News
Darren Bousman’s “The Tension Experience” Brings Terror to the Real World
This past weekend, I got the chance to interview Darren Lynn Bousman at the third annual Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival. Towards the end, I asked if there was anything coming up that fans should know about, to which he simply stated that we’d have to wait and that all would be revealed at some point this week. Well, today brings that information and it’s a doozy!
Bousman is presenting “The Tension Experience: Ascension“, a 24-room, 45,000-square-foot interactive “immersive theater” performance in Los Angeles where participants (that means you) are thrown into a harrowing journey that lasts anywhere from two to three hours.
The basic concept is that you enter a reception area and are asked to fill out paperwork where you will “join a cult”, which labels itself the O.O.A. Institute. If you think you’ll figure out what that stands for, think again. From there, everything collapses into an experience that is meant to haunt and shake you to your very core.
But what sets this apart from other immersive theater options in the Los Angeles area? Bousman explains that each guest gets a unique experience that is tailored to their own fears.
“Let’s say I know you’re scared of being alone and abandoned. You would begin to be contacted by a character who would talk about her being alone and abandoned. They make personal connections with people based on the answers [you] were giving us,” he tells LA Times.
Furthermore, Bousman recognizes that traditional mazes and similar events can lose their effectiveness simply because too many people are doing it at once. “I don’t want to herd people though like cattle. Every year I go to Universal Studios Horror Nights — those aren’t scary to me because I can see two people in front of me being scared. It doesn’t feel individual to me. I did not want that here. I want it to feel that it’s for you, that you walked into your own film and you are the lead actor.”
Guests should be warned that the show contains nudity and participants are required to sign a liability waiver. Furthermore, you will be forced, “…to be active…to be present,” Bousman states.
Directed by Bousman, who also co-wrote with Clint Sears (“Crow’s Blood”, Tales from Halloween), “The Tension Experience: Ascension” will open to the public on September 8th. More information can be found at the official website.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
You must be logged in to post a comment.