UK Haunters (2019)
Director: Dan Brownlie
UK Haunters is the first feature length documentary to cover the UK haunt and scare attraction scene.
In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask UK Haunters Director Dan Brownlie a few questions about what we can expect from the film.
Q. Can you tell us what we can expect from the feature length documentary UK Haunters?
Expect to have your mind blown ha ha. UK Haunters is a found footage/vlog style documentary covering a year of my research into the UK haunt scene. Nothing was prepared, I just bought a load of equipment and did it. Every discovery was found while I was shooting so it has a very natural development to its story. The more I found out about the scene the more the style of documentary evolved. I started to explore transitions and even little mini movies to reflect the haunt I was covering in that section. It was a constantly evolving work of art along with the discoveries I made.
Expect to discover the inner working of the haunt/scare industry, the people behind it, how the mechanics work and most of all the love and art that goes into making them. It’s truly a wonderful scene with such wonderful people who just want you to come in (and get terrified of course).
Q. Why made you decide to create a documentary about the UK haunt and scare attractions?
I shot a film in the London Tombs a few years ago called The Tombs (which will actually be out soon). During those fleeting moments where I had time to breath one of the workers there (who you’ll see in the documentary named Andy Cookie Rawlings) started explaining how the scares of the attraction worked. This piqued my interest and even used a few of them in the film.
The following year my wife (and UK Haunters producer) booked a behind the scenes tor at Universals Halloween Horror Nights scare mazes. We went through six houses and they completely deconstructed them and explained how everything worked. That night we went back to the evening event, and was surprised that even though we knew everything, it still terrorized us. When I got back I met up with Andy to ask him more about this subject and how I wold be interested in covering it somehow. He started to explain to me that there was this whole huge UK haunt scene which was largely year-round too. He said everyone know the Americans are huge on Halloween but the UK has a really thriving scene. I thought to myself ‘well, THIS needs to be covered’. Andy (who is pretty well known and respected in the scene) put me in touch with a load of people and it just sky rocketed from there.
Q. What sort of preparation did you do for the documentary?
I made sure I had my bases covered in terms of what I wanted to cover. Andy was a godsend and it literally would not have happened without his involvement. I made sure I had a haunt to follow through their run up to the season, a scare actor, an FX/make-up artists and a central character. Those were the things I needed for foundation. I figured that as I started, I’d find more people and other locations would pop up along the way, but like 70% of them were from Andie’s original group email. Bar that I bought the equipment I needed and wished myself luck.
Q. Did you make any changes to the documentary to what you originally planned?
Yes, very much so. The documentary was constantly evolving. As I was doing 90% of everything by myself the found footage/vlog style was largely by necessity (though still strongly influenced by my love of found footage films) but as the documentary moved on I really started to lean into it and explore the various styles of found footage story telling. At one point in the interview Andy said the haunt scene is continuously changing and evolving, so I thought ‘well, so should the documentary’. I explored more with grades and the aforementioned micro movies/scenes to reflect the section I was covering. As I had no one to answer to I had the whole documentary as my playground. Some could argue that it was too it’s detriment as its definitely not the most polished project, but I feel its DIY spirit and style really reflects the punk rock attitude of the scene it’s covering.
Originally my arc with Andy was to follow the evolution of his character ‘Cookie’. I make latex Halloween masks, so was making his characters cut off face mask (much like the joker in the batman series Death Of The Family). His original arc was to cover the creation of this mask and the character but while interviewing him I found that e was way more interesting than the creation of the mask. I still made the mask which he premiered (along with the teaser trailer for the documentary) at the following years scarecon (Europe’s largest scare/haunt event). Really proud of the mask too, and it’s a real shame it didn’t get featured but the documentary was just better off concentrating on Andy.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
Yes, but by far less than any other projects I’ve been on. A couple of venues messed me around, pulled out, changed the parameters of what we agreed on ect. But those ones will remain nameless and needless to say did not make it into the documentary. The biggest challenge was to get people to take me seriously, I’ve done film before but never a documentary and I was pretty much asking them to let me represent their scene that was so far not cinematically represented. It was a huge ask, but those who let me in have been very happy with the results and so far every screening has gone down really well.
Q. What were some of the highlights when making the documentary?
There were so many. It was a real journey of discovery so there were so many new things popping up as I went. Finding new haunts was great, learning more about how they work, how the people work. I’d have to say though (as cheesy as this sounds), the real highlight is how well it’s been received by the haunt community as well as others who never knew much about it. All the screenings I’ve done have been has been very well received from both sides of the pond. The most common (and flattering) is said that I have captured the community in a clear and positive light, the representation that the UK haunt/scare scene has been looking for. That’s the best outcome as they all trusted me to represent them, so pulling that off successfully was definitely the highlight.
Q. Did you experience any scare events which you wouldn’t want to participate in again?
Yes, but only because they are not my sort of thing. Faceless Ventures/Cracked survival experience is an extreme haunt/immersive theatre. It was never my sort of thing and I was honestly debating not covering it. But I had decided to cover the UK scene, and everything in it so that’s what I was going to do. Their story is one of the most powerful in this documentary and I was so glad I covered them. The art that goes into them is just as warranted as any scare attraction and what they do goes beyond just entertainment, it can be very therapeutic. You need to watch the documentary to see what I’m talking about but when it screened it was a very powerful section.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A much wider view of the scene, what the people are like, the art and love that goes into it and how huge it actually is over here. I’d like to make people curious so they go and explore these attractions, or maybe start their own. I would like people to be entertained, but firstly I really hope people see this and go “right, we gotta check some of these out”. A lot of the attractions are year round or at least sporadically pop up throughout the year. So no matter what time of the year someone see’s this film, they can track down at least one place that either should be hosting something or at least promoting the next event. And that’s the thing. In the UK it is very year round, there’s always something to do.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
My feature film shot at the London Tombs/London Bridge Experience entitled The Tombs (which currently has a really daft image instead of a poster for some reason, hopefully that will change soon that will be out in the states this month and hopefully make it to the UK soon. I am currently working on a script for a feature that I can feel in my bones will have a serious impact when it hits.
If this one goes down well I would very much like to get the funding for a second one and explore a little further, take the constructive criticism from this one and help it shape a follow up. On a slightly lighter scale I’ve been teaming up with the UK’s only haunt/scare attraction podcast to do YouTube videos and podcast reviews which has been quite fun. Hopefully be doing more of that to help promote the documentary and explore new haunts.
Q. If someone was looking to create their own documentary film what advice would you give them?
Do it. I literally bought the equipment needed to put this together and did it. there’s a section in this where I had to get my fellow film maker friend to shoot as I was getting made up as a zombie so could not psychically shoot it myself. He did a cutaway of me walking along the platform of a train station with a camera bag, suitcase and a backpack. That literally contained ALL the equipment I used to put this together. Camera, lights, laptop for editing, gels, sound equipment, the lot. Modern technology has allowed relatively cheap and decent equipment that is kinda light. Once you have the equipment all you need is an idea, drive and a bit of creativity helps too. The rest can be learnt through practice, observation and YouTube videos.
You can find out more about UK Haunters on the following Social Media
You can also find out more about brand-B corporation here
UK Haunters will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Friday 17th January at 20:00hrs
You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival here:
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
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