Horror fans, are you seeking your next thrill? SEANNA VAN HELTEN talks to BRAD JENNINGS, writer and director of the upcoming cinematic theatre event HOLLOW CROSSING. Prepare to be terrified!

Brad Jennings wants you to be scared. Not for him are the cheap tricks of slasher flicks, the stagy eruptions of crimson corn syrup, the laughable villains with gory deformities and rampant chainsaws. No, writer and director Jennings intends his cinematic-theatre thriller, Hollow Crossing, to terrify.

“What we’ve tried to do with this show,” he explains, “is to take out all of the laughable elements of horror films. We tried to avoid anything that was schlock horror and we tried to take the best elements of psychological thrillers and place them in a live context where horror becomes terrifying!”

The play follows the story of Cliff and Virginia, two journalists for a supernatural magazine who are reporting on the mysterious disappearances taking place in a remote, south-west Queensland town, Hollow Crossing. Returning one night from an interview in a nearby town, they take a wrong turn off the freeway and discover the brutal and very real truth behind their speculative investigation.

The creative vision for the production is unique. In collaboration with production partner Steven Maxwell, Jennings has incorporated cinematic elements and digital projections of pre-recorded footage into the stage performance. The story, as Jennings explains, is told through a combination of these two mediums: “We’re using the conventions of a horror film, and integrating cinema techniques into a live performance context, as well as using things like a digital surround sound mix and a musical score, like a film.”

The resulting show – an intense, live horror experience – will maximise the thrills of the popular horror genre. Jennings and Maxwell, for their production company Markwell Presents, have worked for a number of years developing this method of marrying live performance with film projection. Working in this hybrid fashion, the pair aims to explore different genres that are not usually seen in theatre. “We started talking about how we could create a piece of theatre that captured the intensity of a horror film…. The theatre audience is forced to empathise with the immediacy of the situation. You get to distance yourself from horror films and that immediate terror, whereas here, on stage, we’re watching the situation being played out right before our eyes.”

While there may be some high-quality special effects in the film footage (shot last year in the town of Inglewood, 280 kilometres south-west of Brisbane), on stage you cannot fake the sheer physical intimidation of a live performance. Plus, Jennings adds, “There’s no interval” – so no escape!

As is the nature of genre-driven writing, Jennings is frank in stating that the show will not appeal to everyone’s tastes: “I think a lot of people who see this show are going to hate it, but we’re comfortable with that. We made the decision that we would produce a work that was targeted specifically towards a niche audience, and our goal is for that audience to be really satisfied.... So if you like horror or you like psychological thriller movies, then you will like this show.

“We are trying to push those boundaries of how far we can go to shock people, because that’s what good horror does. It makes you wait, and invest in these people’s story, and then it makes you jump!”

HOLLOW CROSSING opens on March 12 at the Sue Benner Theatre, Metro Arts, as part of the 2008 Metro Arts Independents season. Season continues until March 29. Rated MA 15+. For bookings phone 3002 7100 or visit www.metroarts.com.au. Sneak previews available at www.hollowcrossing.com

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