through the murky corridors of the human brain, passing random recollections. The experience was, without question, one of the highlights of the haunt season for me. Now the same creative group has returned to present the next chapter: Screenshot Productions presents Parturition.
From their own press release…
Screenshot Productions is a newly formed, immersive installation collective with a long-term vision to establish a year-round immersive experience culture here in Los Angeles. The company has been inspired by the collaborative, immersive scene in New York and hopes to bring something similar to the west coast.
The intent is clear; To create immersive experiences. Not necessarily scary ones, but ones that envelope the visitor, creating a mood, an atmosphere, and even emotional reactions. The second, more intriguing, long-term goal is to create these experiences year round. What is an immersive experience? Why are they gaining traction in Los Angeles? Can they survive?
Increasing the Individual
Everyone cuts their teeth on the classics like corn mazes, haunted hayrides, or haunted houses. These are classic “boo” scares that work in provoking the simple fear reaction. As audiences have grown in sophistication, they have acquired a taste for more tailored experiences. Both Knott’s and Universal have upped their games considerably by creating ever-more detailed sets, storylines, and scenarios in which to terrify. Knott’s and Universal, however can only go so far in their delivery as they are mass-market. Thousands of people parade through their mazes each hour. The scares are there but each guests gets lost in the blur. The connection with the visitor was lost.
The gap between theater and haunted house was bridged in 2009 when Josh Randall and Kristjan Thorgeirsson developed the groundbreaking, Blackout Haunted House in New York City. Demanding that their visitors sign a waiver and go in alone, they were able to deliver an unprecedented, intense experience that focused on the visitor. At about the same time, out in Los Angeles, Jon Braver’s masterful Delusion Haunted play thrust guests into a living horror film complete with storyline, stunts, and original score. The line between reality and fiction was being irrevocably muddied with more intensity and the focus on singular and small-group events.
Of course, the next step in the evolution was to take the intensity up. That’s where places like the notorious McKamey Manor and the Victim Experience come in. These are physical endurance tests that push people way out of their comfort zones and literally torture them. It’s easy to physically hurt someone. The far more difficult trick to pull off is to infiltrate a visitor’s mind. That is where the team at Screenshot Productions attempts to go with their What We Learned Here installations.
Parturition
Parturition. [pahr-too–rish–uh n.] To bring forth young. The act or process of giving birth.
Playing with the nebulous, unspoken emotions is not as easy as it seems. Mental seeds are planted, ever so delicately, prior to ones visit. This begins once you buy your ticket to the event. Immediately you receive an email, confirming your ticket purchase and asking how you want to experience the event.
You have before you two options:
‘Natural’ Birth: This is the more intense of the two options. Just as in life, you will be delivered without clothes. Furthermore, unforeseen complications in your birth may occur.
‘Theatrical’ Birth: This is the standard walk through in which you will remain fully clothed. However, there is no guarantee that your birth will be without complications.
Going through a haunt alone is one thing, but totally in the buff? “Is this some cheap gimmick?” I thought. Of course, I chose to go nude. I want to go through the show as the creators of it intended and decide for myself. I was next asked, via email, what the circumstances surrounding my birth were; was I planned, were my parents married, what was the exact time and date I was born, and so on.
After confirming my choice to go “Natural” and answering questions, I was given the location of the experience. I was told to arrive exactly on time. Not a minute before, not a minute after. I was to enter the marked door and the experience would begin. I stood there, on Lankershim in North Hollywood, looking at the familiar threshold into Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre. It has a small sign that read “Parturition”.
A bit of set up, if you will allow. The weeks leading up to my visit to Parturition were pretty trying. A couple that I am very close with had just received word that their 25 year old son had passed. Devastating news. As things played out, it so happened that I would be experiencing my birth, then leaving the next morning, to say goodbye to a friend in death. The emotions were raw, very much at the surface, and I was ready for a cathartic experience.
At exactly 10:45pm I entered the door into pitch black. A man with a headlamp on, shining directly into my field of vision, grabbed me and directed my attention to the waiver I needed to sign. It was the usual waiver, giving permission to the WWLH team and absolving them of any reasonable culpability. I was next reminded that I had chosen “Natural” childbirth, meaning it was time to strip and hand my clothes over. I peeled my clothing off as fast as I was able and then stood, naked, in the dark facing my guide. I was then positioned, facing a black wall in darkness. Headphones were slipped onto my head and the show began.
Ethereal music played, swirled around in my head. Nothing scary, nothing ominous, but calm, wondrous, mystical even. A voice began narration saying, “The entire life of the individual is the process of giving birth to himself, indeed we should be fully born before we die, although it is the tragic fate of most individuals to die before they are born”.
I was then pushed into a draped tunnel of black plastic sheeting. The smell of baby oil in the air, the sound of being suspended in liquid, inside my mother’s womb. As I wandered through the dark expanse, I began to give myself over to the experience. Continuing on my way, things slowly began to get brighter and brighter. The quote at the outset played over in my head, “It is the tragic fate of most individuals to die before they are born.” I began to ask myself, “Had my friend’s son lived a full life? Have I lived my life to the fullest up to this point? What if I had the chance to begin again? Would I do things the same way?”
Me at 3 years old.
The quote from Eric Fromm set up the entire goal of the experience, set the tone. “Have you been living or have you even been born yet?” As the hypnotic, psychological journey progressed, things bubbled to the surface of my mind. I experienced the disorienting transition from security into garish daylight and the intrusive amelioration of human progression.
What makes Parturition work, and what made Fear is What We Learned Here work, is the ability to provoke emotion through suggestive imagery and experiences. This is not some cheap gimmick or some lazy excuse for a lack of effort. The elements here are all consistent in tone, indicating an overall intent and direction.
The brilliant original score by Chance Jones is provocative, playing with the listener’s emotions like an expertly tuned violin. The actors, each one of them, are exactly as they should be; at times ominous and forbidding, then suddenly warm and reassuring. In particular the final actress, playing a mother (Meghan Farrington), was spot on perfect. Her impassioned delivery, speaking to her newborn child was the exact crescendo needed.
As I sat in the final scene, It was at this moment that I, personally, began to take stock of my recently departed friend, his life cut short. How I had lived my life? As Meghan delivered her monologue, the experience made sense. I still had time be born, to have a life worth living. The biggest tragedy would be to die before it all began.
The show ended and I was escorted to a small room where my clothes were waiting for me, neatly folded on the floor. I collected myself and put my clothing back on, mind reeling from the emotions I was pulled through. I then quietly left, with a renewed sense of purpose.
Created by Nicholas Sherwin Jr., Parturition demands a response from the darkest corners of your mind. As other haunts have gone in the direction of extreme torture, physical brutality, Screenshot Productions has turned inward to the most frightening, and perilous of all landscapes, the human mind. It is here that they provoke emotional reaction from their visitors.
The real question is this; Can they sustain the model throughout the year? We think it is possible. In the ever-growing market for immersive attractions, Screenshot delivers something distinctly unique to it’s patrons. There aren’t chainsaw wielding maniacs or flesh eating zombies. There isn’t a room that we have to escape or a puzzle to solve. Those things are a lot of fun, but Parturition is more about turning inward to face ourselves. The one very unique thing that Parturition offers is an affirming outcome.
