SAW’s Darren Lynn Bousman Returns with Immersive Experience “One Day Die”!
Sean Decker
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I was recently referred to as a “haunt snob.” True, I’ve been lucky enough during the last twelve years to attend most every SoCal mainstream haunt, and the majority of the underground events in Los Angeles’ burgeoning and creative immersive theatre scene as well. And I’ve been immensely thankful for the frights. But in all of those years nothing hooked me more than SAW mainstay Darren Lynn Bousman’s immersive ARG The Tension Experience (in which I think I voluntarily joined a death cult), his follow-ups Ascension and Lust, and later his Grand Guignol-inspired and morbidly delightful Theatre Macabre.
But here I am in 2020, a lunar cycle which for most of us has not only caused all too real anxiety, but which also has put a depressing damper on the seasonal haunts we fright enthusiasts look forward to each year.
But has it?
A cryptic post popped up on my Instagram feed the other day from Darren Bousman. A strange symbol with a caption that read, “This is not a game.”, which was tagged with the account @do.not_view.my.profile.
Of course, I viewed it, and in doing so found myself in a rabbit hole, which eventually led to the website www.onedaydie.com. There, I was asked a series of questions about my level of interest in the paranormal. And after answering a series of questions pertaining to such and providing my personal email address, I was allowed access to the site proper: a site that cryptically promises something is coming this October. Teasing magical and horrific imagery, it also and ultimately makes the proposition of the site visitor receiving a mysterious box in the mail with the warning, “Do Not Open Until Instructed, We’re Trusting You.”
Spooky, and (possibly?) a safe scare in these physically distant times of pandemic. It’s always hard to tell with Bousman, but we here at Dread Central are absolutely intrigued.
Let’s all go down the rabbit hole together, shall we?
Writer’s note: Doing some digging, Bousman (whose past interactive immersive shows have historically tested audiences’ limits) has partnered with Joshua Ryan Dietz, a frequent collaborator, for One Day Die, as well as legendary creators and magicians Daniel Garcia and Blake Vogt, for “a special collaboration melding together the worlds of magic and immersive.”
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