UK HAUNTERS takes us behind the scenes of scare attractions and their scare actors in England.
As a fan of horror movies and been to a scare attraction a few years ago I was looking forward to seeing what goes on behind the scenes.
Dan Brownlie wanted to do a documentary to show everyone that we also have a lot of scare attractions, with real-life actors, here in the UK as well as elsewhere in the world. The basic question is answered in the documentary too.
WHAT IS A HAUNTER?
An entertainer who delivers a scare. They are the actors who take people out of their comfort zones and scares them more than they have ever been before. Haunters and scare actors and be a full-time career or just a part-time job.
I also learned what the difference is between a Haunter and a scare actor during the documentary which I never knew before. We meet a few people throughout the documentary who put on the attractions and takes us through the process of becoming an actor, from auditions to the actual event.
In the film, we are introduced to Andy Rawlings, 32, who works in London and is also a scare actor. He is also the author of “THROUGH THE DEAD EYE: A eulogy to the art of scare acting”. A book which he didn’t originally intend on publishing. It began as his own personal notes into scare acting, to help him progress and become a better actor. Then his wife suggested he publish it to help others and he did.
John Harris, who is the founder of Broadditch farm haunt fest. John talks us through the planning of the sets, the auditions of actors and what he thinks makes a perfect scare actor.
Broadditch farm is visited a couple of times throughout the documentary. It shows us the planning that goes into each room and maze. How best to place the actors and what happens at the end of the event. They also use “physical scares” as well as actors. These could include wind, draughts or smells. In order to authenticate the experience, so the guests will really believe what is happening.
I also really feel for the Jessica, the producer of the documentary, as she goes through the scare mazes and tries some of the make-up etc. She really goes out of her comfort zone in order to experience these for herself as you will see during the documentary.
We also meet Rick Jones, a photographer from Horrify Me, who transforms customers into iconic horror characters for photoshoots. He uses handcrafted make-up and sometimes a lot of gore to achieve the desired effect.
The UK Haunters takes us to some of the other attractions, make-up artists and other fantastic attractions throughout the documentary. There is some that really pushes the experience to the limits in order to scare us, some more so that we were ever expecting.
The documentary introduces us to a sound technician who provides the music at a top UK attraction and to other smaller attractions, to help set the atmosphere and get us feeling uneasy before anything even happens.
If you are looking for an attraction that will bring you fear or just wanting to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes then you will enjoy this production as much as I did.
Dan Brownlie did a lot of research to bring us this documentary. It really does go behind the scenes and shows us all the hard work that goes on get out adrenaline pumping and some us running out screaming and scared for our lives.
I look forward to maybe visiting some of these events in the future now that I have seen that we really do have a lot to offer. There are so much more scare attractions in the UK than I thought there was.
I think Dan really describes it brilliantly when he said:
“I describe these attractions like the 4DX version of haunts”.
Brilliantly put together, fantastically produced and edited. It also has a good soundtrack.
Going Behind the Scares!
Movie title: UK Haunters
Movie description: UK Haunters is the first feature-length documentary to cover the Uk haunt and scare attraction scene.
Date published: August 31, 2019
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 31min
Director(s): Dan Brownlie
Genre: Documentary
Will Tomlinson-Roberts is a film and movie enthusiast with an interest in all genres of movies. He is also interested in music of all types and attends comic-cons around the country.
