theriverpeople's Blog

Hi, I am Tiffany Anne Jackson, a Performing Arts graduate from Bath Spa University.  I worked with The River People on their Friday the 13^th Fright Night at Spinney Hollow as part of the Winchester Film Festival.

I discovered The River People after they performed Lilly Through The Dark, at my university theatre and have followed them ever since, so to work with them was a great opportunity. Directors Claire and Ed created a great, passionate and fun environment to work in.

For this event, we were tasked with providing a pre and post film zombie experience, echoing aspects of the film The Evil Dead, which the guests had just watched.  As Buck Boulders, Zombie Protection (Ed Wren), lead the audience along the narrow woodland path with the sole aim of getting the public safely onto their bus, spectators were astonished to see live zombie acts jumping out of the creepy midnight forest. Suffice to say, things didn’t pan out too well for Buck. (Being torn apart by zombies and then having your insides ripped out isn’t such a great day at work!)

Spinney Hollow leant itself to the horror production perfectly – in the daylight a stunning, serene woodland, by night a terrifying tangle of twisted trees with all the dark sounds of the night piercing your ears! The wood was truly amazing; everything there from the compost loo with a stunning view to the wooden stage was built by its owners Kate and Geoff.

Claire, armed with a lot of latex effects and jars of ‘congealed blood’ , (aka golden syrup and food dye,) transformed the cast into an army of zombies. The makeup was so effective we even found ourselves scaring each other in the dark on the way to the loo! There were 15 zombies in total each with unique fatal face traumas ( I had two bullet holes to the face), or horrific props – a gnawed dog’s leg and a half mangled baby!

During the run through we chose strategic locations from where the zombies would stagger out and reduce the audience to a gibbering mass. Responses from the actual audience were wide and hysterical! It was often hard to hold back the laughter when a torch light is pointed in your face and you hear screams of terror and Buck shouting obscenities! With big blokes running in fear and feisty, petite women trying to fight us off, it was a revealing experience for all!  I don’t know how well I would have handled being on the other side!

The finale – of Bucks insides being ripped out and a gut pack of bloody intestines made from tights and jelly being devoured by a pack of zombies  – was welcomed by a flurry of video phones and cameras to record the mess; I would have loved to have seen what it looked like!

It was an unforgettable experience and one I am still having nightmares about (I am still trying to get the golden syrup blood out of my hair!)

A big thanks to Ed and Claire (The River People) and Kate and Geoff (Spinney Hollow)

Hope to see you all soon!

Tiffany Anne Jackson