‘Immortal Reckoning’ delivers a campy adult horror adventure
Devotees of the macabre are cordially invited to get their spines tingled and gooses bumped at “The Immortal Reckoning.” A gleefully campy haunted house, this creepy hourlong performance art piece immerses you in the stately labyrinth of the Old Mint in San Francisco, now transformed into a highly theatrical maze of assorted supernatural lore.
You never know just what’s lurking around the corner, from disemboweled corpses and satanic nuns to an evil rabbit cult, as you stumble through endless murky crypts and vaults. Some of it’s scream-worthy, such as when a hand suddenly clutches your ankle out of the darkness, and some of it’s cheesier than you thought possible.
Nudity and bawdiness abound. Drag impresario Peaches Christ has curated a distinctly adult adventure that includes an old-school peepshow, various viscera-drenched tableaus and a chance to climb through a coffin. You will often feel a little disoriented throwing back a shot of Unholy Water at Fang Bang, a popup ’80s-era vampire bar designed for those of us who crushed hard on
“The Lost Boys.” Caution: If you hang out for too long, you may get groped by a soul-sucking ghoul or two.
Also, if you are a total fraidy-cat, you should opt out of any, ahem, intense audience interaction by not wearing a glow necklace. As for yours truly, after once having my fingers vigorously sucked at a De La Guarda performance at the Daryl Roth Theatre at New York’s offBroadway, I now tend to err on the side of caution.
For the record, the most compelling parts of the haunted manse are the actors who seem to truly delight in being undead. The gregarious fanged bartender serving only chilled O positive was a standout, charming but also menacing. Some of the other performers were still figuring out to ham it up in a demonic sense.
Certainly the narrative, spinning around the Blackwell family’s occult artifacts collection, including the Hecate Tablet and the Book of Shadows, could be more vivid. A little more dread at the top of the show would sharpen the catharsis later on.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the evening is that creatures of darkness don’t seem quite as bone-chilling as they once did. In a world mercilessly stalked by disease and death, a portal to the paranormal can seem positively quaint by comparison. Even a timid soul now faces mortality on a daily basis and that’s just sending your kid to school.
Maybe that’s why it’s so deeply cathartic to let out a shriek or two of your own. The jump scares here are pure pleasure for the audience members. After an eternity of keeping your chin up, this show gives you a rock-solid excuse to scream in horror, Munch-like, if you so desire. So let loose.
Beware: By far the scariest part of the journey comes right near the end. You must forge ahead into the shadows no matter what. It’s the only way out.