BY SEAN EGAN | “This actually isn’t a haunted house, it’s a performance. It’s a theater festival this year,” the woman running the box office at the Clemente explains to an inquisitive couple drawn in from the street. It will not be the last time she will recite some variation of this spiel.
Visitors to the Nightmare Horror Show could be forgiven for making that mistake. Psycho Clan, the creative team behind the festival, are also responsible for the Nightmare New York haunted house, which has been a Halloween staple in this location for years.
This year, however, Psycho Clan chose to mount a theater festival comprised of short, original horror works. The switch is not such a stretch for Timothy Haskell, Psycho Clan leader and Nightmare New York creator, who explains that he always saw Nightmare New York as a kind of link between theater and haunted house.
“My roots are in theater, but I love horror, so putting them together is the perfect combo,” Haskell says, noting that theater hasn’t really attempted something like this before. “We’re growing, we’re learning, we’re figuring out what horror theater really is.”
It’s a different and ambitious project to be sure, but one Haskell sees as being worth it, and ripe with unexplored potential for delivering “visceral and effective” scares.
“Films are quite successful at it, haunted houses are very successful at it,” he elaborates. “I felt like theater, live theater, where you’re sort of entrenched for however long and forced to watch this thing, whatever it is, and feel the sweat and the vibrations of the screams — you know, all that — I was like, ‘It’s gotta be more terrifying than any of it!’ ”
Haskell, for his part, is exceedingly busy, wearing multiple hats to ensure things are terrifying — curating the festival’s submissions, keeping everything running smoothly behind the scenes and at the box office, creating and directing his own piece, and, now that the festival’s in full swing, making trips to the laundromat around the corner to clean bloodstained clothing (he’s got the “really high quality” fake blood that makes washing out of costumes a cinch). Despite the stresses of running the festival, he still remains enthusiastic about the whole undertaking.
“The thing about horror in general, as an artistic form, is that it has the fewest rules and restrictions artistically,” he asserts. “Whatever the medium, it can be as creative as you are.”
The festival’s lineup certainly supports that thesis, as it features an eclectic program of seven shows, which run the gamut of horror subgenres and theatrical styles. “Eddie” is an unnerving sketch about real-life serial killer Ed Gein’s internal dialogue, which employs a gorgeously macabre puppet as its central figure, while “Me_irl” is a wordless piece involving a man eating lunch near a disconcertingly interested crow, brought to life via metallic, steampunk puppet (both puppets were created by “War Horse” alums, Haskell notes).
“Broken,” is a haunting and beautifully choreographed dance piece that chronicles a woman’s unraveling mental state to a layered, pulsing score.
Elsewhere, the zombie flick sendup “Night of the Touching Zombies” provides a respite from the chills, as does “Necromancer,” whose audience-participation séance serves some dark humor. Meanwhile, “Bane” is a tense and fully realized character-based living room drama, which examines the relationship between a married couple in the aftermath of an accident.
Best of all, however, is Haskell’s own piece, “Smile.”
An immersive “4-D” work (inspired, in part, by Dario Argento), “Smile” tells the story of a deranged photographer who goes to great lengths to capture disturbing pictures. This brief description does little to prepare the viewer for the insane, overwhelming sensory experience of the piece — which features, amongst other things, killer clowns, flying viscera, and an eerie Dresden Dolls cover.
It also takes full advantage of another benefit of theater Haskell cites: the ability to take its time to create tension and ambiance that heighten fear.
“I think that theater can play on the anticipation of fear, if they do it, better than a haunted house or anything else,” he says — and the scares found while held captive here are a different beast from any other horror experience.
Still, with the festival, Haskell has his sights set on more than just scares.
“I’m hoping that I can introduce a non-traditional theater-going audience to an art form that I know that they’ll enjoy, and that might turn them into theater-goers, theater lovers,” he says. “I think when they come, they’ll realize, ‘Wow, this really is entertaining.’ ”
And judging by the gasps and screams emanating from audiences, it seems highly likely that he’s accomplished just that.
The Nightmare Horror Show runs through Fri., Oct. 30 at the Clemente Soto Vélez (107 Suffolk St. btw. Rivington & Delancey Sts.). Tickets are $25 for each program (and $15 at the box office for any subsequent program). For the full schedule of shows and artist info, visit nightmarenyc.com.
