On Sunday Feb 26th, I took a trip to the London Dungeon. This attraction gives its audience a tour of London through key events in history, with a gruesome and horror-esche twist. Going through Guy Fawkes and the Plague, up to Jack the Ripper and other historical events. Most of the events are told through live actors and interactions with the environment, however ‘4D’ elements such as water shots, air blowers, and sound effects are also used to bring the experience to life and set the scene.
https://www.thedungeons.com/london/en/
The attraction instantly sets up a spooky atmosphere with the first part of the sequence; an elevator ride down to the rest of the attraction. This takes place in pitch black, with ropes used for the gallows hanging down in the lift. A voice over explains that the audience are all traitors, and conspirators in the Gunpowder plot, setting up the next sequence. The darkness and unnerving atmosphere sets up the entire attraction, putting a sense of unease into the audience that lasts for the entire journey. This is further enhanced by a jump scare right at the beginning of the tour, scaring the audience and keeping them in that sense of heightened fear for the rest of the tour. Setting the atmosphere instantly allows the audience to be engaged with the scenes, and keeps them focused on the action at hand.
Projections are used effectively in the Gunpowder plot segment of the attraction. The audience are escorted to the room where the gunpowder was, and a royal guard is there to greet the audience. Behind them is a projection of Guy Fawkes’ head on a pike. During this talk, the head comes alive and starts talking to the guard. The conversation runs fluidly, and is an expert example of how timing between a live actor and a projection is important. If the actor was out of time, there would either be long pauses between pieces of dialogue, or the projection and actor would end up talking over each other. This timing is important to achieve, else it loses its effect. By projecting the image of a head onto a sculpted one gives it the realistic skull shape it would have if it was a severed head. This effect cannot be achieved by a video alone. Due to the repetition of the sequence, the head is pre-recorded in order to ensure consistency, and lower the chance of human error.
Another key part of the attraction that has helped inspire me is the pub scene in the Jack the Ripper time. Set 1 year after the last of the Ripper murders, it shows the pub being haunted by a ghost of some kind. The bar maid tells the story about the murders and whilst she is, the lights keep cutting out (allowing her to move to a new place no one can see till they come back up) and having items in the room move; a lantern on the bar, the widows slamming shut etc. This slow build up sets the mood, and has the audience on edge for what is going to happen next. This comes in the form of the Ripper, who appears out of nowhere from the darkness in a strobe light. The build up to this made the pay off more impactful, and shows that the best scares come from the build up to them. This not only shows an effective way to build up to a climax, but shows how to demonstrate effective and believable poltergeist activity.