- Secrets Beneath are back with another piece of spine-tingling interactive entertainment for Halloween.
- Chris Colin, the creative force behind the live-action experiences, speaks to Thomas Ogg about the work that goes into staging such frighteningly successful events.
PRIOR to meeting Chris Colin, I’d assumed I was on course to hear a fair few anecdotes regarding the terrified reactions of audience members at his shows.
Here, after all, is the brainchild and lead creative force behind Secrets Beneath, the local live-action outfit that has given us such horrifying interactive experiences as The Awakening, Psychosis and last year’s aptly-titled Torment.
Needless to say then, I was a little taken aback to hear Chris instead regaling me with a heart-warming anecdote of romance and marriage.
‘A local couple came to Torment on their very first date,’ he said.
‘The girl was so scared that she spent the entire experience clinging onto the arm of the guy she was with.
‘Fast forward a year and they’re now happily married and have just had their first child.’
Such is the unpredictable anything-goes attitude that makes Secrets Beneath events so riotously entertaining – and, in the case of their horror-themed events, so scary.
‘No two Secrets Beneath shows are ever the same,’ said Chris, ‘and no two groups of people will ever have the same experience.’
Born and raised in the Midlands, Chris first conceived of Secrets Beneath while working as part of Alton Towers’ entertainment team.
‘It all pretty much started as a dare, to be honest,’ recalled Chris.
‘The idea didn’t emerge in any official capacity, I was just out having a few drinks one night with a few colleagues.
‘They knew I commuted back and forth to Jersey and so they challenged me to organise an interactive event in the Island.’
The result was Jersey’s first ever live horror maze: 2012’s The Awakening.
Held at Classic Herd Farm, it was a genuinely frightening experience that included, among other things, an unearthed Second World War bunker, genetic experiments gone awry and time travel.
‘I was just dipping my toe in the water,’ said Chris.
‘But Jersey really took to it and it ended up being a big success.
‘Since then, things have just got bigger and better.’
Of course, talented though Chris undoubtedly is, such complex and intricately planned shows are no one-man operations; in fact, each Secrets Beneath production incorporates dozens of local artists, builders, technicians and actors.
Full-time performance director Andre Rodrigues is just one of those who helps to bring each show to life.
A former Grainville and Hautlieu pupil, Jersey-born Andre has now worked with Chris for over three years.
‘Andre applied to be an actor in The Awakening and his abilities shone through right away,’ said Chris.
‘I could sense he would make a great team leader and he’s proven me right, although obviously I’d never tell him that to his face.’
‘It’s just really good fun,’ replied Andre, when asked what he most enjoyed about working alongside Chris.
‘We always like to have an element of something different with everything we do.
‘The latest production is a whole multitude of different attractions.’
The production in question is Helloween.
Described as ‘Jersey’s first Scream Park’, the event is the team’s most ambitious to date, with two fully-interactive live shows: Bobo’s Circus of the Damned and Psychosis: The Second Chapter.
The first of the two takes place inside an authentic-looking circus tent and is described by Chris as ‘a jumpy, high-action experience. Are there clowns? Oh yes!’
Psychosis: The Second Chapter on the other hand is a longer, darker and altogether more psychologically disturbing experience; as its title suggestions, the show is a sequel of sorts to 2013’s Psychosis which saw audiences invited into the terrifying facility of the deranged Dr Aikenhead.
‘This year, people will enter the doctor’s museum of horrors and witness the relics of his twisted deeds,’ said Chris.
‘The show features two industry firsts, although I don’t want to spoil the surprise by saying what they are.
Let’s just say, the tension is built to a truly terrifying crescendo.’
As with all Secrets Beneath events, Helloween incorporates a wealth of costumes, props and sets, all of which are made to look as realistic as possible.
‘If we construct a set that’s supposed to be a mine, then it’s going to look like an actual mine,’ said Chris.
‘We’ll incorporate smoke, sounds, smells, changes in temperature: anything we can to make you believe it’s real.’
‘We’ve been working up to 18 hours a day to get Helloween ready,’ said Andre. ‘We’ll do everything we can to make the experience as immersive as possible.’
Of course, no Secrets Beneath show would work without a team of talented actors on hand to scare, startle and send shivers down the spines of audience members.
As performance director, it is Andre’s role to oversee the performances of everyone involved; a task, he said, that isn’t always easy: ‘It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to perform in a show such as this and it can be very difficult to stay in character at times.
If an audience member gets really scared and doesn’t want to continue, you have to deal with it.’
And, said Chris with a grin, a lot of people get very scared indeed.
‘On average, 20% of the people who come to visit us can’t make it through to the end of a show, which is a pretty high statistic.
‘And it’s all different age groups, not just young people.
‘I’ve seen the biggest and burliest men walk out. We’ve even had grown men wet themselves!’
However, both Chris and Andre are keen to emphasise that, while frightening audiences is obviously a major part of any Halloween-themed event, their main priority is to ensure that people have fun.
‘We don’t want everyone running screaming for the door,’ said Andre.
‘First and foremost, we want them to enjoy themselves.’
And enjoy themselves most people do: ‘We had one girl who loved Torment so much she came back 34 times over 18 nights,’ marvelled Chris.
‘In the end, we invited her backstage and introduced her to the cast and crew.’
Ultimately, said Chris, what Secrets Beneath offers Jersey is something both new and original: ‘It’s great to give Islanders something different.
‘And it also helps to put Jersey on the map.
‘We have lots of people who come over to the Island especially for our events, from the UK and abroad.’
Of course, Secrets Beneath do more than just Halloween-esque attractions.
The versatile team are currently working with Tamba Park on an interactive dinosaur-themed show aimed at children, while preparations will shortly begin on their family-friendly Christmas extravaganza, Winter Wonderland (held, like Helloween, at the Weighbridge).
‘That’s going to have a little bit of a different vibe to this,’ smiled Chris.
For now, however, scares remain firmly on the Secrets Beneath agenda.
‘In a way, Helloween is almost like a mini festival,’ said Chris.
‘There’s such a great vibe that people like to hang around after they’ve taken part in the attractions.
‘They like to soak up the atmosphere and watch other people’s reactions.
‘Or, if they’re feeling really brave, they go back in again.’
Helloween is on this weekend at the Weighbridge, 6 pm to 11 pm.
