REVIEW | Shock Horror, UK Tour

Reviews

30 Sep

★ ★ ★

Reviewer - Russell

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review

The Churchill theatre in Bromley is the setting for what the programme described as a Night of shock and Horror, The must see ghost story.

Sorry to say but I wasn't Shocked and I wasn't Horrer-ed. The hairs on the back of my neck remained seated throughout the show.

Written and directed by Ryan Simons and starring Alex Moran as Herbert.

This is basically a one-man show, supported on film (projected onto a large cinema screen), by Chloe Proctor as Norma, his mum, Joseph Carter as Jack, his dad and the inevitable Irish priest, played by Chris Blackwood.

Shock Horror is set in the disused abandoned 'Metropole' cinema where Herbert grew up with his unstable mother and abusive father.

For me, it felt a little bit slow to get going.

There are countless deliberate references to horror films of the 70's and 80's, and I think this has the potential to be a lot scarier and not just reference films that are scary.

I didn’t really feel any tension or anticipation.

I counted three 'audience jumping' moments, two from loud thunder claps, and one from unstable mother screaming.

Yes by all means reference classic film's, I've not got a problem with that, but everything that happens felt, to me, all a little bit inevitable at times.

Ryan Simons gives his all and the supporting cast all do a great job.

I was hoping to have the Bejeezus, and the ‘living daylights’ scared out of me. But my ‘living daylights’ were leaning against the bar, sipping a cocktail saying “I was a theme tune for a James Bond movie, Duran bloody Duran mate, Simon Le Bon when he was still pretty boy number one.”

I was expecting a mild soiling of my undergarments, but they remained as clean as the day I bought them from Marks's back in 2015.

Yes there is clever use of film and sound, but I feel audiences are so sophisticated these days, that you need a bit more to scare them.

If you're going to watch and reference classic horror films I feel they could have dug a bit deeper and found an untraditional way to scare us.

I wish I could be more positive but on a quiet Friday night in Bromley I can only give this three stars.