BRINGING A LEGEND TO LIFE

Over my time within the themed attraction industry, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with some great household names, intellectual properties and licenses including Universal Pictures (on behalf of AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment and Fever PR) and most recently horror royalty Hammer Films.  In this article, I’m going to talk through my most recent work with an intellection property… creating the Hammer House of Horror.

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of horror in all its forms, live theatre, immersive theatre, literature, film and television, you name it, if it’s horror, I’ll be interested.  Hammer Films have arguably been the largest influence on the British horror industry in history, dating back to 1934, the production company is largely responsible (see ‘to blame’) for terrifying generations of horror loves with their iconic productions in television and film.  With titles such as Dracula, The Curse of the Mummy, The Evil of Frankenstein and The Curse of the Werewolf, they are largely responsible for bringing to life some of the world’s most infamous monsters and ghouls.  So, when the opportunity arose to work with the company and develop the first-ever Hammer-themed scare maze experience, you can imagine my glee!

To tell the story in its entirety, I have to go back to 2017 - I was working with a new company producing events and the topic of Halloween was brought to the table.  With my expertise within the scare entertainment industry, the business was keen on developing their own strange of ‘horror nights’ at the spacious venue.  One of the key factors that needed to be raised early on is what the event’s USP would be, what makes it different to the local, established, scare attractions and scream parks?  The decision was made to try to secure a license or IP, hopefully boosting recognition and revenue for the event.  But, what IP?

Rise of the IP

It’s no secret that IPs convert sales, generating great social reach through pop culture and in-turn, generating ticket sales.  It was key to try to find the right license for us, we didn’t just want to get any old name involved, it had to fit the existing brand of the park.  Hammer Films prides itself on heritage and historical significance, as did the venue I was working for, so upon heavy research, the brands matched up perfectly.  One of the key factors to approaching the company was that Hammer Films had actually presented a live theatre experience just a year before in Liverpool City Centre, on the doorstep of the venue I worked at – everything seemed to fit.

I attempted to contact the company via email, to no avail.  Now, for people that know me well, will know how dedicated I can be to be finishing something I’ve started – I wasn’t going to let this go without a good conversation with Hammer first.  Follow weeks of me contacting their social channels, finding publicists that had ties with the company and even artists that had worked for them, the future looked bleak with no direct conversation happening… and then I hit gold.  One of my close friends knew an artist involved in the cover artwork for the re-release of the Woman In Black book by Susan Hill following the movie’s release in 2012, I was going to give it ONE last chance, this really was the last straw.

It seems that fate was on my side, the contact sent me a direct email to Simon Oakes, CEO of Hammer Films, without any delay, I swiftly sent an emailing outlining my thoughts and desires for the brand and what I could do for them with brand activation… the morning after, I received a phone call that would change everything!  I was invited down to the Hammer Films offices in London by Simon and we discussed the idea in great detail, what it could do for the venue I worked for and what it could do for the Hammer brand… after a short meeting, the deal was done – Hammer was on board! Phew!

The Setback

Sadly, the venue I was working with decided to not go ahead with the plan for Halloween due to the contrast between the existing brand and demographics and the event’s demographics – a decision I completely agree with.  It felt like I was never meant to work with Hammer, so close yet so far from producing a brand activation piece for the business.

In early 2019, I was approached by a seaside Amusement Park to visit them and have a meeting regarding potential work in the future.  Enter Dreamland – the Kent-based historically significant seaside amusement park would become my home for the majority of 2019.  Dreamland also prides itself on the history and heritage of the site, with many records showing the site being occupied for leisure and entertainment since the early 1800s.  The fit was perfect, maybe a collaboration was going to happen after all…?

Hammer X Screamland

With a quick call to Simon and a site visit, Hammer Films signed with the venue to offer their intellectual property for a singular scare maze premiering at Screamland in October 2019.  I was ecstatic, it was actually going to happen – the work I had been tirelessly thrashing out for two years was actually going to happen!  The creative concept behind the attraction was to bring to life eight of the brand’s famous monsters in one scare maze experience – guests would enter Bray Studios and be thrown into the heart of the recording of Hammer’s newest blockbuster ‘The House of Horrors’ and they were the stars… the victims!  Throughout the 10-minute experience, guests would be pursued and attacked by ghosts, ghouls and monsters such as Dracula, The Mummy, The Abominable Snowman and also The Woman In Black herself!

During the design phase of the attraction, the decision was made to host the attraction within the ballroom of Dreamland, this vast cavernous space is located just to the right of the main concourse and would guarantee a high footfall whenever the Screamland event was running.  As the Project Director of Screamland, my main duties were to creatively oversee the creative direction of all scare mazes and the event overall, working closely with some of the creative teams at the park – the Hammer House of Horror was a pet project and was completely developed by myself, it only seemed right after all this time!

One of the first duties was to create the brand identity for the maze, including logo, visual design, social media assets etc., I wanted to create a retro/cinema style visual and graphic that had ‘typical’ horror iconography elements such as the cobwebs etc., this style relays directly to the Hammer brand and the films of yesteryear.

Following the creative development of the brand style, the experience itself was on the table to design.  The rooms, themes, floor plan, guest navigation, character development, lighting and tech plans and a CAD were all put together in a ‘book’ that described the attraction in great detail – during the construction phase of the attraction, I was due to be off-site so it was imperative to get the ideas across so the attraction was constructed as designed!

Lights, Camera… ACTION!

So, the 17th of October came, and the attraction was ready to open to guests.  An eager cast of ten performers was waiting in the wings to terrify audiences.  The Screamland preview evening went without a hitch – people were jumping, laughing, screaming (and dropping to their knees) in all five scare mazes, the energy on-site was electric and initial feedback was outstanding with some rating the Hammer House of Horror as one of the best scare mazes they had seen at the event before… but this was just a preview evening, what would the rest of the public nights hold?

Thankfully… it was a massive success.  Guests loved all five scare mazes at the event, many guests saying the event was the best it had ever been – including scare attraction industry experts Michael Bolton (ScareTOUR & ScareCON) and Timothy Deves (ScareTOUR & Controllers & Cred)

“So impressed it's unreal. The whole event has been refreshed and refined to a whole new level” – Timothy Deves

“With a new line up, a new layout and some great scares, this is Screamland Margate's best event in years.” – Michael Bolton

It was a huge relief that after nearly 3 years of working on the scare maze concept, it had finally been produced and the feedback was fantastic!  This project was, and still is, incredibly dear to me – I had put so much time and effort, blood sweat and tears (many tears) to get it over the line and finally produce the scare maze, another brand activation added to the list and a great piece to add to my portfolio!

So, What next..?

So, following the success of the Screamland event, Simon and I have been in discussion about the Hammer House of Horrors brand and where it could potentially lead.  We are currently looking into the possibility of something a little more substantial and… permanent.  Little can be said about what’s happening next, but the one thing I can say is The Hammer House of Horror is definitely not dead… it’s resting.