Horror comes home with ‘QuaranSCREAM’
The interactive online theater experience is based on the classic Wes Craven film
Can you survive horror moviestyle plots in your own home?
With the pandemic shutting down in-person theater performances this haunting season, 88Twenty Group founders Nate Weber and Allison Fox created an interactive and virtual production dubbed “QuaranSCREAM.”
The live, hour-and-a-half performance will be at 7 p.m. Friday and stars Zach Villa (“American Horror Story: 1984”), Riley Costello (“Hairspray Live!” “Wicked”) and Alisha Soper (“Feud: Bette and Joan”). Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at quaranscream.com.
“QuaranSCREAM” reimagines director Wes Craven’s 1996 horror-comedy “Scream” by bringing it into 2020. While in quarantine, there’s a ghost face-masked killer on the loose, and some friends try to stay alive and help one another via social media and video chats by avoiding the horror tropes that usually get people killed.
The shows are mixed media, with about 70% live plus 30% filmed content to move the story along. Though it does have a comedy aspect to it, “QuaranSCREAM” is for adults only and even includes a drinking game element (for those 21 or older).
In a fun twist, the folks at home can also influence some of the outcomes.
“There’s multiple ways that people can interact, but the main thing is focused on the chat experience,” Weber said during a recent phone interview. “We’ve also created a drinking game out of this and the cast is aware of the rules of the drinking game, so sometimes they will play along or mess with you in the chat in that way. There are moments where those at home can actually choose if a character lives or dies in that moment, too.”
Weber and Fox chose “Scream” for inspiration because of its listing of the “rules” for surviving horror movies, delivered by Randy Meeks (actor Jamie Kennedy in the film). The rules are basic: You can never have sex, you can never drink or do drugs, and never, ever under any circumstances say, “I’ll be right back.”
The cast and crew have had two months of planning and rehearsals, but like with work and school at home during the pandemic, they’re relying on technology and stable internet connections to pull off the show. Each actor is performing from home and doing their own costume changes and lighting. If there are any technical glitches, they’re prepared for that, too.
“That just becomes part of the show and the experience,” Weber said. “Between that and the audience’s ability to kind of interrupt you at times, it will change the flow of things and adds a whole other layer to the performance.”
Weber and Fox founded the Los Angeles- based 88Twenty Group back in August as they saw the need and opportunity to change course within their industry. They’re already looking into holiday films for similar treatment.
“I feel like there hasn’t been the high-production-value, highentertainment level of theater or movies that have ever been made specifically for the internet,” he said while noting the benefit of the far reach of the internet and that patrons from other countries have bought tickets for “QuaranSCREAM.”
“It is kind of cool to say like, ‘Oh, we can have live interactions with people that will be up at 2 in the morning in other countries just to watch the show,’ ” he said.